(Bam Bam clinks grape juice glasses with Chinese President Hu during their “secret” May meeting in the PRC)

It has lately been my opinion that political punditry is rarely best dispensed immediately following a monumental bilateral event. This is doubly true especially when trying to second-guess the inner-workings of the Asian political mind.

Given how contentious high-level Asian confabs often tend to be — resulting in fatal blows delivered weeks – often months – down the track, Asian punditry and political analysis – very much like revenge – is best served stone cold. The optimal time to re-examine these events is when they can no longer be heard in the echo chamber.

In this case, I’m referring to the much-heralded meeting between Chinese President Hu Jintao and North Korean supremo Kim “Bam Bam” Jong-il (pictured above), a tête-a-tête which took place during the Dear Leader’s hasty swing through the PRC aboard his custom-designed bulletproof locomotive. Billed as Kim’s “secret trip,” the North Korean dictator’s sudden arrival in China was likely a sloppy combination of a previously scheduled bilateral affair and the unexpected necessity of an 11th-hour rush job, brought about by the untimely sinking of the South Korean navy corvette, Cheonan, that lead to 46 South Korean sea deaths.

For the purposes of today’s post, let’s avoid an assignation of blame for the ship’s mysterious sinking. Given how the UN has already announced the results of its crack team’s investigative report on the incident, blaming the DPRK, it’s rather pointless, don’t you think> With the blame placed firmly at Kim’s feet, coupled with how, quite naturally and expectedly, the UN, South Korea, and their various allies have joined the loud chorus of anti-DPRK boos, while China – ever the wily Middle Kingdom, and crafty Middle Broke – hovers safely at the sidelines in its purgatory-like state of falling neither here nor there when it comes to vilifying Kim, I question the point in adding my voice to the ruckus. I’m sure you feel the same way.

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Okay, so now that we’ve got that windbag blog title out of the way (how did I do, folks?), let’s get down to the brass tacks of the matter: the iconic and often-imitated-rarely-duplicated cinematographic marvel which was once Zhang Yimou’s Hero/Ying xiong, the 2004 swashbuckling flicker picture that dazzled and titillated, yet somehow didn’t intellectually connect.

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The picture above depicts how vehicular traffic is regulated on the road heading into China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region: plastic “dummy” cops standing sentinel adorning the soft-shoulder, meant to resemble the genuine article to deter traffic violators, wanton drunken driving, and reckless acts behind the wheel across the wide, flat expanses of the barren steppes of the wind-battered Mongolian plain.

Well, yesterday afternoon I finished off native-Missourian Peter Hessler’s third installment in his “angels abroad” China series, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory (affiliate link), and I’m giving the book a very tall two thumbs up. This is 424pp of lean and mean non-fiction prosaic gold which you’re going to regret not reading. Did I mention you should go out and snag a copy today?

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I’m happy I listen to people when they strongly suggest titles to read. In the case of Lawrence L. Allen’s Chocolate Fortunes: The Battle for the Hearts, Minds, and Wallets of China’s Consumers, this was a particularly sweet suggestion and many thanks to Dan Harris of Harris & Moure Law, the perennial award-winning blogmeister and commentator at China Law Blog, or as we Generation Xers like to call it, CLB.

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