September 18

Today marks the anniversary of the Japanese invasion of China in 1931. Full-scale war didn't break out until 1937 when the Japanese conquered Shanghai and headed west to brutally rape and murder hundreds of thousands of civilians here in Nanjing. So perhaps it was appropriate to lecture to my journalism ethics class today about freedom of the press and the limits on press freedom that are often imposed in times of war and surging nationalism. I ended my talk with Justice Holmes' dissent in Abrams v. US (1919), a case about three anarchists and a socialist, refugees from Czarist Russia, who distributed leaflets in Yiddish and English in the Lower East Side opposing President Wilson's decision to send US troops to Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution. Their convictions for sedition and sentences of up to 20 years in prison were upheld by the majority of the Court. But Holmes, joined by Justice Brandeis, dissented, arguing that these immigrants had as much right to publish their leaflets as the government has to publish its Constitution. Holmes wrote that we "should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe and believe to be fraught with death."
That opinion might not get much support from our current Supreme Court. And it's a particularly radical idea in China, despite some recent relaxation of restrictions on the news media. Perhaps it has some resonance here at Nanjing University, which has a long and proud tradition of protest. We'll see.
We really enjoyed the Moon Festival Sunday at the home of a friend of an NU Chinese teacher. Marcus played with their son Bang Bang, and the two of them found enough English and Chinese words in common--and lots of hand signals--to play together while the rest of us (two young English teachers from Omaha and northern California, an older couple from New Zealand who teach at a Canadian school and our hosts) made dumplings. They live near a big lake in the southern part of Nanjing. It was an adventure catching a taxi--every cab was either full or was grabbed by someone else who outmaneuvered us. A sweet old lady with a fan and her husband felt so sorry for us that they hailed a cab, fended off several people and escorted us into the cab. It can be crowded and noisy here but moments of kindness like that make it memorable.
Nina just headed to Gulou Hospital to work with the doctors there and Marcus is due back in a few minutes. He's got a Hebrew lesson tonight. I'm making some progress on my Chinese and am meeting with my tutor tomorrow. And I'm determined to find the golf driving range this weekend. And we don't mind if the Sox have to settle for the wild card.