I've worried from time to time that strolling around Lanzhou in my Crocs might cause a traffic accident; my unconventional (for China) footwear draws incredulous stares. This week I learned that carrying a basket of colorful Easter eggs to school for my students had largely the same effect.

Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter passed in Lanzhou under the shadow of events in Tibet, Sichuan and nearby in our own Gansu. The credulity and complacency of my Han Chinese friends and colleagues makes the violence on both sides all the more disheartening. My friends in the Gannan prefecture are confined to their campus even now, their town under firm control of the People's Liberation Army. Others in the province are only permitted to travel with a school-appointed escort. Fortunately, those of us who want to see and hear viewpoints other than those of the Chinese media are able to do it, using our toolkits of evasive online strategies.