From EastSouthWestNorth blog:
Just a week before China’s Three Gorges Dam became operational on June 6, Seminar Coordinator Mike Monahan and International Studies Dean Ahmed Samatar received a phone call in Shanghai from Professors Jim Von Geldern and Wang Ping: “We’re being arrested. Don’t worry. We’ll check in every half hour. If we don’t, something’s wrong.”
Wang’s ongoing research project deals with the changing face of the Chinese countryside and the farmers who live there. She has told and continues to tell their stories through her writing and photographs. Naturally, she took pictures of the villagers that day. “It was probably the photos that got us in trouble,” Von Geldern said.
“One of them put together protocol of an interrogation that never took place to exonerate us,” Von Geldern said. “He wrote it out, we signed it, and they let us go. The whole thing took two to three hours.” And the statement they signed?
“We are tourists. We promise to remain tourists and ask no questions.” [Full Text]
