TAIWAN ELECTION STIRS HOPES AMONG CHINESE FOR DEMOCRACY

[The election, Taiwan’s fifth since it traded authoritarian rule for democracy in 1996, presented Chinese leaders with something of a challenge. While the governing Communist Party has long sought to portray democracy as unsuitable for the Chinese nation, it also considers Taiwan a part of China — despite a six-decade schism during which the island of 23 million has developed strongly held ideas about free speech and self-determination.] 

By Andrew Jacobs

BEIJING — There was another winner in the election this weekend that handed President Ma Ying-jeou of Taiwan a second term in office — the faint but unmistakable clamor for democracy in China.

Thanks in large part to an uncharacteristically hands-off approach by Chinese Internet censors, the campaign between Mr. Ma and his main challenger was avidly followed by millions of mainland Chinese, who consumed online tidbits of election news and biting commentary that they then spit out far and wide through social media outlets.

As the election played out on Saturday, a palpable giddiness spread through the Twitter-like microblog services that have as many as 250 million members. They marveled at how smoothly the voting went, how graciously the loser, Tsai Ing-wen, conceded and how Mr. Ma gave his victory speech in the rain without the benefit of an underling’s umbrella — in contrast with the pampering that Chinese officials often receive.

“It’s all anyone on Weibo was talking about this weekend,” said Zhang Ming, a political science professor at Renmin University in Beijing, referring to Sina Weibo, China’s most popular microblog service.

Users expressed barbed humor about their own unelected leaders — and envy over Taiwan’s prodigious liberties — but also deeply felt pride that their putative compatriots pulled off a seamless election free of the violence that marred previous campaigns in Taiwan, including a 2004 assassination attempt against the president at the time, Chen Shui-bian.

“On the other side of the sea, Taiwan erected a mirror. And on this side of the sea, we saw ourselves in the future,” read one well-forwarded comment by Xu Wei, a wine expert.

The election, Taiwan’s fifth since it traded authoritarian rule for democracy in 1996, presented Chinese leaders with something of a challenge. While the governing Communist Party has long sought to portray democracy as unsuitable for the Chinese nation, it also considers Taiwan a part of China — despite a six-decade schism during which the island of 23 million has developed strongly held ideas about free speech and self-determination.

To allow unfettered news media coverage of the race was out of the question, but to strangle the news online of a major international story might have provoked an uncomfortable backlash from China’s increasingly savvy Internet users. The result was schizophrenic: in contrast to the relatively freewheeling commentary found on microblogs and Internet portals, the official press provided spare and neutered coverage of the balloting.

In its few dispatches on the race, the state’s Xinhua news agency avoided the words “democracy” and “president,” and it cast the contest as a local election, in keeping with Beijing’s stance that Taiwan is a breakaway province.

Over all, Xinhua’s reports have presented Mr. Ma’s win as a validation of Beijing’s newfound cross-strait détente, which has led to reduced tensions between the two governments while enriching Taiwan’s economy with increased trade and tourism. “The people of Taiwan have used their votes to express their desire for peace of mind, stability and development,” Xinhua wrote.

As is typical for politically sensitive news events, Chinese newspapers were instructed to run only Xinhua’s account of the election, but many editors appeared to make up for such constraints by running banner headlines, splashy graphics and large photographs of a triumphant, rain-soaked president. “No one told us we couldn’t put the election on our front page, so that’s what we did,” one editor of a large daily newspaper said subversively.

David Bandurski, a researcher at Hong Kong University’s China Media Project, said the disparity in coverage between the state media and privately owned Internet portals suggested that officials were still unsure how to grapple with a rapidly evolving medium. “The control regime, if you call it that, is still trying to catch up,” he said. “If their approach is too stringent, they risk a blowback.”

For those who hanker for political reform, the momentary stasis was welcome. An early opening arrived last month, when Chinese discovered they were able to watch the presidential debate online. Just as impressive for many were the campaign photographs that showed the candidates glad-handing in public. One image that inspired a welter of favorable reaction was an encounter between Mr. Ma and a peevish pork vendor who turned away in disgust. “At a time like this, one can really see who is the servant and who is the master, and experience what a balanced system is,” wrote the Chinese blogger Han Zhiguo.

Interest in the race snowballed in recent weeks and a number of high-profile mainland businessmen decided to travel to Taiwan to see the contest up close. Among them was Wang Shi, one of China’s biggest real estate tycoons, who sent out regular microblog dispatches from political rallies. “Everything went orderly and there were no surprises,” he wrote over the weekend to his four million followers. “The political environment has really matured.”

Another mainland businessman who spent several days in Taiwan said the election had a profound impact on his understanding of politics. Seated on a plane bound for Beijing on Sunday night, he described how he had been led to believe that Taiwan’s democracy was chaotic and shallow, its elections prone to violence. Not anymore, he said.

“This is an amazing idea, to be able to choose the people who represent you,” said the man, who asked to remain nameless so he could speak without restraint. “I think democracy will come to China. It’s only a matter of time.”

But it seems the most telling commentary on the election was a joke that had been forwarded thousands of times in recent days. A Taiwanese man brags to his Chinese friend that he will go to the polls in the morning and know the results that evening. “You guys are too backward,” the Chinese friend responds. “If we had to vote tomorrow morning, we would already know who is elected by tonight.”

Li Bibo contributed research.

@ The New York Times

THE GREAT YOGA DIVIDE

[In “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” William J. Broad speaks with an upstate New York yoga teacher, Glenn Black, who advises that the “vast majority of people” should give up yoga because it could harm them. The story details serious injuries that have happened when yoga practitioners pushed themselves too far. “It’s controversial to say, but it really shouldn’t be used for a general class,” Mr. Black says.]

By Heather Timmons

Sondeep Shankar for The New York TimesParticipants perform laughing exercises during Baba Ramdev’s yoga training camp in New Delhi, in this October 09, 2004 file photograph. Over 10,000 people attended the camp.

An article about the dangers of yoga that appeared in the Sunday magazine of The New York Times this month inspired an outpouring of criticism in the United States and Britain.

In yoga’s birthplace of India, though, the article seemed to highlight the growing divisions between the ancient practice’s roots and the multi-billion dollar Western industry of classes, retreats and form-fitting clothes that has sprung up around yoga in recent years.

In “How Yoga Can Wreck Your Body,” William J. Broad speaks with an upstate New York yoga teacher, Glenn Black, who advises that the “vast majority of people” should give up yoga because it could harm them. The story details serious injuries that have happened when yoga practitioners pushed themselves too far. “It’s controversial to say, but it really shouldn’t be used for a general class,” Mr. Black says.

Rather than stirring controversy in India, the article was met with gentle mockery.

In “Om My God, Who Wrecked Our Yoga,” Firstpost dubs the article a “bunch of anecdotes dressed up to sound like a contorted expose,” but says it does prove one thing: yoga may be India’s biggest export to the West, but as it is practiced in the United States now it is just a Western form of exercise.

“There’s nothing very Indian about it,” Firstpost writes.

People who practice yoga casually in India rarely view it as an endurance sport or a heart-rate accelerator. In most classes held in neighborhood parks or private gyms or by yoga gurus, the notion of competitive or aggressive yoga seems laughable. Sometimes laughing is actually part of the practice.

Most casual yoga participants in India wear loose-fitting clothing that makes the West’s body-baring yoga gear seem slightly obscene, and they often practice a much gentler form of the classic yoga postures. In some places, participants think nothing about answering cell phones in the middle of postures, or taking a short break to chat with a friend.

For more serious practitioners, India’s yoga ashrams, even those that welcome a growing crowd of foreign travelers, feature hours of meditation and service to others, vegetarianism and celibacy as much as they do exercise.

“Yoga is not just about asanas, it is a union of the body, mind and soul,” Delhi yoga teacher Nivedita Joshi told Times Crest, a Times of India publication, in an article also refuting the idea yoga can be dangerous. “It’s not an exercise, it’s a way of life,” she said.


@ The New York Times