Looking forward to 2009

2008 has been an interesting year. Just the other day, I was debating whether to turn up the thermostat. Then I realized natural gas prices has fallen 25% (now it's more like 40%). Majority of the power plants, as they were, use turbine engines that burn natural gas, which means the price of natural gas directly translates into the price of electricity. So I turned the temperature up a comfortable margin (enough so that I won't have to leave my desktop on at night as a radiator).

Cost of living is going down, which means more discretionary income. Auto-makers are going bankrupt, which means 2009 is going to be a good year for buying a car as car companies try to offload their inventories, or other methods of augmenting their cash-flow (as long as their suppliers don't collapse before they do). Yes! 2009 is a year for shopping! Now just patiently waiting for the stock market to hit its trough and load up as it rebound...

Here are my moments of clarity for 2008:

Books:
Garner's Modern American Usage

Blogs:
ESWN

Literature:
The London Review of Books

Movie:
Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

Language Police:
"Recital is the unsophisticated assassination of poetry."

Now Watching

彼氏彼女の事情



YOU MAY DREAM 追いかけて　素直なこの気持ち
伝えられたなら 真っ白な恋は翼になる
天使のゆびきり　叶うように

目の前を過ぎる横顔　ときめきが踊り始める
話す声　耳を傾け　またひとつあなたを知った
ほんの少し勇気だして　その瞳を見つめたい

YOU MAY DREAM 追いかけて　素直なこの気持ち
伝えられたなら 真っ白な恋は翼になる
天使のゆびきり　叶うように

Episodes 1 to 4: good
Episodes 5+: rather pointless
Episode 19: all right, so I kept watching. But the premise of post 4 episodes are stretched and good intentions forced. If I didn't know the propensity of GAINAX to run out of money, I would have said the animations in this episode were especially charming.

Politics and Economics

Can you recognize the following quote:

"...when men have realized that time has upset many fighting faiths, they may come to believe even more than they believe the very foundations of their own conduct that the ultimate good desired is better reached by free trade in ideas -- that the best test of truth is the power of the thought to get itself accepted in the competition of the market.."

If you can then congratulations! You have at least an awareness of the historical friction between democracy and capitalism in the United States.

What strikes me is that contemporary Chinese intellectuals lacks a particular vigor in applying the analysis of the country's current constitution and its founding intentions in formulating political theory for the state. Unless these analysis are hidden in the archives of the Central Party School somewhere, which still doesn't do anyone much good. Perhaps, reconciling the country's founding intentions with law (the constitution and institution) could go some way in easing the mental indigestion of Chinese intellectuals, who are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole by advocating wholesale adoption of western institutions. And doing it with such disregards for the complexity and historic scope of China's problems that would make any disingenuous supporters of democracy in China proud.

The current problem that needs to be examined in China is, can the free market and authoritarianism co-exist?

P.S. the quote is from the dissenting opinion of Oliver Wendel Holmes in Abrams v. U.S., 1919. The interesting thing about this opinion is that Holmes in a previous decision sided with the right of the state to interfere in economic matters. Yet here he limits the state's interference in speech. This paradox between democracy and capitalism is the defining issue of American politics.

A more salient contemporary example is how the energy industry have such a strong influence on American domestic and foreign policy. Often these interests are out of step with public opinion in issues such as global warming and American intervention abroad.

Medieval credit crunch

King Edward I

"It seems that money has disappeared" said the Ricciardi, just like a modern banker complaining that everyone has stopped lending.

Lightless Day

This photo came out quite different. It was actually taken on the flight today at mid-day but the shadows caused by the intense sunlight must have occult the lens area, making it look like dusk instead.

Anyways, so I woke up at 11 and decided I was in no mood to drive. Book a flight 2 hours before departure, then threw a bunch of clothes and my EEE 901 in a bag. Three hours later, I am sitting at home in Dallas typing away. Maybe I can finally get some reading and writing done during these few days. My mind is more at ease now.

Flying is much better than the mind numbing experience of driving, and having to wait for hours on end during holiday traffic. I Need to do this more often.

Self-Deceptions of Empire by David Bromwich

All of the good that a nation can do by violence is contingent; the evil is real and palpable.

Spreading Democracy by Eric J. Hobsbawm

Although great power action may have morally or politically desirable consequences, identifying with it is perilous because the logic and methods of state action are not those of universal rights. All established states put their own interests first.

Rugby (the religion of Wales) and its influence on the Catholic Church

"In this Christmas BMJ paper, researcher Gareth Payne and his two colleagues from Cardiff investigate whether there is any substance to the intriguing urban legend that has arisen in Wales in recent times: "Every time Wales win the rugby grand slam, a Pope dies, except for 1978 when Wales were really good, and two Popes died." Wales won the Grand Slam in 2008 - so should Pope Benedict XVI be worried? "

On Vampires

I don't care much for the genre normally, but I like the gothic technological dystopia in Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust.



G.R.R.M.'s Fevered Dream is also excellent, although it is quite revisionist as I understand it.

Weekly Readings

What Girls Want

Lydia Lopokova

“Why does she want the red shoes? She wants to be special and she wants to be looked at. In Hans Christian Andersen’s famous tale, Karen, a peasant girl, goes barefoot in summer and in winter wears wooden clogs that rub her feet raw, but the mirror tells her she’s lovely and she thinks that wearing the red shoes will make her feel like a princess. Like selfish Heidi and tomboy Katy, Karen is a mid-19th century girl crippled by egotism. The shoes force her to dance non-stop and to display herself ‘wherever proud and vain children live’. Though it seems simply a punitive response to female narcissism, this is a Christian morality tale intended to warn against the sin of self-love. Karen is cast out of her community and her church; she has her feet hacked off, and the story ends with her repentance. What we remember, though, is not the final image of her blissful reunion with God but the red shoes, with the little feet still in them, going on dancing. Shoes were a homely and powerful symbol of status for Andersen, the son of a cobbler, a lonely, ungainly outsider. He was greedy for fame yet tormented by guilt at his success; ‘The Red Shoes’ inflicts a cruel comeuppance on exhibitionists and social climbers like himself.”


A Chance to Join the World

How to Start a Hedge Fund

Let me know if you need further advice. My rates are competitive.

Diary - Keith Gessen

On the other hand I discovered Russian (language) rap.

Further, if the target audience of your diatribe is Russian, do your cussing in Serbo-Croatian. It is close enough that they understand the necessary elements.

Film Noir

The ending

The Shield

Started The Shield marathon on Thanksgiving, on season 7 now. The Shield is pretty good for a plot driven drama, meaning person A going to places X,Y,Z, do things B,C, and D, then goes home. However, I still like thematically driven series like The Wire better, where every action aims to build a narrative, i.e. the criminalization and oppression of the economically deprived, betrayal of political promise that traps everyone in a vicious cycle, etc...

The balancing of plot and theme is difficult, The Shield does an o.k. job. Other crime related drama, for example a movie like American Gangster, is ultimately disappointing because it strives to build a narrative, but then gets stuck trying to entertain the big screen audience with bland plot base drama. Exceptionally few shows have managed to pull off both simultaneously. I'm not sure where The Shield lies on this spectrum; it has a strong conceptual element to it, yet it is always hidden in the background.

12/06 finished the series.

11:06 PM me: the popularity of the Vic character, and the setup of Aceveda as his opposite half indicates that you have the tolerance for corruption part switched. Generally, people are sympathetic to a face (i.e. Vic.), but when corruption goes up a level, responsibility is abstracted from the person responsible (aceveda) to the system, then it becomes tyranny

11:07 PM basti: Yes, but not exactly.
I am not sympathetic to their actions
I can just empathise with their plights
I can want Vic to go to gaol, but still feel sorry for him as a person

11:08 PM me: then you just have abstracted a human being on a personal level
basti: No, not really
This kind of sympathy is independent of their actions

11:09 PM For example, I have little sympathy for the criminals on the show.
Their portrayal is very one dimensional
They are objects to be hated
But I like the show, because I find the characters, who are not good people, to be sympathetic in how they are humanised

11:10 PM I mean, at the end of `Revenge of the Sith,' do you feel badly for Darth Vader?
He has become completely alienated from his family.
He has killed his wife, and he will never meet his children.
me: I didn't care, he was a bad actor
basti: He has been seduced to evil, and his best friend has tried to kill him.
EXACTLY
Bad actor and bad characte.r

11:11 PM Really, really bad actor and bad character.
But Vic isn't like this.
me: I see...
basti: Chiklis is a much, much better actor
But also, his character is humanised and three dimensional
I can have this kind of ambivalence toward him

11:12 PM I can have this combination of disgust for his corruption but sympathy for his fate
He's humanised, and humans are built to empathise
This is also a strength of the portrayal of the criminally destitute in `The Wire'

11:15 PM I mean, Bubbles is not the heroic type
He is a drug addict and a petty criminal
But his situation is sufficiently humanised that we can feel sympathetic for him
Even if many of his problems are of his own creation...

11:17 PM Or look at Shane
Shane is racialist and brutal
He kills Lem
But he is, in many ways, more sympathetic than Vic as his life falls apart in the aftermath

Walking in a garden, waking from a... oh wait

"It is unlikely that the financial meltdown of 2008 will function as a blessing in disguise, the awakening from a dream, the sobering reminder that we live in the reality of global capitalism. It all depends on how it will be symbolised, on what ideological interpretation or story will impose itself and determine the general perception of the crisis. When the normal run of things is traumatically interrupted, the field is open for a ‘discursive’ ideological competition. In Germany in the late 1920s, Hitler won the competition to determine which narrative would explain the reasons for the crisis of the Weimar Republic and the way out of it; in France in 1940 Maréchal Pétain’s narrative won in the contest to find the reasons for the French defeat. Consequently, to put it in old-fashioned Marxist terms, the main task of the ruling ideology in the present crisis is to impose a narrative that will not put the blame for the meltdown on the global capitalist system as such, but on its deviations – lax regulation, the corruption of big financial institutions etc."

Slavoj Žižek - Use Your Illusions

A little more than 3 years ago I sat down to reread George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire (which is now being piloted as a HBO series in Nove. 2008) and came across this familiar passage: He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood.

In the dream his friends rode with him, as they had in life....

With the reread came the rehabilitation of this blog, separated from the first iteration by more of a motivation to catalog the better things I read. I was, and am content to a degree, to let the blog become a giant bookmark of sorts. As long as I am reading, this blog will not run out of content.

Lilium

Blast from the past, circa 2006

http://wbc889.blogspot.com/2006/04/elfen-lied-and-gustav-klimt-elfen-lied.html

I don't want to set the world on fire

Disappointing game, this is the only good song out of the minuscule, and ultimately mediocre soundtrack.

Things wrong with the game
1) bland palette
2) slow level progression makes the player feel a lack of progress
3) 3rd person view not playable (therefore you never see your armor)
4) you can't drive fusion cars

Was there any doubt?

So where was I last night and and what was I doing when it happened?

I was talking with a Brit, a Canadian, and a Dutch on ventrillo just before the victory speech. Managed to catch it live online. The speech has everything covered, I wonder what would he say for the inaugural address? Although he was right to cover everything since the symbolic value of this victory cannot be understated.

Children

Old trance songs, memorable after all these years.

Winter is Coming

It feels like winter already. Got up in the morning, walked outside, and it was freezing.

Openings

Reading people's blogs

I must say I am confused, but no more than usual.

You seem very upset. One might even call you angry. Did you accidentally the cherry?

Carry on.

Syndicate, the ****space of New Eden

Syndicate, a NPC nullsec region of EVE, politically chaotic and infested with pirates. Rewards from bounties off NPCs are below average, and with various political power blocs unable to claim sovereignty, it is known to many as the armpit of EVE.

Gundam 00 Season 2: Where Originality Ends, and the Mask Wearing Begins

R.I.P season 1, one of the more creative fictions in the Gundam universe. Now it is time to trot out the pastiches and the stock cryptic self seriousness.

Openings and Closings

Re:

The sheer amount of lipstick feminism really depresses me. Since when did a wink ever replace a genuine smile?

Something Ends, Something Begins

Finished watching the finales of Macross Frontier and Code Geass season 2, the former sucked, the latter was fairly good.

Also went back and finished off Eureka Seven, god I knew there was a reason I stopped watching it. A few redeeming qualities can't compensate for the amount of cheese.

Few of the better episodes in the series is centered around this (awesome!) song.



Enjoy.

Fake edit: Yes the title of the entry does come from the Witcher. Speaking of which it is one of the only few games I go back and play once in a while. The music in that game is on its' own plane. Yes, the ambient music is really that good.

AC: FA

The Fall and Fall of the Turks

From the Mediterranean to the Chinese Sea...

The slogan of the "East Turkestan" separatist movement, a proponent of pan-Turkic ethnic superiority.

National liberation based on emancipation and empowerment of the people? Nope. Try demographic warfare.

How can nations with any global ambitions these days cling on to such crippling ideology?

Aftermath

Slept through most of the hurricane. From the looks of the aftermath the apartment can handle up to a category 3. Category 4 will rip the third floor off.

Got power back, then water, and now internet. But just across the street electricity is still of an unknown quantity.

During the last few days I've gained a new perspective on TV dinners. They are good for breakfast.

Not Evacuating

Hurricane cut classes in the Woodlands short. Bought plenty of water, hoping that the internet and power doesn't go out in the next few days. The sun is still shining and so we live on for now.

Persona 4

Lyrics:

We are living our lives.
Abound with so much information.
Come on, let go of the remote.
Don't you know you're letting all the junk flood in?
I try to stop the flow, double clicking on the go
But it's no use; hey, I'm being consumed
Loading... Loading... Loading...
Quickly reaching maximum capacity
Warning... Warning... Warning!
Gonna short-circuit my identity.

Get up on your feet, tear down the walls.
Catch a glimpse of the hollow world.
Snooping 'round will get you nowhere.
You're locked up in your mind...
We are all trapped in a maze of relationships that goes on with or without you.
I swim in the sea of the unconscious.
I'll search for your heart, pursue my true self.


/Lyrics

Due in December

The voice talent for the English version of Persona 3 FES is quite good, to the extend that I have no preference over either language version of the voice acting. Hopefully they'll repeat the same feat in 4.

Red Cliff

What a horrible movie. It just goes against those of us who read the book(s), the comics and watched the TV series countless times since we were young. Zhao Zilong looks 20 years too old, Guan Yu sounds like he is 20 years too young, and Zhang Fei is more suitable as a Hello Kitty decoration with puppy eyes on the eve of battle. And where the fuck is Zhao Yun's sword Green Destiny, grabbed from the scabbard of his enemies even as he cuts them down on horseback? Where is the dignity when Guan Yu is sent in on foot like some foot soldier, without utilizing the reach of his Green Dragon Halberd?

Frankly, I prefer my classical Chinese literature archetypes served cold. All of this overwrought humanizing pastiches such as Guan Yu teaching kids to read classical poetry and Liu Bei making shoes is just an insult to the intelligence of an average reader. Reading The Three Kingdoms is not meant to be an exercise in getting your daily feel good about how people are perfect.

Part of reading an epic is to hold up an mirror and discover the flaws and hubris in the alter egos of our past. To that extend the best performance in the movie is the believably maniacal Cao Cao. What is so disappointing about the movie is that it reflects more of the taste of an uncultivated mass audience rather than convey with any authenticity a great story.

Think I will go back and watch a few episodes of the TV series again, maybe then I'll calm down a little and stop cursing this mentally challenged movie.

9/29/2008 The sheer amount of lipstick feminism really depresses me. If they are looking for strong female protagonists they really need to read George R. R. Martin. One of the greatest stories never told, as in hinted at, is the tourney at Harrenhal where Rhaegar crowned Lyanna the Queen of Beauty.

If a woman like Lyanna exists in this world, I would give her my heart and soul.

Autumn

Stepping out late morning a cool breeze enveloped me. It feels so different and uplifting, could it be that Autumn is here?

The leaves on the trees are still green, yet show signs of fatigue. I remember when I was little, every change of season meant some time spent in the hospital or in bed, green to yellow. More often than not I overplayed and caught a cold. I bet the leaves too want to return and rest in the grounds so near their roots.

The weather just reminded me of the climate near the seaside. For a long time now I forgot what I have been missing. The moment of joy was fleeting as the breeze, yet I know now why Autumn is my favorite of seasons.

Would it not be so strange

The Virtual Life of...

"Always imitating, copying, cribbing..."

*sigh*

Ladybird "Easy Reading" Book

Ladybird "Easy Reading" Book - "People at Work": The Policeman

Anime reviews

I guess what makes this genre poignant is the execution of an experience to its conclusion; the experience of willing ourselves away from forces such as prejudice and ignorance that predetermine our lives, only to find loneliness. And in this we try to reshape the world, not out of altruism but despair.

Persona 3

Diary of an EVE Industrialist - pt. 5

The Villore - Tama pipe has run dry. Now pirates and the Amarr are camping the OMS-Vill gate, similar to what the Gallente militia has been doing to the Caldari on the Tama-Nourv gate.

Rumors that powerful corporations of the Caldari militia are moving their base of operations to Placid. Perhaps to link up with other Caldari 5th column in the region. Apparently the withdrawal of their executor corps were not enough to deter the few highly organized corporations from moving heavy capital into the flanking region of Gallente space.

Our corp also has plans to move to the low-sec space of Faction Warfare, and eyes the prospects of an alliance further down the road.

2008 Beijing Olypmics Opening Ceremony and 歌唱祖国

Watched the opening ceremony just yesterday, from a recorded TVB torrent. I must admit, at first I didn't pay all that much attention to the Olmpics event itself. For me, what is more interesting is the cultural war that is being waged around it. Until I heard 歌唱祖国 being sang in the opening ceremony.

It is a moment in the ceremony where I struggled and failed to hold back my tears, especially at the part "从今走向繁荣富强". Who would not want to see their country walking toward prosperity and well being?


歌唱祖国

五星红旗迎风飘扬， 胜利歌声多么响亮；
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
越过高山，越过平原， 跨过奔腾的黄河长江；
宽广美丽的土地， 是我们亲爱的家乡，
英雄的人民站起来了！ 我们团结友爱坚强如钢。

五星红旗迎风飘扬， 胜利歌声多么响亮；
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
我们勤劳，我们勇敢， 独立自由是我们的理想；
我们战胜了多少苦难， 才得到今天的解放！
我们爱和平，我们爱家乡， 谁敢侵犯我们就叫他死亡！

五得红旗迎风飘扬， 胜利歌声多么响亮，
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
东方太阳，正在升起， 人民共和国正在成长；
我们领袖毛泽东， 指引着前进的方向。
我们的生活天天向上， 我们的前途万丈光芒。

五星红旗迎风飘扬， 胜利歌声多么响亮；
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。
歌唱我们亲爱的祖国， 从今走向繁荣富强。


8/13/2008

What a shame this happened.

Beijing 2008: Challenging China-bashing

Refuting otherworldly communist robots

Common sense at the BBC

Seven militants and a security guard have been killed after a series of bombings in China's north-western region of Xinjiang

and the article goes on to say confidently:

"China has spoken in the past of what it calls a terrorist threat from Muslim militants in Xinjiang, but it has provided little evidence to back up its claims, correspondents say."


I guess when a series of bombings occur in China with the intent to cow the civilian population it is not a terrorist act after all, since the BBC says so.

Diary of an EVE Industrialist - pt. 4

16:30 GMT, a lightly armed group of militia engaged a dozen of remote repairing war targets in a hi-sec solar system of Sinq Laison. In the ensuing battle, the Fleet Commander got disconnected just as he threw his ship against the enemy. Discipline vanished within seconds in the inexperience group; shell shocked Wing Commanders froze as they watched each squad member of their wing destroyed in turn.

Tropical Storm

It feels so nice outside. 70 degrees, light rain, slightly downcast sky. Got the day off too so mud puddles beware!

Want to Sell: A Clue

[Propaganda - Deleted]

Contemplations on time, immortality, culture

It feels like ages since my last post. Closing has been rather busy, so has keeping up with reading.

It did occur to me that were mankind to realize immortality, his lust for power would be like never before (frankly, what else is there left to do after you spent millennia accumulating wealth and creating a legion of progeny?).

Culture and indeed memories would be become nothing more than a vehicle for a person's ambition, carried throughout time. But what is to say they aren't already? At least, currently with each generation they are gradually distilled to their basic element, survival. I'm not so certain the future could shoulder the ego of cynical immortals. Does that mean history only gets more, and not less, violent?

EVE

Astros game from view of the home plate suite, meeting with the global FLT leader. Small gestures like this are quite nice.

Diary of an EVE Industrialist, part 3

Charon Freighter: 816,000,000 ISK
Drake 3 run 40 material efficiency 10 production efficiency blueprint: 1,500,000 ISK
Minerals to manufacture 3 Drakes: 83,000,000 ISK
Manufacture time: 8 hours
Market price of 1 Drake: 30,000,000 ISK
Manufacture profit after taxes: 5,200,000 ISK
Market turn around time: 16 hours
ISK making velocity: ~5,000,000 ISK/day

By the time those Drakes were out of the oven, I've come to the conclusion that manufacturing of commodity goods is a lousy way of making ISK (L4 missioning makes you 20,000,000 ISK per HOUR) UNLESS you capture the whole process vertically from blueprint research to marketing and sells. The blueprints costs 30% of my bottom line.

Goal right now is to procure a high material efficiency original blueprint of something that takes considerable risk to build. I am thinking of a freighter maybe? A specialized good that has low volume, which cancels the volatility of prices.

Houston, city. Economy, prosperous. Culture, vapid.

History, started booming when AC became common in the 1950s.

From How air conditioning changed America

"Engineered air was marketed to the public as an essential component of modern living. Manufacturers claimed that it promoted better sleeping and eating, healthier air quality, cleaner interiors free from pollen and dust, and the enjoyment of nature through glass window walls without the discomforts of summer heat and humidity."

Away from self during the weekend

Always the outsider. put aside the mantle of the observer and know what it means to stumble and laugh and be late.

There are no more exams, class presentations, term papers, only the weekend and what's made of it.

Friday

Went to the renew my passport. People flirting across the counters.

Redux!

Forks and spoons

Had a conversation on Friday. In such an overdeveloped country, groups of people are needed to make any impact. The individual has even less of an ability to steer society as I have imagined. What an obsolete dream to begin with. Not to mention the disappointment that comes with the realization. Glad I was candid, by myself it would have taken me 15 years to figure that out. Wish this took place 5 years ago.

Steam punk as an optimistic vision of science fiction

The memories of our future

东邪西毒 Ashes of Time

"Do you know, what is the most important thing in my life right now?"


Ashes of Time, an existential wuxia film.

Austin

stay beautiful

Next time you order up a humanitarian invasion...don’t forget the rice

France angrily demands to force feed cyclone victims

but it forgot the rice...

So what accounts for such recidivism?

Dégringolade

Union Sucrée

Refeudalising Europe

The Condition of France

[Nicolas Sarkozy] Having made the fight against delinquency the main plank of his electoral programme, he had referred to young people in the banlieues as ‘riff-raff’ whom he intended to ‘power-hose’ off the streets. The fact that a minister could talk like a gangster and so put a match to the powder that had long been collecting in the most deprived neighbourhoods of the Republic, is not simply a sign of incompetence. It is first and foremost a sign that an age-old achievement of our Western juridical systems – the distinction between a public office and the person who occupies it – is being called into question.

Furniture musings

Been thinking about what to get for the bedroom.

U.S. misconception of Chinese nationalism is due to short memory and sloppy reporting

This article that refutes at length the U.S. media's misconceptions of Chinese nationalism's origin.

Here is one that explains it is these activists and their supporters in the West apparently lack the ability to distinguish between the Chinese people and their government.

Albino Squirrel

Thought these were a urban legend in Austin until I saw one today.

Hijacking of the Tibet Issue

Translated by ESWN into English

(My1510.cn group blog) The Hijacking By The Western Media And The Tibetan Elite. By Chairman Rabbit. April 30, 2008.

The occurrence of certain things recently, especially the patriotic manifestations of the overseas Chinese, has made the western/American media (at least among the mainstream ones) slowly and gradually provide more coverage, attention and concern about the China angle and the sentiments of the Chinese people in order to appear more objective. In my opinion, even without an open acknowledgement or apology, certain people within the western media have realized that their coverage on Tibet (and the Olympic torch relay) was seriously misleading and created negative consequences. Obviously, their biases still exist because they arose from structural problems. On one hand, this is a matter of issues and cultures. On the other hand, it is the consequence of the commercialization of the media -- they need to pay attention to the feelings of their readers and tell them what they want to hear.

Recently, the New York Times published Shaila Dewan's article in the Education section. This article analyzed the overseas Chinese students with respect to activities, performance, viewpoints and mindsets.

Dewan's article made a more detailed analysis of the psychology and activities of the overseas Chinese students, and it is more objective than the preceding article. Of course, various prejudices were still present. For example, it held very stringent requirements for the information that were offered by the students. When the students provided the infant vital statistics in Tibet after 1951, it said that the students "did not provide any means for comparison with mortality rates in China or other countries." This is stretching it too far. The students are not making a scholarly report and they are not experts on this issue. They were more like presenting certain situations that the westerners did not realize in order to balance the information. It is too stringent to demand that they attain the standards of academic debate in this case. This is all the more so because the data and facts provided by the Tibet independence side were not scrutinized by the western media using the same rigorous scholarly standards. If you like, you can say that when the Chinese bring forth such information, it must be political propaganda; absent any rigorous attempt to justify it, it is unconvincing or even erroneous. Meanwhile, anything offered by the Tibetan independence side will be readily accepted. This is a double standard that is very unfair. Behind this phenomenon lie some deeply entrenched prejudices.

The article also said:

Students argue that China has spent billions on Tibet, building schools, roads and other infrastructure. Asked if the Tibetans wanted such development, they looked blankly incredulous. “They don’t ask that question,” said Lionel Jensen, a China scholar at Notre Dame. “They’ve accepted the basic premise of aggressive modernization.”

It is not hard to see that the reporter was skeptical about the views of the students. I have participated in many forums on Tibet, and I never heard any westerners questioned the Tibet independence supporters or sympathizers: ""Do the majority of Tibetan people need and care most about independence, religion and culture?" I have never heard anyone asked this kind of question. Here, most westerners' assumptions are: These lofty political rights, culture and pursuit of values are obviously more important than the quest for basic economics, existence and materials!" Of course, they have never done any public opinion polling in Tibet. Instead of being supported by facts, their ideas are propped up by their belief values. With these beliefs, they will obviously give even more sympathy to the Tibetan independence movement.

Similarly, the reporter doubted the relationship between the Dalai Lama and the Nazis brought up by the students, and claimed that the students "denied that the Chinese government was oppressing Tibetan culture and religion."

Also, the article gave full coverage to the extreme actions of the students while failing to discuss the more rational and warm exchanges coming from the majority of the Chinese students.

Of course, the article also had some good points, such as:

- Although the article still hold onto certain kinds of prejudices, it also included many of the viewpoints of the students, such as the fact-based judgments about the Tibet riots as well as the double standards and hypocrisy harbored by the western world towards China.

- The disillusionment of the overseas Chinese students in the western media (and the western world)

- The Chinese students directly questioned the existing prejudice of the west: All the Chinese people have been simply brainwashed and incapable of independent thinking

- The Chinese students still lack practical experience and artistry in their protests

Finally, the reporter did some analyses of the motivations and value preferences of the Chinese students. But this did not go further than the previous article China's Loyal Youth in the New York Times. They basically think that the attitudes of the Chinese youth are derived from (1) they are the beneficiaries of modernization; (2) they received patriotic education (that is, they have been "brain-washed").

The facts on which they base their opinions on are highly problematic. "That may be, some experts suggest, because the students whose families can afford to send them abroad are the ones who have benefited the most from China’s economic liberalization." In the United States, the majority of the students are graduate students and researchers who get by through their university scholarships. They are in the United States because of their academic excellence. But here the experts are saying that the overseas students come from rich and affluent upper-/middle-class elite families which can afford their children to study in private schools in the United States.

The reporter's theory of "the material benefits of modernization" is actually an analysis of motives. It included some partial truths, but it also ignored certain other facts such as the patriotic students believing completely in their value system including patriotism. To reduce their values down to material benefits is a vicious debasement. This is comparable to Barack Obama's speech about "bitter" and "cling" to characterize how many small-town American believe in religion and worship guns due to economic disenfranchisement.

This shows that the west (and the western media) fails to understand the substance of contemporary Chinese nationalism. On one hand, Chinese nationalism is based upon a sense of pride about a 5,000 year old civilization. On the other hand, it is also built upon the contemporary history of exploitation (and the sense of victimization) -- the Chinese cannot get over the repeated invasions of Chinese sovereignty and territoriality by foreign nations.

Nevertheless, we note that the western media is providing a fuller picture in their media coverage about China. We have to continue to watch this patiently.

There is another article in the Los Angeles about the feelings and activities of the American Chinese. It is worth reading: Chinese Americans feel sting of Olympic protests.

The actions of the overseas Chinese are noteworthy. They live overseas and they deal with non-Chinese people every day. They witness western prejudices and their sense of disillusionment is strong. Under these challenges, their Chinese identity is reinforced daily. Their actions are very much related to their daily experiences.

During the past month of so, the Christian Science Monitor has done some good reporting on China because they are more objective than the other western media. I checked with some Americans, and many of them believes that it is one of the top-quality newspapers in the world. It provides the western angle, and it also pays attention to the Chinese situation and angle. The articles are more objective than those in other media. Business newspapers such as Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal are good too.

Next I want to discuss the value system of the westerners and the sympathy for the Tibetan independence movement. Many westerns (including common folks as well as intellectuals) are easily inflamed by the aura of Tibetan independence with political concepts and slogans such as "rights," "freedom" and "self-determination."

When these regular people who lead excellent materialistic lives sit down in a warm and comfortable room in a developed country to talk about these distant issues that are totally unconnected to their own existence, they can hardly imagine how the ordinary Tibetan (or the majority of the world who are still living in relative poverty) cope with the challenges of life and or what their urgent needs are. They project their own demands and values onto these people. Here, I am not saying that people living in abject poverty do not have political demands. I am saying that they have simpler and more mundane materialistic needs that affect their basic survival and these are often disproportionately undervalued, disregarded or given secondary importance.

A western liberal intellectual may have a great deal of interest in preserving the culture of a pre-industrial society. But what do the ordinary members of this society think? Perhaps they want to embrace globalization and pursue a better life while abandoning some of their own culture and customs. But the intellectual elite might feel that this is cultural genocide and therefore call to oppose globalization and preserve the cultural values. They even think that the members of this pre-industrial society are too ignorant to realize that these demands represent their best interests.

When Tibet has this Shangri La-like romantic image in the west, it is unavoidably linked to the wave of thinking about anti-modernity, anti-globalization and multi-culturalism.

I personally feel that the Tibet independence movement is led by the elite (including the lamas). The movement reduces the broad demands of the ordinary Tibet citizens on various issues down to a single issue -- independence (or self-determination), as if the solutions of all the problems are based upon this lone issue. So if this single problem is solved, then all the other problems will be solved as well. In practice, self-determination cannot solve those problems. In fact, it can even worsen the situation. This is how the elite has hijacked public opinion. Objectively speaking, we cannot say that the elite represents what the common folks thing. One has to be careful before making this conclusion (even though certain viewpoints of the elite represent the interests of the common folks). Only the people can represent themselves.

The movement of the Dalai Lama is a single issue movement, by which all the problems are reduced down to self-determination. In truth, the Dalai Lama and his exile government have away from China for a long time and they are out of touch with the daily experiences, needs and demands of the Tibetans in China. One cannot represent others just by self-proclamation because this is not a one-sided decision. This explains why the Dalai Lama has certain unrealistic political demands in his discussions with the Chinese government. If he can return to Tibet and communicate with the locals and reflect their demands, then I think that the political idea of the entire movement will be different.

When I attend the forums on the Tibet issue, I have the impression that the Tibetan independence movement people do not want to see Tibet improve (of course, they would never publicly say so). They want darkness everywhere in Tibet. The darker things are, the more meaningful their movement is. If everything is bright in Tibet and the people are prospering, then their movement and even their own existence would lose their meaning. This prejudice is extremely strong and it guides their views of the issue.

The Chinese government needs to continue to develop Tibet in various ways, so that the Tibetan people can enjoy full prosperity of economy, society and culture. This will win over the hearts of the people and continue to marginalize the Tibetan independence movement.

Descontructing overseas Chinese prejudice of their own people

Original article in Chinese.

Translated by ESWN into English

(My1510.cn Blog) An analysis of Grace Wang's essay in The Washington Post. By 'Chairman Rabbit.' April 22, 2008.

Grace Wang's essay is worthy of attention, because its publication and her subsequent media interviews (including with certain strongly anti-China media) have escalated the affair. She has clearly "taken a position." Her choice could be due to (a) the criticisms within and outside of China driving to her to an even more extreme position; (b) the western media seeking for someone to express a protest; (c) she is politically naïve.

In my view, Grace Wang's essay is political suicide. In the language of past history (and somewhat ironically here), she has decided to stand diametrically opposite to the Party and the People. Objectively, one can say that she is a "Public Enemy."

Some people inside and outside of China are sympathetic to her for a couple of reasons. First, "even if I don't agree with your viewpoint, I will defend your right to speak with my life (that is, your freedom of speech)." Secondly, people object to the extreme personal attacks such as the disclosure of the private information about her family, the death threats, the dumping of feces at her home, etc. I think that her essay and subsequent statements have decreased the number of sympathizers in the first category.

I want to make a few points.

(1) First, I think that Grace Wang is wrong. The negative impact of that essay goes far beyond her imagination. She has been completely exploited by western media. Subjectively, she had even worked hard to meet their needs. I will discuss this point further with respect to her essay.

(2) Next, she adopted a rational and moderate position in her essay. She characterized herself as a middleman and mediator who wants to serve as a bridge in a rational way in order to resolve conflicts. This is a lofty position. Let us not discuss whether she actually accomplished those objectives. But let us accept Grace Wang's claim that she studied languages in order to promote exchange of viewpoints to resolve the conflict between the Chinese and the Tibetans; at the same time, let us suppose that she wants to learn more languages for more communications and exchanges. Did she achieve the results? I don't see it. I have to look at the overall situation. Tibet is the focus of the clash between China and the west, and that reflects the clash of political cultures and interests. What can we see? However we look at it, the two sides have major problems in exchanging views.

In this affair, the western media have made extremely misleading and selective reports. They communicated much inaccurate information, they misled the public, they reinforced prejudices and even created hatred. Over the years, the western media have ignored the viewpoint of China. Rarely have they examined the rise and development of China in a neutral and objective manner. On this platform, China does not have its own voice.

If Grace Wang really wanted to solve the problems and if she loves China, she would have asked the western media to report a fuller picture of China as opposed to just satisfying their pre-defined prejudices and imaginations. That was how she could have helped east-west exchange and even help China to solve the Tibet problem. This was how mediation could have occurred. Instead, Grace Wang used her unique status in this affair to evoke the sympathy of the western media, satisfy the western prejudices and political needs, reinforce pre-existing western attitudes and biases and magnify the misunderstanding and conflicts between China and the western people. What kind of rational mediation effort is this?

Grace Wang's essay was not just an expression of her personal feelings. Based upon the content and organization, she has spent a lot of effort on this. It is a strongly political essay.

I tend to think that she is too young and she is very politically naïve to hold those kinds of views. She has no idea what she is doing and she does not realize the consequences.

In the following, let us scrutinize her essay. I feel that the essay was carefully crafted to express her views. She was not just describing the affair, but she was also expressing her views about China and Tibet. The political position was obvious. Precisely because of that crafting, the damage is even bigger. That is why I cannot help but to comment in detail.

My China, My Tibet -- Caught in the Middle, Called a Traitor

I study languages -- Italian, French and German. And this summer -- now that it looks as though I won't be able to go home to China -- I'll take up Arabic. My goal is to master 10 languages, in addition to Chinese and English, by the time I'm 30.

Comment: This shows that she loves to learn and she has good intentions. The readers will be sympathetic, and even possibly respectful.

I want to do this because I believe that language is the bridge to understanding. Take China and Tibet. If more Chinese learned the Tibetan language, and if Tibetans learned more about China, I'm convinced that our two peoples would understand one another better and we could overcome the current crisis between us peacefully. I feel that even more strongly after what happened here at Duke University a little more than a week ago.

Comment: This section reinforces the reader's impression that China and Tibet are two different peoples. They are different in terms of ethnicity, culture and language and they rarely communicate with each other. The Chinese are ignorant about the Tibetans. The Tibetans are ignorant about the Chinese, and they rarely speak the Chinese tongue. But one has to ask: What is the concept of China? She does not employ the concept of the Chinese people as "the multi-ethnic political entity (consisting of 56 different ethnic groups)" and she does not use the narrative based upon the relationship between the Han and Tibetan groups. Instead, she spoke of the relationship between "China" and "Tibet" as if China were a single ethnic group outside and independent of Tibet. What kind of consideration is that?

Trying to mediate between Chinese and pro-Tibetan campus protesters, I was caught in the middle and vilified and threatened by the Chinese. After the protest, the intimidation continued online, and I began receiving threatening phone calls. Then it got worse -- my parents in China were also threatened and forced to go into hiding. And I became persona non grata in my native country.

It has been a frightening and unsettling experience. But I'm determined to speak out, even in the face of threats and abuse. If I stay silent, then the same thing will happen to someone else someday.

Comment: In this section, she is trying to seize the moral high ground. This narrative will easily invoke the sympathy of western readers: she represents the value of freedom of speech. Her position is close to the positions of many western readers, who might think that Grace Wang represents the small minority of people who stand up for truth inside China but unfortunately cannot express their speeches and views due to the threats and oppression from the compatriots. Such voices are usually oppressed and the west cannot hear them. But now that she is in the United States, she can speak up. But if she can speak up as she wishes, then please tell the truth!

So here's my story.

When I first arrived at Duke last August, I was afraid I wouldn't like it. It's in the small town of Durham, N.C., and I'm from Qingdao, a city of 4.3 million. But I eventually adjusted, and now I really love it. It's a diverse environment, with people from all over the world. Over Christmas break, all the American students went home, but that's too expensive for students from China. Since the dorms and the dining halls were closed, I was housed off-campus with four Tibetan classmates for more than three weeks.

I had never really met or talked to a Tibetan before, even though we're from the same country. Every day we cooked together, ate together, played chess and cards. And of course, we talked about our different experiences growing up on opposite sides of the People's Republic of China. It was eye-opening for me.

I'd long been interested in Tibet and had a romantic vision of the Land of Snows, but I'd never been there. Now I learned that the Tibetans have a different way of seeing the world. My classmates were Buddhist and had a strong faith, which inspired me to reflect on my own views about the meaning of life. I had been a materialist, as all Chinese are taught to be, but now I could see that there's something more, that there's a spiritual side to life.

Comment: This is the key section. This is the key for the entire essay. Here, she is trying to explain (a) the evolution of her thinking process; (b) and she explained her right to speak on this issue compared to the other "ignorant" Chinese people.

The Tibet that she describes here fits the original romantic, Shangri La-like model of Tibet that the west has imagined: it is mysterious, romantic, religious and transcendent. There is nothing about Tibetan history, society, policies or challenges (such as those about development and poverty alleviation). The West takes a very partial view on Tibet, with a strong flavor of romanticism. They emphasize factors such as the mysterious religion and they don't want to talk about the challenges and opportunities of social and economic development. Grace Wang's narrative enhances those prejudices. Furthermore, Grace Wang asserted that all Chinese are educated under "materialism" and that is a serious charge. This creates the impression that there is no freedom of religion in China; that China is a materialistic and vulgar society (when China is one of the countries with the largest Christian and Muslim populations in the world, together with a large number of Buddhists with different degrees of faith). When Grace Wang might have used "materialism" to refer to the Marxist concept, the term "materialism" means something different and negative in English because it implies the Chinese people have only materialistic goals and zero spiritual values.

This narrative is powerful. For the reader, a certain person from a secular, vulgar, modern, coarse, totalitarian and spiritually empty society has been converted and elevated by the spiritual culture of Tibet to find a new meaning in life. The evil force has been overcome by the good force. For the American reader, this may create a strong resonance (the United States is one of the countries with the strongest religious sentiments and the majority of the people are religious; for most Americans, the word "secular" has a pejorative meaning).

With just a few words, Grace Wang is able to use her personal experience to set up the polar opposition between "Tibet" and "China" that the western world has imagined.

We talked a lot in those three weeks, and of course we spoke in Chinese. The Tibetan language isn't the language of instruction in the better secondary schools there and is in danger of disappearing. Tibetans must be educated in Mandarin Chinese to succeed in our extremely capitalistic culture. This made me sad, and made me want to learn their language as they had learned mine.

Comment: There are plenty of categorical statements here. For example, is the Tibetan language close to being extinct? I think that any serious scholar would have to delve into this issue carefully. In my personal experience, only the Tibetan exile government and Tibet independence activists would make such a bold assertion. There are many minority ethnic groups in China, far more than the western world imagined. Apart from those officially recognized by the state, there are many more "sub-populations" with their own languages. Are those languages near extinction?

Furthermore, it is a complex matter about Tibetans learning the Han language. Cantonese-speaking students have to learn putonghua, and they have to answer many complicated questions about putonghua pronunciation in the university entrance examinations. The Chinese have to learn English for the sake of globalization. That is an issue of globalized competition for which there is no simple answer that can be reduced and politicized to one about human rights. Serious observers recognize that these questions deserve careful study. But those debates are secondary because here we have to see what Grace Wang choose to present. Are those views full? Are they biased? Why did she choose those views and not discuss the full story? Are those views consistent with the simplified imagination of the West? I believe that Grace Wang has deepened certain existing prejudices of the West about Tibet to a large degree. It is irresponsible to express those views to the public in the media.

I was reminded of all this on the evening of April 9. As I left the cafeteria planning to head to the library to study, I saw people holding Tibetan and Chinese flags facing each other in the middle of the quad. I hadn't heard anything about a protest, so I was curious and went to have a look. I knew people in both groups, and I went back and forth between them, asking their views. It seemed silly to me that they were standing apart, not talking to each other. I know that this is often due to a language barrier, as many Chinese here are scientists and engineers and aren't confident of their English.

I thought I'd try to get the two groups together and initiate some dialogue, try to get everybody thinking from a broader perspective. That's what Lao Tzu, Sun Tzu and Confucius remind us to do. And I'd learned from my dad early on that disagreement is nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, there's a strong Chinese view nowadays that critical thinking and dissidence create problems, so everyone should just keep quiet and maintain harmony.

Comment: Here, Grace Wang puts herself into a high point that supersedes the debate between the two sides. Based upon the previous supposition, most Chinese people (as well as Wang) did not understand Tibet. Through her personal experience, Grace Wang has now understood Tibet. She is one of the few people who understand the truth, and therefore she is alert and aware. Together with her rationality, she can stand out and act as the mediator. The reader is bound to stand erect out of respect, and understand in a preliminary fashion just how Wang turned out to be a different kind of Chinese person.

Wang also provided a certain portrait of Chinese society and culture; the people are irrational and intolerant about dissident opinions, thus satisfying pre-existing negative western imaginations. Of course, Wang does not belong to that group of people because she is one of the rare few who are aware and conscious.

Wang also rendered another opinion. She said that Chinese here are scientists and engineers who are not confident of their English skills. Thus, she expressed that her English skills are better and therefore she can play the role of mediator. Thus we see that she repeatedly demeaned others while elevating herself. This sense of superiority should be clear. Without doubt, this is going to infuriate many people.

A lot has been made of the fact that I wrote the words "Free Tibet" on the back of the American organizer of the protest, who was someone I knew. But I did this at his request, and only after making him promise that he would talk to the Chinese group. I never dreamed how the Chinese would seize on this innocent action. The leaders of the two groups did at one point try to communicate, but the attempt wasn't very successful.

Comment: This is obviously a serious matter. First, since she stated that she understands the proclivities and characteristics of the Chinese youth, then why couldn't she dream what the Chinese would feel about her actions? This is completely not credible. Secondly, was the request from the American protestor reasonable? Was this an offensive provocation? We believed that Wang wanted to be a "neutral mediator." The American protestor recognized her role plus the fact that she was Chinese and yet he made that request. I though that this was a malicious act of provocation.

Let us switch positions. The Chinese and the Tibetans are having a dialogue. A Tibetan comes over to say that he wants to mediate. The pro-China supporters tell him: "You write a slogan 'One China' first or else we won't talk to you." What would this Tibetan and the other pro-Tibet demonstrators think? Would they interpret this as an act of provocation? If this Tibetan person agreed, would there be repercussions among the other pro-Tibet demonstrators?

Thirdly, why would Grace Wang agree to this irrational and offensive request? Does this show a certain leaning? This is about an issue of principles. For the pro-China demonstrators, the act of Grace Wang meant that she had lost the legitimacy as 'mediator.' I think that their response was normal.

Actually, all this is commonsense. If Grace Wang is such a smart Chinese person, how could she "never dreamed" of this? There is just one answer -- she is trying to gloss over this. Not only is she just glossing over this, but she is being evasive.

The Chinese protesters thought that, being Chinese, I should be on their side. The participants on the Tibet side were mostly Americans, who really don't have a good understanding of how complex the situation is. Truthfully, both sides were being quite closed-minded and refusing to consider the other's perspective. I thought I could help try to turn a shouting match into an exchange of ideas. So I stood in the middle and urged both sides to come together in peace and mutual respect. I believe that they have a lot in common and many more similarities than differences.

But the Chinese protesters -- who were much more numerous, maybe 100 or more -- got increasingly emotional and vocal and wouldn't let the other side speak. They pushed the small Tibetan group of just a dozen or so up against the Duke Chapel doors, yelling "Liars, liars, liars!" This upset me. It was so aggressive, and all Chinese know the moral injunction: Junzi dongkou, bu dongshou (The wise person uses his tongue, not his fists).

Comment: It is up to those who witnessed this incident to judge how accurate her description was. Her sentiments were obviously on the side of the demonstrators who supported Tibet independence, because they were the "weak." In truth, in many western nations (including the United States), the number of pro-Tibet demonstrators exceeded the pro-China demonstrators to the point of one-sided superiority. During the demonstrations (such as the Olympic torch relay), there were violent incidents. Did she show any sympathy? That is hard to say. But should she have elaborated when she described this particular incident?

I was scared. But I believed that I had to try to promote mutual understanding. I went back and forth between the two groups, mostly talking to the Chinese in our language. I kept urging everyone to calm down, but it only seemed to make them angrier. Some young men in the Chinese group -- those we call fen qing (angry youth) -- started yelling and cursing at me.

What a lot of people don't know is that there were many on the Chinese side who supported me and were saying, "Let her talk." But they were drowned out by the loud minority who had really lost their cool.

Comment: This is a continuation of the denigration of the pro-China demosntrators. The use of "fenqing" expresses a certain sense of superiority and loftiness. The angry youth are blind and irrational. "They" are "fenqing" and "I" am obviously not. Therefore, I am rational and calm. Obviously, there is not a single word about how many "angry youth" were among the Americans who support Tibet independence. We are also not able to read what they said and did in this essay.

Some people on the Chinese side started to insult me for speaking English and told me to speak Chinese only. But the Americans didn't understand Chinese. It's strange to me that some Chinese seem to feel as though not speaking English is expressing a kind of national pride. But language is a tool, a way of thinking and communicating.

Comment: I believe that this is a secondary issue. First, in a situation in which there are no foreigners (such as there being no Americans listening to their conversation), she should obviously use Chinese. I don't know if this was the case. Secondly, as a Chinese group, if a so-called mediator suddenly emerged within their own camp, they should communicate with her using their own methods in order to figure out her position and background. It is normal to use Chinese. Anyway, I feel that this is quite natural. Yet her characterization of others are partial. To say that not speaking Chinese cannot express national pride is simplifying the matter down to nationalism and let the readers fell that this group of people are narrow-minded.

At the height of the protest, a group of Chinese men surrounded me, pointed at me and, referring to the young woman who led the 1989 student democracy protests in Tiananmen Square, said, "Remember Chai Ling? All Chinese want to burn her in oil, and you look like her." They said that I had mental problems and that I would go to hell. They asked me where I was from and what school I had attended. I told them. I had nothing to hide. But then it started to feel as though an angry mob was about to attack me. Finally, I left the protest with a police escort.

Comment: Same as before, so I won't say anything more.

Back in my dorm room, I logged onto the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association (DCSSA) Web site and listserv to see what people were saying. Qian Fangzhou, an officer of DCSSA, was gloating, "We really showed them our colors!"

Comment; I think that this forum is either internal or else it is a Chinese-language forum for the Chinese people to distribute information among subscribers. To a large extent, this determines the style and content. Does the publication of the information as well as the name of the author require the people's consent. I suspect not. Is this respectful of others? Does this respect the right of others? At the same time, Grace Wang's quotations also deprive others of speech rights. What does it mean to "show colors"? Does that mean some Chinese are coming out to demonstrate? Or are they going to beat people up? This is totally unclear. In conjunction with the preceding and following text, this reader is left to think that the Chinese have assaulted some people and then posted an internal message to celebrate. Qian Fangzhou could be one of the participants.

I posted a letter in response, explaining that I don't support Tibetan independence, as some accused me of, but that I do support Tibetan freedom, as well as Chinese freedom. All people should be free and have their basic rights protected, just as the Chinese constitution says. I hoped that the letter would spark some substantive discussion. But people just criticized and ridiculed me more.

Comment: Grace Wang's actions before and afterwards caused her to lose credibility among the student body. To put it another way, some people have made up their minds about her. In this essay of hers, she has other intentions, such as continuing to use words such as "freedom" to excite the western readers in order to gain identification, sympathy and support. This narrative also creates this other impression: the other Chinese students are disinterested in freedom and they are more supportive of totalitarianism. This clearly matches certain prejudices among western readers.

The next morning, a storm was raging online. Photographs of me had been posted on the Internet with the words "Traitor to her country!" printed across my forehead. Then I saw something really alarming: Both my parents' citizen ID numbers had been posted. I was shocked, because this information could only have come from the Chinese police.

Comment: This accusation is more serious, because Grace Wang has dragged the Chinese government in: The Chinese government is the "black hand behind the curtain."

I saw detailed directions to my parents' home in China, accompanied by calls for people to go there and teach "this shameless dog" a lesson. It was then that I realized how serious this had become. My phone rang with callers making threats against my life. It was ironic: What I had tried so hard to prevent was precisely what had come to pass. And I was the target.

I talked to my mom the next morning, and she said that she and my dad were going into hiding because they were getting death threats, too. She told me that I shouldn't call them. Since then, short e-mail messages have been our only communication. The other day, I saw photos of our apartment online; a bucket of feces had been emptied on the doorstep. More recently I've heard that the windows have been smashed and obscene posters have been hung on the door. Also, I've been told that after convening an assembly to condemn me, my high school revoked my diploma and has reinforced patriotic education.

Comment: I thought that these threats about deaths and personal security as well as the feces incident were wrong. They violate Chinese law. Unfortunately, the rational patriotism of the Chinese people has never received positive coverage. It is regrettable that such incidents occur and they become the talk of the western media. Grace Wang obviously provided invaluable raw material.

Finally, her high school revoking her diploma and reinforcing patriotic education also satisfied the western imagination: "The patriotism of the Chinese youth is the result of the brainwashing propaganda of the totalitarian government." Was this example the one that the western media tried so hard to capture?

I understand why people are so emotional and angry; the events in Tibet have been tragic. But this crucifying of me is unacceptable. I believe that individual Chinese know this. It's when they fire each other up and act like a mob that things get so dangerous.

Comment: Here Grace Wang is obviously one of the very few Chinese people who "are independent thinkers" who grasp the truth.

In her narrative, her biases are shocking because there is not a hint about the full picture. For example, the Tibet incident was an unfortunate thing; the clash between China and the west was an unfortunate thing. On these issues, she made no attempt to look for anything problematic on the part of the West and then look for a fair assessment. Instead, she concentrated on a one-sided criticism of China.

On one hand, she chose certain things; on the other side, she did not choose other things. What do these choices say about her leanings?

Now, Duke is providing me with police protection, and the attacks in Chinese cyberspace continue. But contrary to my detractors' expectations, I haven't shriveled up and slunk away. Instead, I've responded by publicizing this shameful incident, both to protect my parents and to get people to reflect on their behavior. I'm no longer afraid, and I'm determined to exercise my right to free speech.

Comment: The keywords reappear: Freedom of speech. This will no doubt invoke resonance among the readers. The reader thinks: No matter what, you are no longer in totalitarian China; here in free America, you have genuine freedom of speech and you can say what you want.

Because language is the bridge to understanding.

Comment: Language, communication, exchange. These are her selling points as well as the main themes of her essay. In front of a group of unreasonable, barbaric and irrational people, these qualities are clearly outstanding.

Conclusions:

The essay of Grace Wang was shocking, either in its biases or structure.

The biases:

(1) The essay did not cite any Chinese views about the Tibet problem whatsoever. It made not positive reference to anything about how China handled Tibet either in history or practical terms.

(2) The essay made no reference to the clash between China and the West over this issue. It made no reference or criticism to the prejudices and responsibilities of the west. It made no positive reference about China.

(3) The essay made no reference about anything that China has done to develop Tibet, and certainly nothing positive.

(4) The essay made no positive reference about the overseas patriotic movement. It made no positive reference to the patriots. Instead, the characterization is about their obstinacy, bigotry, irrationality, barbarity and violence. The pro-China activities of the Chinese students at Duke University were judged negatively.

The one-sidedness of the presentation was stunning. This goes even far beyond the deeply prejudiced reports from the western media.

Then there is the clever weaving of the logic and structure of the essay. We know that the communication of information requires the establishment of a powerful polarity in order to create an impact on the reader. Let us look at the portrait that Grace Wang created.

(1) Tibet versus "China"

Tibet: Romantic, idyllic, mysterious, free, warm, full of spiritual values, satisfying

China: vulgar, materialistic, value-free, naked capitalism, money-grubbing, totalitarian, suppression of freedom of speech, monolithic, singular, boring, brain-washing education, no personal freedom

(2) Tibetans versus "Chinese"

Tibetans: Endearing, friendly, warm, pursuit of spiritual values, content, peaceful, tolerant

Chinese: vulgar, materialistic, ignorant and barbaric towards Tibet

(3) Pro-Tibet demonstrators versus pro-China demonstrators

Pro-Tibet demonstrators: Willing to engage in dialogue, weak, helpless, outnumbered, victims of physical violence; no other bad qualities

Pro-China demonstrators: Reared up in materialism, atheists instilled with patriotism and ignorant about Tibet; irrational, barbaric, violent, intolerant about dissident opinion, representative of totalitarian culture, impossible to hold dialogue with

Is the portray of Grace Wang genuinely responsible and objectively/rationally complete? Or is she biased?

The narrative of Grace Wang fits the imagination of the western media. The emergence of Grace Wang is a godsend at the moment of greatest need by the western media. She provided them with the perfect first-hand raw material that meets the various imaginations that they hold about China. This also offers the interpretation that they longed for about Chinese nationalism as brain-washing propaganda.

As for Grace Wang herself, she obviously relieved her anger through her moment of fame in the western media.

If anyone was unclear about her position before all this, then I felt that this essay is a clear statement.

No matter how you look at it (whether from the motives or results), this essay by Grace Wang was a mistake. Objectively from the viewpoint of results, her essay has enhanced the pre-existing prejudices among the western media. This essay does nothing for mediation and understanding. It was just another one-sided demonization of China; it only diminishes the minimal speech space of China within the western media. In the end, it only increases misunderstanding, alienation and conflict about China.

From this angle I can only say that Grace Wang was hypocritical and opportunistic.

As far as the people are concerned, Grace Wang is unlikely ever to rid herself of the "Chinese traitor" label.

Of course, the western media will forget her quickly. But the Chinese people will remember.

Walking in a garden, waking from a dream

I feel, in the course of ascertaining the future of China, that my personal intellectual foundation has recently been solidified. Mid 2007 to now, what an unremarkable year in day to day life, my gamble to stay has paid off. Intuition proven correct. Given time, it could be crystallized, but for now real life awaits...

Sinking, Choking

My question is, do these type of people know what they are doing? Do they even care about the legitimate grievances of the Chinese people have against the bias and violence brought on by the western press? Their idea of being "fair" is to automatically assume their own people are "wrong." Such people can only appreciate their own self-righteousness and vanity.

This NPR piece not only does it reinforce the dominant narrative that any Chinese people who support China is "not informed." But it uses one of their own to divide and conquer, effectively dismissing mainstream overseas Chinese indignation over the bias of the western press by painting it as a disorganized (i.e. "divided") "mob mentality".

Western paternalism - another emerging willfully ignorant narrative is that nationalistic sentiments immediately makes the whole of China as "immature," an attitude that seeks to silence the voice of Chinese protest against the violence wrought against Chinese Olympic Torch carriers. This is their sense of superiority over "non-democratic" China.

Frankly, this paternalism is reflective of a sense of self-delusion. An impression that comes from the error of perceiving Chinese sentiments as appeals to western sensibilities when, in fact, they are revolting against the very same western narcissism.

As an overseas Chinese, I am disgusted by this western paternalistic fantasy that ranges from portraying Han Chinese as non-humans (as oppose to the happy, child like Tibetans who targeted and killed Han and Chinese Muslims alike), to painting overseas Chinese who shows solidarity with China and the Olympics as brainwashed nationalists or even communist agents.

The thing that must be done is to deconstruct these rhetoric, to claim one's own narrative in history. It is naive to leave people's voices to the western press, to leave it to those who have no stakes in the livelihood of Chinese people.

Eileen Chang documentaries 香港筆 張愛玲

Series about Zhang Ailing in Hong Kong:









Haha, yet another person who intermixes mandarin and Cantonese. I know a lot of people his age who does the same, with the same degree of inextricability from this mode of code switching.

This one in mandarin:

Music from Les Parapluies de Cherbourg

"J'avais tellement peur de ne pas te trouver
je suis serieuse de avec toi
maintenant je rire parce-que je me raconte
combien je suis bete comme je suis toute seule
j'ai parle avec maman de notre marriage
elle m'a evidenemnt traite de folle
elle puis ce soir elle m'a interdit de te voir
tu comprends, j'ai eu si peur

J'aime mieux partir de oportune ne plus revoir maman
que tu de port
nous nous mariront en cachette

oh tu sais maintenant s'en ne plus de importance
nous avons meme de notre temps
ce matin j'ai recu ce des feuilles et le route
et je dois partir pour deux ans

alors le marriage on de parlera plus tard
avec ce qui se passe a Algerie a ce moment
je ne reviendra pas d'ici longtemps

Mais je ne pourrai jamais vivre sans toi
Je ne pourrai pas, ne pars pas, j'en mourrai
Je te cacherai et je te garderai
mai mon amour ne me quittez pas

Tu sais bien que c'est ne pas possible
(je ne te quitterai pas)
mon amour il faudra pourtant que je partes
tu sonra que moi je n'en pensai que toi
mais je sais que toi tu m'e attendra

deux ans deux ans de notre vie
ne pleurre pas je t'en supplis
deux ans non je ne pourrais pas
calme toi et nous reste si peux de temps
ce peux de temps mon amour qu il ne faut ne pas gacher
il faut que essayer notre feuille
il faut que nous gardions de nous dernier moment
un souvenir en peut de tous
un souvenir qui nous rappelera dans la vie

j'ai tellement peur comme je suis seule
ne nous retrouveront en nous se ronde plus forte
tu connaitrera d'autre femme et m'oubliras
je t'aimerais jusque a le fin de ma vie

Guy je t'aime, ne me quittez pas

Mon amour.... ne me laissez pas

Viens, viens, mon amour, mon amour"

Post-Cyberpunk

The SF Site Featured Review: Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology

"we might say that 'post-cyberpunk' bears pretty much the same relationship to 'cyberpunk' that 'postmodernism' bears to 'modernism.' That is, although certain themes and ideas might be traced from one to the other, it would be wrong to see one as the starting point for the other, and indeed just as there are precursors of postmodernism that predate modernism, so there are precursors of post-cyberpunk that predate cyberpunk."

The Biggest, Most Violent Riot in Recorded History

James K. Galbraith laying the smackdown on Milton Friedman, 18 years ago.

31:23

The Eternal Snow Beauty

Thought more about the Eternal Snow Beauty (永远的尹雪艳) - the decadence, the morbid glamor of money and power, the utter lack of concern of the elite for the fate of the nation - and the disgust with the characters when comparing their frivolous lives to the idealism and heroism of the same period.

Bored, eating ramen

Have physics test on Thursday, need to study for 10 hours in order to get an above average t-score. Any ramen could taste good with spicy seasoning. DVD encoding, decoding, and re-encoding is so slow. Thesis presentation on Sunday.

apt. hunting checklist:
1.Location

a.Distance to work

b.Distance to amenities

c.Traffic

d.Ease of access

2.Apartment amenities

a.Pool

b.Weight room

c.Tennis court

3.Laundry

4.Utility bills

5.Apartment position

a.Direction

b.Floor level

c.How far from the gate

d.Edge of the complex

6.Security

a.Card

b.Code

c.Clicker

7.Noise

a.Insulation

8.Layout

a.Floor layout

b.Ceiling height

c.Gas vs. electric

9.Price

10.Maintenance service

11.Parking

12.Year built

A City of Sadness 悲情城市

Now I understand better the grievances involved.

Factors of Contemporary Nationalism

The Enemy of My Enemy

Yes.

Cure for germanophilia

I'm quite disappointed with the gullibility of German popular opinion. Especially when I held their intellectual life/standard in such high regards. Well, no longer.

edit 5/26/2009: Goethe's dictum lives, we have it better over here in America.

Encounters With A German

I said: "On the contrary, our media would never smear any other country in this manner. Do you know why so many Chinese students are willing to come to study in Germany? That is because ... " (I wanted to say that we liked Germany because the Germany that we saw on Chinese television is beautiful and developed, and that is why we want to come here to learn.)

But she interrupted me with an arrogant look in her eyes: "Because our education level is well-developed and our tuition fees are cheap. It is very simple."

I was offended by this rude interruption, but I continued to finish what I wanted to say. Then I added: "But once we arrive here, we found out that the German media never reports any good news from China. To a certain extent, we overseas students are disappointed in Germany."

She said: "We did not only say that China is bad. We also said that China is good."

I said: "Good. Let me ask you, what good things are there in China?"

She thought about it and said, "The Chinese economy is developing."

I said: "You don't need the German media to tell you that because the whole world knows that. So what good things have you heard about our government?"

She thought about it and could not come up with anything. But she immediately came up a victorious look and said to me: "Can you tell me what good policies the Mexican government has?"

I said: "I don't know."

She was delighted. She said: "You see, you don't know either."

I said: "I don't know because I don't care. I don't know if they have done something good, but I don't know if they have done anything bad either. But when it comes to a country that I care about (such as Germany), I would know their good as well as bad points. We learn about something from both sides. This is something that we were taught since middle school."

The Art of Being Found Out

"They were both about matters which concerned Lady Gregory most, about what she could not somehow keep to herself, what she wanted known and not known, and at once concealed with care and dimly disclosed: women who deceived their husbands and were discovered. The affair belonged to her nightmares, but it also belonged to a dark area in her psyche where she was ready to put herself in danger to have it known who she really was, and what had once made her happy both beyond telling and only too ready to tell."

Speaking of people whose motives are most tangled and whose psyche is most damaged...

中国式离婚 Chinese Style Divorce

I am through episode 9 and I have to say the quality of the series is good. There are some jarring details (such as the scene in the school open house where only the people clapping where the main actress speaking, or the music on cue) due to low production values that bother me, but they are not detrimental to the main story. The minimalistic opening theme music with the 二胡 （erhu) is appropriately bleak and soul searching.


Update: after episode 9 the quality drops off considerably...

The Myth of Republican Shanghai

There has been a trend to revive Shanghai along the lines of its 1930s Republican splendor. Party functionaries, economic planners, and Taiwanese businessmen (many scions of pre-revolutionary Shanghai industrialists) support the revisiting of the past either out of the imperative of development, nostalgia, or lack of better ideas.

This plan is desirable for many reasons. It rebuilds a wellspring of early 20th century Chinese polity and memory. Even as it attracts wealthy overseas Chinese back with the rebuilding of the days of their parents' innocence, it also builds a centrally located industrial and financial center to counter balance regional development inequalities (Beijing in the north, Chongqing in the west, and Hong Kong in the south. Although this obsessive focus on Shanghai has had the opposite effect of exacerbating regionalism.)

Apparently, this revival of Republicanism came at a fortuitous time when the Qing dynasty was mined out of its cultural capital. Soap operas now bubble with Republican era war dramas and old KMT costumes. This fantasy is convenient for everyone. Contemporary China is too boring a copycat of western society to make good TV dramas, not to mention government censorship makes any meaningful commentary bothersome. It is one thing to win film awards in Venice, quite another to make it at home.

Which bring me to my observation that such a reappearance of Shanghai as a colonial city of the past is really lacking in foresight and imagination. Part of this thinking has fostered the delusion that traditionalism associated with the period, the co-oping of Confucianism by the KMT, should also be used as a model for guiding China. Corruption, decadence, national weakness, such are the things the revival of Republican era wants to paint as a mini-golden age of Chinese history. Pardon me if I find this farce unimpressive.