The fifth season of The Wire!
The opening theme song is "Way Down in the Hole"
Season 3 intro is not bad either:
Season 4 intro is perhaps the closest in spirit to the show, as it shows the next generation seeking salvation in such an overwhelmingly pessimistic city:
Thursday, February 07, 2008
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Generation of Giants
The earliest batch of missionaries in China are apparently in a league of their own.
This makes me think of all the people I know who speak and write better Chinese than I do even though they were born non-Chinese.
This makes me think of all the people I know who speak and write better Chinese than I do even though they were born non-Chinese.
河殇 River Elegy
河者,黄河也, 母亲河也; 殇者,夭折也
《黄河船夫曲》:
"你晓得，天下黄河几十几道湾哎? 几十几道湾上,几十几只船哎? 几十几只船上,几十几根竿哎? 几十几个那艄公嗬呦来把船来扳?"
《黄河船夫曲》:
"你晓得，天下黄河几十几道湾哎? 几十几道湾上,几十几只船哎? 几十几只船上,几十几根竿哎? 几十几个那艄公嗬呦来把船来扳?"
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
A 20th century capital that could have been
After reading Eric Hobsbawm's article on Weimar Germany, I have come to a better understanding of cultural and intellectual capital (capital as defined in accumulated goods, stock).
First, it spoke of a subject that is the source of some chagrin, the fact that I would have gotten more out intellectually in learning German than French. The article affirmed for myself that my instincts were correct - German had more intellectual capital in the course of the early 20th century. Foucault, Sartre were just leaves in the wind when you consider the people who came before them:
And on culture, what does Paris has to offer really aside from this populist belief in a foreign and romantic location where the business at the end of the day is to consume our imaginative trysts:
Having visited Paris personally, I can speak with some measure of agreement that a visit to the city would not change anything drastically say, your notion of destiny, or gaining a new sense of purpose.
I digress to compare German to French, Berlin to Paris not because they are apples to apples or oranges to oranges, but because it is personally resonating. The article itself captures a moment in time when intellectual and cultural capital are at their zenith in a place that has vanished.
First, it spoke of a subject that is the source of some chagrin, the fact that I would have gotten more out intellectually in learning German than French. The article affirmed for myself that my instincts were correct - German had more intellectual capital in the course of the early 20th century. Foucault, Sartre were just leaves in the wind when you consider the people who came before them:
For the basic achievements of the Weimar Republic and the reasons non-Germans take an interest in it are not political but intellectual and cultural. The word today suggests the Bauhaus, George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Walter Benjamin, the great photographer August Sander and a number of remarkable movies. Weitz picks out six names: Thomas Mann, Brecht, Kurt Weill, Heidegger and the less familiar theorist Siegfried Kracauer and the artist Hannah Höch. One could as easily add, say, Carl Schmitt on the (rare) intellectual right, Ernst Bloch on the far left and the great Max Weber in the middle.
And on culture, what does Paris has to offer really aside from this populist belief in a foreign and romantic location where the business at the end of the day is to consume our imaginative trysts:
The prestige of Paris, ‘capital of the 19th century’, obscured the fact that it no longer had major innovations to offer between the wars except for Surrealism, itself largely derived from the multinational Dada of the Zurich Central European refugees.
Having visited Paris personally, I can speak with some measure of agreement that a visit to the city would not change anything drastically say, your notion of destiny, or gaining a new sense of purpose.
I digress to compare German to French, Berlin to Paris not because they are apples to apples or oranges to oranges, but because it is personally resonating. The article itself captures a moment in time when intellectual and cultural capital are at their zenith in a place that has vanished.
Sunday, January 27, 2008
One Night in Beijing
I like the 京剧 parts of this song
the original:
sang by Shin:
sang by Xiao Jingteng (extremely impressed by his ability to sing both parts, he sings the best rendition in my opinion):
the original:
sang by Shin:
sang by Xiao Jingteng (extremely impressed by his ability to sing both parts, he sings the best rendition in my opinion):
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The NY Times is behind the times on China by 6 months
On the traffic reduction strategy of Beijing to clean up the air before the Olympics, take a look at these two newspapers
this - by NY Times in January 2008 versus this - by the Guardian in August 2007
Just another in a string of lazy and inane reporting by the New York Times.
this - by NY Times in January 2008 versus this - by the Guardian in August 2007
Just another in a string of lazy and inane reporting by the New York Times.
LRB reviews Lust, Caution
A review of the movie 色，戒.
I think a lot of viewers miss the point of the movie, and think this is suppose to be a spy thriller:
Lust, Caution is billed as a film about sex and espionage, lots of both, and occasionally it looks like such a work. All its interesting moments, however, are about something else: style, masquerade, glances, silences.
on screen dimensionality:
Each character in the movie has a movie running in his or her head, and when a young woman called Wong Chia-chi (played by Tang Wei), about to become a temptress setting up a collaborationist Chinese official for assassination, sits in a cinema and weeps copious tears, we know she will never be able to cry in this way outside the movie house. She is watching Ingrid Bergman, in Intermezzo, I think, and no one in her film – either in Lust, Caution or in the fiction she is acting out in the story – will ever declare his love, or say anything, as directly as Leslie Howard does in that Western melodrama.
the cinematography:
...the tender reconstruction of old Shanghai, the wartime mood, the sheer beauty of so many of the frames – makes the political thriller seem implausible, or even irrelevant, it also points us towards the work’s deepest concerns, already more than hinted at in the story (‘She had, in a past life, been an actress; and here she was, still playing a part, but in a drama too secret to make her famous’; ‘Her stage fright always evaporated once the curtain was up’).
I think a lot of viewers miss the point of the movie, and think this is suppose to be a spy thriller:
Lust, Caution is billed as a film about sex and espionage, lots of both, and occasionally it looks like such a work. All its interesting moments, however, are about something else: style, masquerade, glances, silences.
on screen dimensionality:
Each character in the movie has a movie running in his or her head, and when a young woman called Wong Chia-chi (played by Tang Wei), about to become a temptress setting up a collaborationist Chinese official for assassination, sits in a cinema and weeps copious tears, we know she will never be able to cry in this way outside the movie house. She is watching Ingrid Bergman, in Intermezzo, I think, and no one in her film – either in Lust, Caution or in the fiction she is acting out in the story – will ever declare his love, or say anything, as directly as Leslie Howard does in that Western melodrama.
the cinematography:
...the tender reconstruction of old Shanghai, the wartime mood, the sheer beauty of so many of the frames – makes the political thriller seem implausible, or even irrelevant, it also points us towards the work’s deepest concerns, already more than hinted at in the story (‘She had, in a past life, been an actress; and here she was, still playing a part, but in a drama too secret to make her famous’; ‘Her stage fright always evaporated once the curtain was up’).
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Another HBO Show
Addicted to The Wire.
Went through seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 is better.
This had me thinking when will A Song of Ice and Fire debut on HBO. I hope they won't gut it, or worse, show us the ending before the books are all published. In all likelihood I think that is probably the greatest harm it can do to the book series.
Went through seasons 1 and 2. Season 1 is better.
This had me thinking when will A Song of Ice and Fire debut on HBO. I hope they won't gut it, or worse, show us the ending before the books are all published. In all likelihood I think that is probably the greatest harm it can do to the book series.
Monday, January 14, 2008
The English Speaking World and China
The Pew Research Center on How the World Sees China noted an interesting fact:
(Interestingly, for reasons not apparent from these data, the English-speaking countries covered by the survey -- Great Britain, Canada, and even to a lesser extent the United States -- have decidedly more favorable overall views of China than do non-English-speaking Western nations.)
Study link here
Hmm....Inter-anglo regional rivalry? Better cultural exchanges between the English speaking world and China? Commerce (U.S. has been the main beneficiary of free trade, although some would think otherwise)?
I think it is the high level of academic and cultural exchanges because nowhere else can you find better analysis of China than in the English speaking world. Examples are here, here, here, here, and here. To name a few.
People back in China always wondered why study about China in the United States. It is because the studies are more rigorous.
(Interestingly, for reasons not apparent from these data, the English-speaking countries covered by the survey -- Great Britain, Canada, and even to a lesser extent the United States -- have decidedly more favorable overall views of China than do non-English-speaking Western nations.)
Study link here
Hmm....Inter-anglo regional rivalry? Better cultural exchanges between the English speaking world and China? Commerce (U.S. has been the main beneficiary of free trade, although some would think otherwise)?
I think it is the high level of academic and cultural exchanges because nowhere else can you find better analysis of China than in the English speaking world. Examples are here, here, here, here, and here. To name a few.
People back in China always wondered why study about China in the United States. It is because the studies are more rigorous.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Lost in Beijing
For the first half of the movie I couldn't decide whether it was a comedy or a tragedy. Especially the scene with Elaine Jin and Tong Dawei, those pairs of shades are just hilarious.
They really miscast Tony Leung Ka Fai for his role. Maybe because I associate him more with his role in Election, but the only way I saw he could be hurt is going fishing with Simon Yam. And here his "everything is OK la" personality just reinforce the invulnerability that ties to his years of wuxia and triad movie making. Invulnerable personality = bad for tragedy dramas.
Saw the uncut version of the film. And I have to say that unlike Tang Wei, Fan Bingbing got let down by a bad script. Not to say Fan Bingbing doesn't look pretty, but I liked Zeng Meihuizi (her name sounds so Japanese, wouldn't be surprised if she is). Her role wasn't big, but it was more believable.
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
Zhanjiang on the margins
Massive traffic accident that occurred on the Yuzhan Expressway in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province
Well, that is my hometown in the news, however bad it may sound, any news is better than no news. I miss Zhanjiang, hope it is doing better now that they executed all those corrupt officials.
Some background: Zhanjiang is the southernmost deep water port in China, situated on the Leizhou peninsula of Guangdong, across Hainan island. Its location is a resource not unlike that of port cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. There is a French village in Zhanjiang, although I have not the occasion to visit it. Obviously, this came from French occupation of Zhanjiang in the latter part of the 19th century when late imperial China was loosing all sorts of wars and giving concessions away.
From here all the natural resources in the South China Sea are within reach. Having blessed with such ideal location, Zhanjiang has the potential to become another trade center like Hong Kong. However this dream has been difficult to materialized due to practical considerations and other reasons.
Presently, Zhanjiang is the headquarters of the South Sea Fleet. From here China commands large portions of the South China Sea. The strategic location of Zhanjiang meant that economic development takes second priority to security.
Zhanjiang is also headquaters to CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation), who facing increasing competitive pressure from domestic and international companies after the company failed to acquire Unocal. I can only imagine what a blow the failed bid is to Zhanjiang's development. But that is not the reason by a large on Zhanjiang's slow economic development.
Organized corruption: any Chinese living on the Mainland today would take it as a matter of fact. In the case of Zhanjiang, the mayor, party chief, custom officials, and 200 other government officials, including elements of the navy were prosecuted and indicted in collusion and smuggling. 6 were later executed in 2000. Their corruption strangled the economic development of the city for years.
Failure to exploit its geographic potential while let slip the discipline of the navy in this strategic location is such a waste. If the city is mine for 10 years, I will turn it into another Guangzhou. Let me govern it for 20 years, I'll transform it into Shenzhen, another 10 (30 total) and I'll transform it into Taipei, add another 10, Hong Kong. Hell, since the navy is there already I throw in something extra and make a Singapore out of it after 50 years.
Well, that is my hometown in the news, however bad it may sound, any news is better than no news. I miss Zhanjiang, hope it is doing better now that they executed all those corrupt officials.
Some background: Zhanjiang is the southernmost deep water port in China, situated on the Leizhou peninsula of Guangdong, across Hainan island. Its location is a resource not unlike that of port cities such as Hong Kong and Singapore. There is a French village in Zhanjiang, although I have not the occasion to visit it. Obviously, this came from French occupation of Zhanjiang in the latter part of the 19th century when late imperial China was loosing all sorts of wars and giving concessions away.
From here all the natural resources in the South China Sea are within reach. Having blessed with such ideal location, Zhanjiang has the potential to become another trade center like Hong Kong. However this dream has been difficult to materialized due to practical considerations and other reasons.
Presently, Zhanjiang is the headquarters of the South Sea Fleet. From here China commands large portions of the South China Sea. The strategic location of Zhanjiang meant that economic development takes second priority to security.
Zhanjiang is also headquaters to CNOOC (China National Offshore Oil Corporation), who facing increasing competitive pressure from domestic and international companies after the company failed to acquire Unocal. I can only imagine what a blow the failed bid is to Zhanjiang's development. But that is not the reason by a large on Zhanjiang's slow economic development.
Organized corruption: any Chinese living on the Mainland today would take it as a matter of fact. In the case of Zhanjiang, the mayor, party chief, custom officials, and 200 other government officials, including elements of the navy were prosecuted and indicted in collusion and smuggling. 6 were later executed in 2000. Their corruption strangled the economic development of the city for years.
Failure to exploit its geographic potential while let slip the discipline of the navy in this strategic location is such a waste. If the city is mine for 10 years, I will turn it into another Guangzhou. Let me govern it for 20 years, I'll transform it into Shenzhen, another 10 (30 total) and I'll transform it into Taipei, add another 10, Hong Kong. Hell, since the navy is there already I throw in something extra and make a Singapore out of it after 50 years.
Sunday, January 06, 2008
Thursday, January 03, 2008
俺 We
Beijing Opera dialog from 投名状 (The Warlords), scene of the sworn brotherhood of the three protagonists:
赵:俺,赵二虎...
庞:庞青云...
姜:姜午阳
众:弟兄三人
姜:欧血为盟, 神灵鉴, 义字当天对地天, 不求同生求同死
众:祸福共当, 肝胆悬
Zhao: We, Zhao Erhu...
Pang: Pang Qingyun...
Jiang: Jiang Wuyang
All: Brothers of three
Jiang:Sealing pact with blood, let the gods bear witness, the human ties formed today before heaven and earth, we ask not to be alive together but ask to die together
All: Misfortunes and fortunes endure by all, with spirits stern
赵:俺,赵二虎...
庞:庞青云...
姜:姜午阳
众:弟兄三人
姜:欧血为盟, 神灵鉴, 义字当天对地天, 不求同生求同死
众:祸福共当, 肝胆悬
Zhao: We, Zhao Erhu...
Pang: Pang Qingyun...
Jiang: Jiang Wuyang
All: Brothers of three
Jiang:Sealing pact with blood, let the gods bear witness, the human ties formed today before heaven and earth, we ask not to be alive together but ask to die together
All: Misfortunes and fortunes endure by all, with spirits stern
Thursday, December 27, 2007
投名状 The Warlords
Of all the stories about the crucible of China's 19th century tumult, this one manages to convey well the decadence, corruption, machination of politics, heroism, and the tragedy of power.
Particularly clever is the artistic license the movie used to portray the three heroes of this period: Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, and Li Hongzhang. They are given different silhouettes and there are three old men in the movie who come across as corrupt bureaucrats. This pays homage to the theory that Zeng Guofan masterminded the assassination of Ma Xinyi in 刺马案, one of the four unsolved cases in the late Qing period.
What impress me the most is the incorporation of Beijing Opera in the movie. I like the nuanced expressions on the opera troupe's faces and how their intensity is transferred to the main actors. Makes me wish I studied about film and how to direct them.
And best friends shouldn't fight over a woman, because whoever wins everybody looses....Unless the woman in question is Xu Jinglei, in which case everything is fair game.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Google Notebook - Good but Not Perfect
I have been using it for quite a while now, and I have to say it is really good. The option that I really wish it has is to save pictures directly to Picasa so even if the source website does down, the notebook will still show the original pictures.
One effect of the notebook is that it cut down the number of my blog posts. But that can be both good and bad.
One effect of the notebook is that it cut down the number of my blog posts. But that can be both good and bad.
Course of a Christmas Dinner Conversation
Invited to the annual Christmas dinner at parents' friend's house. Every year, the conversations are somewhat embarrassing if not just out right hilarious. It made my day that I discovered that people of my parents generation have a good sense of humor when it comes to arranged marriages.
So the story went - a person (and if you think this is about to take a ethnocentric turn, you are not wrong. For how could it not? When you gather a bunch of people who were as weather beaten as those of the Cultural Revolution generation, and put them around a family dinner table in America, the subject inevitably turns to how good their descendants in America has it going), he went through three years of college in UoH, did not graduate, and went back to China to find himself a bride. There he listed four conditions in his er... request, I guess.
Bride candidates must be:
1) Not from a big city
2) Not from a cadre family (so no princesslings)
3) Not from a rich family
4) Not from an intelligentsia family
So he found a bride who came from a small and humble village in the Northeast and he and his children lived happily ever after.
This is all told by a person having married a well educated women from a big city. The conditions are a bit medieval, people around the table said, but then everyone went on to praise the person for his pragmatism and insight.
Merry Christmas! Love and well wishes all around, especially for bride candidates!
So the story went - a person (and if you think this is about to take a ethnocentric turn, you are not wrong. For how could it not? When you gather a bunch of people who were as weather beaten as those of the Cultural Revolution generation, and put them around a family dinner table in America, the subject inevitably turns to how good their descendants in America has it going), he went through three years of college in UoH, did not graduate, and went back to China to find himself a bride. There he listed four conditions in his er... request, I guess.
Bride candidates must be:
1) Not from a big city
2) Not from a cadre family (so no princesslings)
3) Not from a rich family
4) Not from an intelligentsia family
So he found a bride who came from a small and humble village in the Northeast and he and his children lived happily ever after.
This is all told by a person having married a well educated women from a big city. The conditions are a bit medieval, people around the table said, but then everyone went on to praise the person for his pragmatism and insight.
Merry Christmas! Love and well wishes all around, especially for bride candidates!
What Does It Mean to Be Modern?
The mantle of Lu Xun weights heavily, and those of us Chinese left to construct a modernity from a nation that is catching up all live in his shadow.
I think that the Chinese people of this generation is the best to take on questions of modernity. Tempered by a more open environment, all the while having inherited the spirit that passed on by the revolution: that our destiny lies in our hands. Not to say we haven't been confronting this problem for the past century, but if we fail to face this problem now, when we are just embarking on a true awakening of the Chinese people, then how would we develop? I think we should not expect this awakening to be uplifting, rather it would be the realization that we took a step, and another, and another, awaits.
I think that the Chinese people of this generation is the best to take on questions of modernity. Tempered by a more open environment, all the while having inherited the spirit that passed on by the revolution: that our destiny lies in our hands. Not to say we haven't been confronting this problem for the past century, but if we fail to face this problem now, when we are just embarking on a true awakening of the Chinese people, then how would we develop? I think we should not expect this awakening to be uplifting, rather it would be the realization that we took a step, and another, and another, awaits.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Christmas Gifts
Merry Christmas!
Gifts/or somethings worth revisiting, current goal is to find new things next year, but some of these are due to repeat:
Books:
One China, Many Paths
To The Storm: The Odyssey of a Revolutionary Chinese Woman (makes me feel like a child when I compare myself to the people in this book: intelligence, willpower, experience)
The Hedge Knight
A Game of Thrones (He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood)
Selected Poetry of Rabindranath Tagore
Blogs:
Danwei
Magazines:
The London Review of Books (seems like my education [the parts worth mentioning] consists mostly of this magazine)
Movies:
Bourne
Election, Triad Election
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Smiley's People
Language Police:
"Mikhail Mikhailovich, I challenge you to a duel!"
Gifts/or somethings worth revisiting, current goal is to find new things next year, but some of these are due to repeat:
Books:
One China, Many Paths
To The Storm: The Odyssey of a Revolutionary Chinese Woman (makes me feel like a child when I compare myself to the people in this book: intelligence, willpower, experience)
The Hedge Knight
A Game of Thrones (He dreamt an old dream, of three knights in white cloaks, and a tower long fallen, and Lyanna in her bed of blood)
Selected Poetry of Rabindranath Tagore
Blogs:
Danwei
Magazines:
The London Review of Books (seems like my education [the parts worth mentioning] consists mostly of this magazine)
Movies:
Bourne
Election, Triad Election
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Smiley's People
Language Police:
"Mikhail Mikhailovich, I challenge you to a duel!"
Monday, December 24, 2007
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Sunday, December 09, 2007
Bai Chongxi
Bai Chongxi - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I always heard that Bai Xianyong's father was a famous KMT general, but I didn't really know how significant he was until I started doing research on Du Fu's identification with Zhuge Liang. One thing led to another and I stumbled upon Bai Chongxi.
I always heard that Bai Xianyong's father was a famous KMT general, but I didn't really know how significant he was until I started doing research on Du Fu's identification with Zhuge Liang. One thing led to another and I stumbled upon Bai Chongxi.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Saturday, December 01, 2007
梦中之情何必非真
"Love in dreams need not be unreal."
In many ways, writing about dreams is about the intimation of something that need not be unreal.
What promise? What shadows? Why such sadness?
In many ways, writing about dreams is about the intimation of something that need not be unreal.
What promise? What shadows? Why such sadness?
Papers of Yesteryear
Was just reading over some of my high school papers and wow... they are so terrible yet so good at the same time. Nowhere has an amalgamation of Victorian style diction explained simple things with such pretense and naivety. The first steps of writing are so incoherent, messy, and infantile. In all respects expressing myself more genuinely as a person than the last minute hacked together papers I write in college.
We don't write for ourselves anymore, even this.
We don't write for ourselves anymore, even this.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
The Hedge Knight
"You are no knight.
I know you. You are Florian the fool."
"I am, my lady. As great a fool as ever lived, and as great a knight as well!"
"A fool and a knight?
I have never heard of such a thing."
"Sweet lady, all men are fools, and all men are knights, where women are concerned."
Monday, November 26, 2007
The insanity of France's anti-file-sharing plan
L'État, c'est IFPI
Things look ill for the relevance of France's existence in the 21st century. It's conservative attitude about preserving "culture", and the tendency for it to exercise state power for arbitrary interests will be the cause of its demise.
Things look ill for the relevance of France's existence in the 21st century. It's conservative attitude about preserving "culture", and the tendency for it to exercise state power for arbitrary interests will be the cause of its demise.
Books versus documents: what's wrong with so-called "e-books"
Almost spent money to buy a Kindle, which in retrospect is still a pretension
Need to read: Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style
Need to read: Robert Bringhurst's The Elements of Typographic Style
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Japan and China: National Character Writ Large
How a country's writing system reflects its attitude towards outsiders
Cultures with a sense of exceptionalism is neither optimistic or happy.
Cultures with a sense of exceptionalism is neither optimistic or happy.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
Peony Pavillion
What struck me about Bai Xianyong's lecture was the hilarious way he described the different junctures in the play where the audience clapped. The Taipei audience would applaud after an aria was sung well, but in Suzhou, the audience will start clapping when the male and female leads approach and make contact with one another.
the script
Friday, November 16, 2007
Die Meistersinger
Madness, Madness!
Madness everywhere.
Wherever I look . . . .
People torment and flay each other
In useless, foolish anger
Till they draw blood.
Driven to flight,
They think they are hunting.
They don’t hear their own cry of pain . . . .
When he digs into his own flesh,
Each thinks he is giving himself pleasure.
Madness everywhere.
Wherever I look . . . .
People torment and flay each other
In useless, foolish anger
Till they draw blood.
Driven to flight,
They think they are hunting.
They don’t hear their own cry of pain . . . .
When he digs into his own flesh,
Each thinks he is giving himself pleasure.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
So close to greatness...
The Withcer is a kick to the teeth of normative high fantasy genre. Its storyline is steep in its observation of Eastern European folktales and legends. What sets it apart from its neighboring Western cousins is the unflinching narrative of grimness.
Thursday, November 08, 2007
Small town melancholy and the errors of travel
Driving to Austin-Bergstrom evokes all sorts of associations, one of them is the feeling that you are without doubt in a small town.
Peering out of the windows in the plane while in transit, I wondered how will skylines look at night when cities switch over to 5500k incandescent lighting? I tried to imagine night cities transforming from gold to silver, like this:
Peering out of the windows in the plane while in transit, I wondered how will skylines look at night when cities switch over to 5500k incandescent lighting? I tried to imagine night cities transforming from gold to silver, like this:
Monday, November 05, 2007
色，戒 Lust, Caution
In some ways the times we live in are similar to those of Eileen Zhang. Dying for a cause, being a pawn for a higher power, where decisions such as choosing who we love is affected by nationalism. And sometimes, we make mistakes that we do not regret.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
The music behind Triad Election
A view of the music production process behind the modern rework of the triad genre
‘For the residents of the island, to be “Hongkongese” has never meant being Chinese,’ he explains. ‘The political upsets of the past century have given rise to a major dichotomy between these two notions. Over the past nine years, changes seem to have gradually filled the gap that separates us. China has freed itself from the yoke of an archaic communist regime to become an economic superpower. The policy of One Country/Two Systems guaranteed Hong Kong political autonomy [but] the residents of Hong Kong look upon all these changes with concern, fear and confusion. Under the veil of economic stability, questions concerning political autonomy remain unanswered. In the shadow of that ambiguous giant known as China, what does being Hongkongese mean? In Election 2, even the gangsters ask themselves questions.’
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
现实一种
Criticism of Chinese society, a people suffocated by its environment, where it sharpens the physical sense and intellect but leaves empathy and compassion undeveloped.
Is it fair if we use it as a explanation for behavior of some Chinese people in the U.S.? Where we are often perceived as intelligent but emotionally cold people?
How do we reconcile it with our experiences? The community and kinship within a extended Chinese family? That, against the isolation of the suburbs in another country? Of teamwork and call-you-by-your-first-name-while-stab-you-in-the-back type of false courtesy that exist among one's colleagues?
Questions, questions...
Is it fair if we use it as a explanation for behavior of some Chinese people in the U.S.? Where we are often perceived as intelligent but emotionally cold people?
How do we reconcile it with our experiences? The community and kinship within a extended Chinese family? That, against the isolation of the suburbs in another country? Of teamwork and call-you-by-your-first-name-while-stab-you-in-the-back type of false courtesy that exist among one's colleagues?
Questions, questions...
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Inviting Writers to Drink
"So I urge you to cease your songs of the snow,
and in turn drink sadly the rose-cloud wine.
When we sober up, we cannot pass over
this ocean of sorrow, vast without shore."
- Meng Jiao (751-814)
and in turn drink sadly the rose-cloud wine.
When we sober up, we cannot pass over
this ocean of sorrow, vast without shore."
- Meng Jiao (751-814)
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Piano
Wish I know how to play the piano, "just like almost every Asian kid".
Funny, I still remember who said that (approximately).
Funny, I still remember who said that (approximately).
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Marat/Sade
The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton under the Directions of The Marquis de Sade
Marat:
[speaking to Sade across the empty arena]
I read in your books de Sade
in one of your immortal works
that the basis of all of life is death
Sade:
Correct Marat
But man has given a false importance to death
Any animal plant or man who dies
adds to Nature's compost heap
becomes the manure without which
nothing could grow nothing could be created
Death is simply part of the process
Every death even the cruelest death
drowns in the total indifference of Nature
Nature herself would watch unmoved
if we destroyed the entire human race
[rising]
I hate Nature
this passionless spectator this unbreakable iceberg-face
that can bear everything
this goads us to greater and greater acts
[breathing heavily]
Haven't we always beaten down those weaker
than ourselves
Haven't we torn at their throats
with continuous villainy and lust
Haven't we experimented in our laboratories
before applying the final solution
Let me remind you of the execution of Damiens
...
...
...
That
was a festival with which today's festivals can't compete
Even our inquisition gives us no pleasure
nowadays
Although we've only just started
there's no passion in our post-revolutionary
murders
Now they are all official
We condemn to death without emotion
and there's no singular personal death to be
had
only an anonymous cheapened death
which we could dole out to entire nations
on a mathematical basis
until the time comes for all life
to be extinguished
Marat:
Citizen Marquis
you may have fought for us last September
when we dragged out of the gaols
the aristocrats who plotted against us
but you still talk like a grand seigneur
and what you call the indifference of Nature
is your own lack of compassion
Sade:
Compassion
Now Marat you are talking like an aristocrat
Compassion is the property of the privileged
classes
When the pitier lowers himself
to give to a beggar
he throbs with contempt
To protect his riches he pretends to be moved
and his gift to the beggar amounts to no more
than a kick [lute chord]
No Marat
no small emotions please
your feelings were never petty
For you just as for me
only the most extreme actions matter
Marat:
If I am extreme I am not extreme in the same
way as you
Against Nature's silence I use action
In the vast indifference I invent a meaning
I don't watch unmoved I intervene
and say that this and this are wrong
and I work to alter them and improve them
The important thing
is to pull yourself up by your own hair
to turn yourself inside out
and see the whole world with fresh eyes
Marat:
[speaking to Sade across the empty arena]
I read in your books de Sade
in one of your immortal works
that the basis of all of life is death
Sade:
Correct Marat
But man has given a false importance to death
Any animal plant or man who dies
adds to Nature's compost heap
becomes the manure without which
nothing could grow nothing could be created
Death is simply part of the process
Every death even the cruelest death
drowns in the total indifference of Nature
Nature herself would watch unmoved
if we destroyed the entire human race
[rising]
I hate Nature
this passionless spectator this unbreakable iceberg-face
that can bear everything
this goads us to greater and greater acts
[breathing heavily]
Haven't we always beaten down those weaker
than ourselves
Haven't we torn at their throats
with continuous villainy and lust
Haven't we experimented in our laboratories
before applying the final solution
Let me remind you of the execution of Damiens
...
...
...
That
was a festival with which today's festivals can't compete
Even our inquisition gives us no pleasure
nowadays
Although we've only just started
there's no passion in our post-revolutionary
murders
Now they are all official
We condemn to death without emotion
and there's no singular personal death to be
had
only an anonymous cheapened death
which we could dole out to entire nations
on a mathematical basis
until the time comes for all life
to be extinguished
Marat:
Citizen Marquis
you may have fought for us last September
when we dragged out of the gaols
the aristocrats who plotted against us
but you still talk like a grand seigneur
and what you call the indifference of Nature
is your own lack of compassion
Sade:
Compassion
Now Marat you are talking like an aristocrat
Compassion is the property of the privileged
classes
When the pitier lowers himself
to give to a beggar
he throbs with contempt
To protect his riches he pretends to be moved
and his gift to the beggar amounts to no more
than a kick [lute chord]
No Marat
no small emotions please
your feelings were never petty
For you just as for me
only the most extreme actions matter
Marat:
If I am extreme I am not extreme in the same
way as you
Against Nature's silence I use action
In the vast indifference I invent a meaning
I don't watch unmoved I intervene
and say that this and this are wrong
and I work to alter them and improve them
The important thing
is to pull yourself up by your own hair
to turn yourself inside out
and see the whole world with fresh eyes
Monday, October 22, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
爸爸爸
I grow tired of this preoccupation with backwardness, corruption and provincialism in Chinese popular culture and contemporary literary memory. Having said that, I despised reading yet another satire, 爸爸爸. It is no different than watching the mindless dramas and TV shows, except just imagine having that told to you as a story in a mocking tone as oppose to watching:
1) nasal gazing historic dramas which falls further into two categories:
a) costume dramas that dulls the viewer's senses, that which not only do not encourage people to look to the future but glorify a backward, hideous, and pitiful past where China was shut off to the outside world
b) pre-civil war 1920-30 Shanghai, whore of the orient, how good it was for the rich and corrupt that pay no attention to the nation's survival. You too, as oppose to the intended revulsion, will secretly admire their decadence
2) imitation of the worst type of schadenfreude western reality TV shows
With a TV I can alway skip it, the unfortunate thing with a novel is that you don't realized how much time was wasted until after you grind through parts or all of the reading. Utterly lacking in the Chinese literary memory are science and pluralism. The world is spinning too slowly. I wish it were fast as to throw Chinese people out of their seats.
1) nasal gazing historic dramas which falls further into two categories:
a) costume dramas that dulls the viewer's senses, that which not only do not encourage people to look to the future but glorify a backward, hideous, and pitiful past where China was shut off to the outside world
b) pre-civil war 1920-30 Shanghai, whore of the orient, how good it was for the rich and corrupt that pay no attention to the nation's survival. You too, as oppose to the intended revulsion, will secretly admire their decadence
2) imitation of the worst type of schadenfreude western reality TV shows
With a TV I can alway skip it, the unfortunate thing with a novel is that you don't realized how much time was wasted until after you grind through parts or all of the reading. Utterly lacking in the Chinese literary memory are science and pluralism. The world is spinning too slowly. I wish it were fast as to throw Chinese people out of their seats.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Emergence of the Market that is the E.U. Subsumes Democracy In Its' Wake
Just finished reading Perry Anderson's article on the delusions of Europe as the new city on the hill.
Pensée unique - an ironic description and a critique of the tendency for French opinion to align with those of the European Union.
Pensée unique - an ironic description and a critique of the tendency for French opinion to align with those of the European Union.
Thursday, September 27, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
How to make money off oil companies
1. Find a productive well
2. Buy up all the land around it
3. Find out how much the well is producing, potential reserves would also suffice
4. Take your findings to court
5. Count your monies as they roll in
6. Repeat
Disclaimer - you can only do this in Texas
2. Buy up all the land around it
3. Find out how much the well is producing, potential reserves would also suffice
4. Take your findings to court
5. Count your monies as they roll in
6. Repeat
Disclaimer - you can only do this in Texas
Sunday, September 23, 2007
How they fare over the Atlantic
This financial crisis could be a historic chance for Brown
"In the long history of Labour as a governing party, nothing - but nothing - has been as politically destructive as financial crisis. The slump of 1931, the devaluations of 1949 and 1967 and the IMF bail-out of 1976 inflicted mortal wounds that destroyed four Labour prime ministers and sent four Labour governments to their electoral graves. Collectively these events had an even more devastating effect, cumulatively undermining the plausibility of the entire 20th century Labour governmental project and barring the way to a sustained British social democratic settlement on European lines."
"In the long history of Labour as a governing party, nothing - but nothing - has been as politically destructive as financial crisis. The slump of 1931, the devaluations of 1949 and 1967 and the IMF bail-out of 1976 inflicted mortal wounds that destroyed four Labour prime ministers and sent four Labour governments to their electoral graves. Collectively these events had an even more devastating effect, cumulatively undermining the plausibility of the entire 20th century Labour governmental project and barring the way to a sustained British social democratic settlement on European lines."
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Drunk in Autumn Woods
“In olden times Hutou (Gu Kaizhi) had three incomparable attainments; now I have three kninds of madness: I am mad, my words are mad, and my painting is mad. How can one achieve true madness? Now I shall present this piece of madness to my venerable elder, Mr. Song; then I shall have achieved true madness.”
He ends, “This is only to provoke a laugh…” and signs it.
Next day he added another quatrain:
“In a moment, smoke and clouds can return to their previous form:
The whole sky is full of red trees spreading fire all over heaven.
I invite you to get drunk with my black brush strokes;
To lie and watch the frosted forest where the falling leaves spin.”
Monday, September 17, 2007
Ministry of Miscommunications
One of my cousin thinks that I am a gambling addict:
5:59 AM 青: Hi,最近好吗？
me: 还可以
现在在学校吗？
青: 是啊。
6:00 AM 你现在那边应该是早晨吧？
me: 早上6点钟
6:01 AM 青: 好早啊。你不用睡的啊。
me: 还没睡呢
6:02 AM 刚刚才回家
青: 哦，做什么去啦？
6:03 AM me: 打牌
青: 晕！！！！！！
你在堕落啊。
6:04 AM me: 什么？
6:05 AM 青: 就是你为了打牌通宵不睡。给我就不行。
6:06 AM me: 不是你平时打的牌
6:07 AM 是游戏牌
叫做什么magic - the gathering
5:59 AM 青: Hi,最近好吗？
me: 还可以
现在在学校吗？
青: 是啊。
6:00 AM 你现在那边应该是早晨吧？
me: 早上6点钟
6:01 AM 青: 好早啊。你不用睡的啊。
me: 还没睡呢
6:02 AM 刚刚才回家
青: 哦，做什么去啦？
6:03 AM me: 打牌
青: 晕！！！！！！
你在堕落啊。
6:04 AM me: 什么？
6:05 AM 青: 就是你为了打牌通宵不睡。给我就不行。
6:06 AM me: 不是你平时打的牌
6:07 AM 是游戏牌
叫做什么magic - the gathering
棋王
"I very much regret using oil to express my discontentment toward life, and using books and movies, these types of things that could be had or could not be had, to express my dissatisfaction toward life, because he honestly looks at these as things beyond baseline. He wouldn't worry for these things. I suddenly feel drained, partly agreeing to his statement. Yes, what else is needed? Am I not feeling pretty well? No need to eat this meal and worry about the next. No matter how dilapidated the bed, it is still one's own, no need to scurry around for places to find a place to spend the night. But for what am I often worried about? Why am I predisposed to want to read some particular book, film, these types of things. Just turn on the light and people will fully wake up, what am I getting at/what purpose am I trying to achieve? But I faintly have these desires in my heart that cannot be fully explained, yet I can convey they are related to some things in life."
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Art, science, industry, Ayn Rand, megalomania
"A man chooses, a slave obeys."
Rapture - the towering achievement of "objectivism", laid bare to those of us who want to pluck the mind, and the abyss, of genius. Unfettered from petty morality, and held up by the gods of art, science, and industry...
Monday, September 03, 2007
Down with the second round of simplification!
Even Simpler Than Before--化 境 神 似
Just came across 象 in place of 像. My immediate reaction is, life without blood?! What travesty!
Just came across 象 in place of 像. My immediate reaction is, life without blood?! What travesty!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The wellspring of our nightmares
It seems our goal in life is to put more distance between us and every other human being.
Lived in an apartment most of time so far. Childhood apartment in Nanyou/Zhanjiang, 5th floor, the sea breeze, view of the hospital and the rice fields. 2 bedrooms, 1 dining, plus kitchen and bathroom, all subsidized by CNOOC. Personally didn't know how great the neighborhood was in comparison to the other crappy districts, it didn't matter. My parents' goal in life was to get to somewhere better.
Grandparents' house, transit point. three generation under one roof and 3 floors, which only two have living spaces. Spaces didn't mattered because we have friends and family. Being a kid didn't require a lot of spaces back then. But now, with 3 kids and 3 families living in just 4 bedrooms, you can just feel the tension grinding down the kid's emotional development.
Irving, 1994, second floor, loud air conditioners on first floor makes a quiet night of sleep a luxury. A downgrade from 3rd world first class to first world 3rd estate. Another apartment closer to high school, but what did it mattered? High school for many was not the infinite American possibilities in Friday Night Lights.
Being stuck, from generation to generation, in lower middle class is the wellspring of our nightmares.
Lived in an apartment most of time so far. Childhood apartment in Nanyou/Zhanjiang, 5th floor, the sea breeze, view of the hospital and the rice fields. 2 bedrooms, 1 dining, plus kitchen and bathroom, all subsidized by CNOOC. Personally didn't know how great the neighborhood was in comparison to the other crappy districts, it didn't matter. My parents' goal in life was to get to somewhere better.
Grandparents' house, transit point. three generation under one roof and 3 floors, which only two have living spaces. Spaces didn't mattered because we have friends and family. Being a kid didn't require a lot of spaces back then. But now, with 3 kids and 3 families living in just 4 bedrooms, you can just feel the tension grinding down the kid's emotional development.
Irving, 1994, second floor, loud air conditioners on first floor makes a quiet night of sleep a luxury. A downgrade from 3rd world first class to first world 3rd estate. Another apartment closer to high school, but what did it mattered? High school for many was not the infinite American possibilities in Friday Night Lights.
Being stuck, from generation to generation, in lower middle class is the wellspring of our nightmares.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Bought an iPod. Was struck by how consumer hostile the whole thing is. Scrambling of music files, refusal to organize by user's existing folders. No drag and drop, lack of seemless transfers between computer and player. Ugh, the thought that I actually paid for this thing makes me sick.
Just give me a mp3 player that I can just drag and drop folders to play music, in addition to the ability to use it as a mass storage device.
Just give me a mp3 player that I can just drag and drop folders to play music, in addition to the ability to use it as a mass storage device.
Monday, August 13, 2007
It was like this: you were happy
It was like this:
you were happy, then you were sad,
then happy again, then not.
You were innocent, or you were guilty
actions were taken, or not
at times you spoke and at other times you were silent
mostly it seems you were silent
what could you say?
Now it is almost over
like a lover your life bends down and kisses your life
it does this not in forgiveness
between you there is nothing to forgive
but with a simple nod of a baker at the moment he sees the bread is finished
with transformation
eating too is a thing now only for others
It doesn't matter what they will make of you or your days
they will be wrong
they will miss the wrong woman
miss the wrong man
all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention
Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,
you slept, you awakened.
Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.
- Jane Hirshfield
you were happy, then you were sad,
then happy again, then not.
You were innocent, or you were guilty
actions were taken, or not
at times you spoke and at other times you were silent
mostly it seems you were silent
what could you say?
Now it is almost over
like a lover your life bends down and kisses your life
it does this not in forgiveness
between you there is nothing to forgive
but with a simple nod of a baker at the moment he sees the bread is finished
with transformation
eating too is a thing now only for others
It doesn't matter what they will make of you or your days
they will be wrong
they will miss the wrong woman
miss the wrong man
all the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention
Your story was this: you were happy, then you were sad,
you slept, you awakened.
Sometimes you ate roasted chestnuts, sometimes persimmons.
- Jane Hirshfield
Friday, August 03, 2007
Rises and Rises Again
The Bourne Identity (2002)
There are some espionage writers who use the form as a way of probing troubling geopolitical realities and vexing ethical dilemmas. Ludlum, who died last year, was not one of them. But at a moment when big, dumb thrillers like ''The Sum of All Fears'' find themselves suddenly burdened with expectations of relevance, the utter and systematic irrelevance of ''The Bourne Identity'' to anything currently or formerly happening in the world comes as something of a relief.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
As an action-movie travelogue, ''The Bourne Supremacy'' is unusually evocative. From its beaches of Goa to Berlin's clotted skyline to Moscow in the snow, its city lights glowing, it imparts a glamorized sense of tourism under duress.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
For Bourne, who rises and rises again in this fantastically kinetic, propulsive film, resurrection is the name of the game, just as it is for franchises.
There are some espionage writers who use the form as a way of probing troubling geopolitical realities and vexing ethical dilemmas. Ludlum, who died last year, was not one of them. But at a moment when big, dumb thrillers like ''The Sum of All Fears'' find themselves suddenly burdened with expectations of relevance, the utter and systematic irrelevance of ''The Bourne Identity'' to anything currently or formerly happening in the world comes as something of a relief.
The Bourne Supremacy (2004)
As an action-movie travelogue, ''The Bourne Supremacy'' is unusually evocative. From its beaches of Goa to Berlin's clotted skyline to Moscow in the snow, its city lights glowing, it imparts a glamorized sense of tourism under duress.
The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
For Bourne, who rises and rises again in this fantastically kinetic, propulsive film, resurrection is the name of the game, just as it is for franchises.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Friends, conversations, legacies, declines, self renewing ideas
Companies increase pay rates at lower rates than inflation, so overtime the value of what people actually get paid become less and less. Employees fight back by working slower, accomplishing less, and become generally lazy. The phenomenon that starting salaries for companies are non-negotiable is a sign of this "matured" labor market.
The only counter example in recent memory to this gradual, but inevitable, decline into economic malaise is Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. It was just a few years before the dot com bubble that the labor market saw much fluidity. Everything: salary, benefits, stock options for joining a high tech company can be negotiated. Yet it was only a brief respite, then the labor market regressed back to the mean.
The British train system, built by Empire wealth and money, and if it breaks down today, the contemporary U.K. economy cannot afford to build a new one.
The U.S. highway system, the best in the world and built back in the 1950s. There are no projects of such magnitude that the U.S. government is investing in today.
In a sense we are living on inherited legacies. The government no longer invests, yet collect the same amount of taxes. Ex. the telephone tax. If the private sector is suppose to supplant government investment, where are the tax cuts to the people?
Perfect markets, rational behaviors... the stuff of dreams.
The only counter example in recent memory to this gradual, but inevitable, decline into economic malaise is Silicon Valley in the late 1990s. It was just a few years before the dot com bubble that the labor market saw much fluidity. Everything: salary, benefits, stock options for joining a high tech company can be negotiated. Yet it was only a brief respite, then the labor market regressed back to the mean.
The British train system, built by Empire wealth and money, and if it breaks down today, the contemporary U.K. economy cannot afford to build a new one.
The U.S. highway system, the best in the world and built back in the 1950s. There are no projects of such magnitude that the U.S. government is investing in today.
In a sense we are living on inherited legacies. The government no longer invests, yet collect the same amount of taxes. Ex. the telephone tax. If the private sector is suppose to supplant government investment, where are the tax cuts to the people?
Perfect markets, rational behaviors... the stuff of dreams.
Monday, July 23, 2007
Those funny Austrians
Mises.org just published an article titled:
The Death Camp of Communist China
it begins with: A hysteria of sorts has been generated by reports that some of China's products lack quality control. Some cat food has been tainted. A few cell phone batteries have blown up. Cough syrup contained stuff that makes you sick. And so on. In response, the Chinese government actually executed its regulatory head of food and product safety, Zheng Xiaoyu.
hmmmm, a most pertinent subject matter, yes? but wait for the bait and switch
it goes on to saying: It's a scandal, in fact, that few Westerners are even aware, or, if they are aware, they are not conscious, of the bloody reality that prevailed in China between the years 1949 and 1976, the years of communist rule by Mao Zedong.
Ok... so the opening was just polemics to support the body of the work. Maybe there is merit, let's read on
Having read the above, you are now in a tiny elite of people who know anything about the greatest death camp in the history of the world that China became between 1949 and 1976, an experiment in total control unlike anything else in history. Many more people today know more about China's exploding cell-phone batteries than they do about the hundred million dead and the untold amount of suffering that occurred under communism.
therefore we arrive at the morally virtuous conclusion that: When you hear about shoddy products coming from China or wheat poorly processed, imagine millions in famine, with parents swapping children to eat in order to stay alive. And what do China's critics today recommend? More control by the government. Don't tell me that we've learned anything from history. We don't even know enough about history to learn from it.
In short, according to this article: regulation of food safety in China, or any type of quality control mandated by the Chinese government would be in essence a return to totalitarian control, and *gasp*, first step on the slippery slope back to communism!
Think of all the people that will die if the Chinese government have its way and force the food companies to adhere to food safety! Pleasssssse, save the children!!!!!~
The Death Camp of Communist China
it begins with: A hysteria of sorts has been generated by reports that some of China's products lack quality control. Some cat food has been tainted. A few cell phone batteries have blown up. Cough syrup contained stuff that makes you sick. And so on. In response, the Chinese government actually executed its regulatory head of food and product safety, Zheng Xiaoyu.
hmmmm, a most pertinent subject matter, yes? but wait for the bait and switch
it goes on to saying: It's a scandal, in fact, that few Westerners are even aware, or, if they are aware, they are not conscious, of the bloody reality that prevailed in China between the years 1949 and 1976, the years of communist rule by Mao Zedong.
Ok... so the opening was just polemics to support the body of the work. Maybe there is merit, let's read on
Having read the above, you are now in a tiny elite of people who know anything about the greatest death camp in the history of the world that China became between 1949 and 1976, an experiment in total control unlike anything else in history. Many more people today know more about China's exploding cell-phone batteries than they do about the hundred million dead and the untold amount of suffering that occurred under communism.
therefore we arrive at the morally virtuous conclusion that: When you hear about shoddy products coming from China or wheat poorly processed, imagine millions in famine, with parents swapping children to eat in order to stay alive. And what do China's critics today recommend? More control by the government. Don't tell me that we've learned anything from history. We don't even know enough about history to learn from it.
In short, according to this article: regulation of food safety in China, or any type of quality control mandated by the Chinese government would be in essence a return to totalitarian control, and *gasp*, first step on the slippery slope back to communism!
Think of all the people that will die if the Chinese government have its way and force the food companies to adhere to food safety! Pleasssssse, save the children!!!!!~
Friday, July 20, 2007
Austin
Back in Austin this weekend. It was suppose to take 3 hours, I drove here in 2. The weather here is unusual in what seems in Houston as completely normal, endless rain.
Don't miss school anymore. At least, with no reason to. Internship is going very well, and I want to start working full time, learn for a few years and go work overseas - in London, Amsterdam, or Dubai. There is no one here at the moment for whom I would stay for. All I need to do is to take a deep breath and finish.
And what was the last 4 years but holding a long breath. People, their insecurities and fears have moved on while I stood still. Now it seems the path before me stretches into the horizon without a single person in sight. What remains feels... like exhilaration.
Time to start running... going to grab this opportunity and run as fast and as far as I can, until nothing around is recognizable, until the faces of people are no more than mists in memory.
Don't miss school anymore. At least, with no reason to. Internship is going very well, and I want to start working full time, learn for a few years and go work overseas - in London, Amsterdam, or Dubai. There is no one here at the moment for whom I would stay for. All I need to do is to take a deep breath and finish.
And what was the last 4 years but holding a long breath. People, their insecurities and fears have moved on while I stood still. Now it seems the path before me stretches into the horizon without a single person in sight. What remains feels... like exhilaration.
Time to start running... going to grab this opportunity and run as fast and as far as I can, until nothing around is recognizable, until the faces of people are no more than mists in memory.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Rice and Political Autarky
I was curious as to the dietary staples of the Middle East. Upon inquiring a Jordanian friend of mine, Rami, on whether rice is grown and eaten in huge quantities in the region, the answer was "no".
Why doesn't the Middle Eastern countries grow rice? Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent is one of the earliest areas to cultivate rice, yet one ponders why the present day Middle East does not continue this tradition.
At first I thought it was a shift in life style, something like the Second Consonant Shift in the German language, but instead of a change in language, there was a change in diet. One could come to the conclusion that the present state of food in the Middle East is just a natural evolution of habits, cultural interaction, climate. Upon closer examination, perhaps only the first two explanation can withstand scrutiny. Modern day Middle East is fully capable of growing rice, despite people routinely mistakes the Middle Eastern countries as being full of deserts.
When I posited habits and cultural interaction as factors in the change of diet in the Middle East, I wasn't expecting the answer to be so cynical. Today, the only Middle Eastern country that grows rice is: Iran. Another country is just starting to grow rice again: Syria. Rice growing is a method of exerting independence from foreign powers. When you start to grow your own food from the land, as oppose to relying on subsidized food imported by the express policies of the regime, the population gains a degree of autonomy.
Iran under the Shah did not grow rice, but now it is the biggest rice growing country in the Middle East.
Syria is only growing rice because it is afraid that the U.S. will embargo them.
The regimes in the Middle East lack the willpower to invest in their own agricultural system. Or anything else for that matter; no agriculture, no industry, everything is imported. The populace is kept dependent on the autocratic regimes that put the whole country on perpetual life support.
Why doesn't the Middle Eastern countries grow rice? Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent is one of the earliest areas to cultivate rice, yet one ponders why the present day Middle East does not continue this tradition.
At first I thought it was a shift in life style, something like the Second Consonant Shift in the German language, but instead of a change in language, there was a change in diet. One could come to the conclusion that the present state of food in the Middle East is just a natural evolution of habits, cultural interaction, climate. Upon closer examination, perhaps only the first two explanation can withstand scrutiny. Modern day Middle East is fully capable of growing rice, despite people routinely mistakes the Middle Eastern countries as being full of deserts.
When I posited habits and cultural interaction as factors in the change of diet in the Middle East, I wasn't expecting the answer to be so cynical. Today, the only Middle Eastern country that grows rice is: Iran. Another country is just starting to grow rice again: Syria. Rice growing is a method of exerting independence from foreign powers. When you start to grow your own food from the land, as oppose to relying on subsidized food imported by the express policies of the regime, the population gains a degree of autonomy.
Iran under the Shah did not grow rice, but now it is the biggest rice growing country in the Middle East.
Syria is only growing rice because it is afraid that the U.S. will embargo them.
The regimes in the Middle East lack the willpower to invest in their own agricultural system. Or anything else for that matter; no agriculture, no industry, everything is imported. The populace is kept dependent on the autocratic regimes that put the whole country on perpetual life support.
Monday, July 02, 2007
A Friend Whom I still Remember and Wish to Know
Six months ago I asked one of my female cousins about how her best friend is doing. The three of us went to the same elementary school back in Gaozhou, and I had a crush on her best friend. I had my hopes.
I found out that she was studying to become a clinical psychologist. It was an odd choice, my cousin mentioned, because the recognition and treatment of psychological disorders is not widely talked about in Southern China. Reminiscing about her, it didn't seem odd at all. She was quiet, had good grades, and hid a tremendous will. The imagination that one can change things and people around her for the better is a universal dream. Becoming a clinical psychologist is a... romantic way of realizing it. But why not? If a person can be happy in changing society for the better, then they deserve pleasure in their choice of jobs.
"She has a boyfriend", my cousin said. Ok, fair enough, I thought to myself - when you really want to know, then the truth is inevitable.
"Her boyfriend is wealthy too, he comes from a family that is pretty successful in commerce" Right, directly to the business then.
After struggling to word everything carefully, I asked my cousin if she had a picture of her friend. She asks, puzzled, "For what?"
When I said it was for reminiscence, cousin retorted back, "What is there to reminiscence about?"
I had to chide my cousin to get away with it all. Yet... what is there to reminisce about?
I found out that she was studying to become a clinical psychologist. It was an odd choice, my cousin mentioned, because the recognition and treatment of psychological disorders is not widely talked about in Southern China. Reminiscing about her, it didn't seem odd at all. She was quiet, had good grades, and hid a tremendous will. The imagination that one can change things and people around her for the better is a universal dream. Becoming a clinical psychologist is a... romantic way of realizing it. But why not? If a person can be happy in changing society for the better, then they deserve pleasure in their choice of jobs.
"She has a boyfriend", my cousin said. Ok, fair enough, I thought to myself - when you really want to know, then the truth is inevitable.
"Her boyfriend is wealthy too, he comes from a family that is pretty successful in commerce" Right, directly to the business then.
After struggling to word everything carefully, I asked my cousin if she had a picture of her friend. She asks, puzzled, "For what?"
When I said it was for reminiscence, cousin retorted back, "What is there to reminiscence about?"
I had to chide my cousin to get away with it all. Yet... what is there to reminisce about?
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Five Four
Had it been spurred mainly by economic grievances, it would have little resonance in today’s China, where the standard of living in the cities is so much higher than it was then. If it had been moved by a desire for things American, satisfaction has in many ways been more than granted: fast food, Hollywood films, television quiz shows are everywhere, business principles are exercised more vigorously at all levels of administration than in the US itself. The reason the memory of 4 June still haunts officialdom is that it was about something that high-speed growth and giddy consumerism have not altered. For despite all the economic records it is setting, China today is not a sea of social calm.
Diary - Chaohua Wang
Diary - Chaohua Wang
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Raining pretty hard these few days. A welcome respite in this region. Roommates and work group went to Schlitterbahn and San Antonio for the weekend, but I didn't want to go to the water park again.
This week, traveling abroad came up during work. Nigeria came up simply because it is so dangerous. Separated by distance and fascinated by colleagues who had been there, people talk about it with equal measures of relief and envy. This is a country that looses almost half of its oil income to corruption and theft. Daily, people try to tap into pipelines by blowing part of it up or drill holes in them. And when they get injured or killed, the oil company gets blamed.
One has gotten accustomed to thinking that the Middle East is not safe. But the most problematic country, Saudi Arabia, has kicked out every other foreign company a long time ago. Its state oil company, Saudi Aramco, dwarfs all the Majors. It single handedly controls all the oil in the kingdom. The kingdom, meanwhile, has become a buffer in the Middle East. It separates the Israel, Iraq, and Turkey hot zone from the relatively stable southern Arabian peninsula.
Everyone wants to go to Oman. The safest country in the middle east. It would not be an exaggeration to say it is safer than Houston. One can drive at any time to the beautiful interior, or enjoy the beaches. Dubai is mere hours away by plane...
This week, traveling abroad came up during work. Nigeria came up simply because it is so dangerous. Separated by distance and fascinated by colleagues who had been there, people talk about it with equal measures of relief and envy. This is a country that looses almost half of its oil income to corruption and theft. Daily, people try to tap into pipelines by blowing part of it up or drill holes in them. And when they get injured or killed, the oil company gets blamed.
One has gotten accustomed to thinking that the Middle East is not safe. But the most problematic country, Saudi Arabia, has kicked out every other foreign company a long time ago. Its state oil company, Saudi Aramco, dwarfs all the Majors. It single handedly controls all the oil in the kingdom. The kingdom, meanwhile, has become a buffer in the Middle East. It separates the Israel, Iraq, and Turkey hot zone from the relatively stable southern Arabian peninsula.
Everyone wants to go to Oman. The safest country in the middle east. It would not be an exaggeration to say it is safer than Houston. One can drive at any time to the beautiful interior, or enjoy the beaches. Dubai is mere hours away by plane...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Making of an EVE industrialist - part deux
The strip miner business is going smoothly. Since last month, I have been able to reduce waste on the laser manufacturing process by 12% by training up my production efficiency skill. A miner that use to have a 25% waste factor has been reduced to merely 13%, and sometimes 9% for parts that require the rarer, more expensive refined minerals. This means margins have increased. Before, it used to take 1.5 million ISKs to create a miner, now it takes 1.35 million ISKs; an 10% cost reduction on every unit I make.
Marketing and distribution
Manufacturing is the easiest part of this enterprise. It take no more than collecting the required materials in the appropriate amounts, a blueprint, and clicking on a button. Setup cost and running cost of production is negligible. Anyone can use a manufacturing spot on a space station, the availability of which is driven by supply and demand.
The real cost is in the time it takes to transport materials into the manufacturing station and selling the finished products. I use to manufacture in large bulks and sell them in bulks with a single price. However, In EVE, products have no brands, and therefore distribution and pricing are the only strategies. I discovered that I can make more money if I produce in fewer batches.
By producing in smaller batches, I can price my products according to the supply and demand at several different points in time as oppose to one point in time. Smaller batches are also easier to sell because the market lists the sellers from the least amount of a product on escrow to the most amount of a product on the market. I was able to achieve 80% sales within the first hour of putting my products in the market as oppose to days when placing them in bulks.
There are times, however, when an industrialist with a better researched blueprint flood the market with hundreds of units of strip miners at fire sale prices. No other prices come even close and the other products takes days, even weeks to sell. Eventually, when those cheap miners gets sold, there is a surprising lull in the market as the other manufacturers have basically gave it up for a few days. During this time, the rest of the products gets slowly cleared from market and a shortage occurs. I stumbled on to this lull one or two times and was able to price my miners at ridiculous prices and have them sold within 2 to 3 hours.
Marketing and distribution
Manufacturing is the easiest part of this enterprise. It take no more than collecting the required materials in the appropriate amounts, a blueprint, and clicking on a button. Setup cost and running cost of production is negligible. Anyone can use a manufacturing spot on a space station, the availability of which is driven by supply and demand.
The real cost is in the time it takes to transport materials into the manufacturing station and selling the finished products. I use to manufacture in large bulks and sell them in bulks with a single price. However, In EVE, products have no brands, and therefore distribution and pricing are the only strategies. I discovered that I can make more money if I produce in fewer batches.
By producing in smaller batches, I can price my products according to the supply and demand at several different points in time as oppose to one point in time. Smaller batches are also easier to sell because the market lists the sellers from the least amount of a product on escrow to the most amount of a product on the market. I was able to achieve 80% sales within the first hour of putting my products in the market as oppose to days when placing them in bulks.
There are times, however, when an industrialist with a better researched blueprint flood the market with hundreds of units of strip miners at fire sale prices. No other prices come even close and the other products takes days, even weeks to sell. Eventually, when those cheap miners gets sold, there is a surprising lull in the market as the other manufacturers have basically gave it up for a few days. During this time, the rest of the products gets slowly cleared from market and a shortage occurs. I stumbled on to this lull one or two times and was able to price my miners at ridiculous prices and have them sold within 2 to 3 hours.
Friday, June 01, 2007
Lectures about Heaven - Thomas Laqueur
Stern’s ancestors stood at the pinnacle of the Bildungsbürgertum, the cultivated middle class, who regarded culture generally and Wissenschaft – science in the broadest, purest sense – as the core of an ethical and useful life, both private and public. All four of his great-grandfathers, both grandfathers and his father were successful, well-regarded doctors. The physician’s white coat, as Stern writes, ‘was the one uniform of dignity to which Jews could aspire and in which they could feel a measure of authority and grateful acceptance’. Although medicine was in the 19th century, as it is today, far from a pure science, it held out the promise of a dispassionate, unideological, rational approach to the ills of the body, both social and individual. It was, in Max Weber’s sense, ‘a calling’, a secular equivalent to being chosen by God for his purposes. Germany’s Jews embraced this calling: at the beginning of the 19th century, perhaps 2 per cent of German doctors were Jews; by the early 20th century, at a time when Jews constituted something like 1 per cent of the population, they provided 16 per cent of all doctors. The proportion was far higher in big cities. Excluded from the higher ranks of the civil service and the military, medicine offered them entry into the life of the nation.
Forgiving Germany
Forgiving Germany
Saturday, May 26, 2007
Foreigners surveyed about Chinese cinema
So how do you factor in?
After coming to China, what do you think the greatest difference is between China in the movies and China in reality?
2. It's not a bunch of fighting all the time - you never see people who know kung-fu or who can fly: 18%
After coming to China, what do you think the greatest difference is between China in the movies and China in reality?
2. It's not a bunch of fighting all the time - you never see people who know kung-fu or who can fly: 18%
Thursday, May 24, 2007
EVE
Playing EVE itself is a constant lesson in market capitalism.
I started a strip miner manufacturing business with the help of some capital donation. Since I have no compunction to generate a return right away, I squandered a few million ISKs just shopping around, buying a few frigates and fitting them to my fancy. By the time I started manufacturing, the business is under tremendous financial pressure from daily operating activities.
Another mistake was inadequate research: I got into the strip miner manufacturing business because EVE's economy is based on mining; strip miners, along with their tech 2 cousins, Strip Miner II, are the most powerful mining lasers in EVE. My logic was to tap into this constant demand and go for a steady stream of income... but a variety of factors proved that the initial optimism is simply nativity.
One, I chose to manufacture and sell in the most competitive solar system in the game: Jita. It is the biggest market exchange in the universe with 500 players buying and selling on average and 700 on peak time. The pricing arbitrage that takes place is a killer. Not only are input prices high due to the fact a lot of rich players shop here, but the margins for end-user products are extremely low because of the price competition.
Two, the capital involved for strip miner manufacturing is tremendous. Aside from the blueprint, the materials involved in making a strip miner costs more than 1 million ISKs. As an upstart industrialist researcher, my character's low manufacturing skills means that the production process is very wasteful. Around 25% of the input materials are discarded as waste. This puts the manufacturing cost of one unit of strip miner around 1.5 million ISKs. At one time, the prices for strip miners in Jita are little more than 1.5 million ISKs, recouping the initial capital will take weeks at this rate.
Three, time and distance is a big factor in buying and selling. Since all the public manufacturing facilities are already in use in the region, I had to establish my base of operations in a system one jump away from Jita. The difference in this one jump is between night and day. Because the new system is not in The Forge region as Jita, the products do not show on the Jita market. Here the demand for mining tools is really erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes it takes weeks to sell one product. In addition, materials are just as difficult to procure as for end-user goods to sell. Transporting the finished good is not the problem, but getting the raw material input to the location is a huge headache. By myself, I had to spend hours in my destroyer hauling the materials purchased in Jita. Later I was to mitigate this factor by learning the skills and purchasing an industrial for the hauling. One problem is apparent: the operation is going to face big scaling challenges.
I started a strip miner manufacturing business with the help of some capital donation. Since I have no compunction to generate a return right away, I squandered a few million ISKs just shopping around, buying a few frigates and fitting them to my fancy. By the time I started manufacturing, the business is under tremendous financial pressure from daily operating activities.
Another mistake was inadequate research: I got into the strip miner manufacturing business because EVE's economy is based on mining; strip miners, along with their tech 2 cousins, Strip Miner II, are the most powerful mining lasers in EVE. My logic was to tap into this constant demand and go for a steady stream of income... but a variety of factors proved that the initial optimism is simply nativity.
One, I chose to manufacture and sell in the most competitive solar system in the game: Jita. It is the biggest market exchange in the universe with 500 players buying and selling on average and 700 on peak time. The pricing arbitrage that takes place is a killer. Not only are input prices high due to the fact a lot of rich players shop here, but the margins for end-user products are extremely low because of the price competition.
Two, the capital involved for strip miner manufacturing is tremendous. Aside from the blueprint, the materials involved in making a strip miner costs more than 1 million ISKs. As an upstart industrialist researcher, my character's low manufacturing skills means that the production process is very wasteful. Around 25% of the input materials are discarded as waste. This puts the manufacturing cost of one unit of strip miner around 1.5 million ISKs. At one time, the prices for strip miners in Jita are little more than 1.5 million ISKs, recouping the initial capital will take weeks at this rate.
Three, time and distance is a big factor in buying and selling. Since all the public manufacturing facilities are already in use in the region, I had to establish my base of operations in a system one jump away from Jita. The difference in this one jump is between night and day. Because the new system is not in The Forge region as Jita, the products do not show on the Jita market. Here the demand for mining tools is really erratic and unpredictable. Sometimes it takes weeks to sell one product. In addition, materials are just as difficult to procure as for end-user goods to sell. Transporting the finished good is not the problem, but getting the raw material input to the location is a huge headache. By myself, I had to spend hours in my destroyer hauling the materials purchased in Jita. Later I was to mitigate this factor by learning the skills and purchasing an industrial for the hauling. One problem is apparent: the operation is going to face big scaling challenges.
Thursday, May 17, 2007
when the petals depart from the flower
当花瓣离开花朵
the faint aroma remains
暗香残留
the aroma fades after wind and rain
香消在风起雨后
and no one comes to smell
无人来嗅
if love tells me to continue on
如果爱告诉我走下去
I will press forward to the end
我会拼到爱尽头
if heart dies in the splendor
心若在灿烂中死去
love would revive in the ashes...
爱会在灰烬里重生
难忘缠绵细语时
用你笑容为我祭奠
让心在灿烂中死去
让爱在灰烬里重生
烈火烧过青草痕
看看又是一年春风
当花瓣离开花朵
暗香残留
当花瓣离开花朵
the faint aroma remains
暗香残留
the aroma fades after wind and rain
香消在风起雨后
and no one comes to smell
无人来嗅
if love tells me to continue on
如果爱告诉我走下去
I will press forward to the end
我会拼到爱尽头
if heart dies in the splendor
心若在灿烂中死去
love would revive in the ashes...
爱会在灰烬里重生
难忘缠绵细语时
用你笑容为我祭奠
让心在灿烂中死去
让爱在灰烬里重生
烈火烧过青草痕
看看又是一年春风
当花瓣离开花朵
暗香残留
Sunday, May 13, 2007
Erinnerung an die Marie A.
On that day in blue-mooned September
Quietly under a young plum tree
I held her there, that silent pale love
In my arm like a graceful dream.
And above us in the beautiful summer sky
was a cloud, which I saw for a long time
It was very white and immensely high
And when I looked up, there was no longer a sign.
Since that day many, many moons have
Quietly swum down and past.
The plum trees probably have been chopped off
And you ask me, how is it with the love?
So I say to you: I cannot remember.
And yet, sure, I do know what you mean
But her face, I really do not know it anymore
I only still know: Once I kissed it.
Even the kiss, I would have forgotten it long ago
had the cloud not been there
That I still know and will I always know
Very white it was and came from above.
Perhaps the plum trees are still flowering
And that women now perhaps has her seventh child
But that cloud blossomed only for minutes
And when I looked up, it already was disappearing in the wind.
Quietly under a young plum tree
I held her there, that silent pale love
In my arm like a graceful dream.
And above us in the beautiful summer sky
was a cloud, which I saw for a long time
It was very white and immensely high
And when I looked up, there was no longer a sign.
Since that day many, many moons have
Quietly swum down and past.
The plum trees probably have been chopped off
And you ask me, how is it with the love?
So I say to you: I cannot remember.
And yet, sure, I do know what you mean
But her face, I really do not know it anymore
I only still know: Once I kissed it.
Even the kiss, I would have forgotten it long ago
had the cloud not been there
That I still know and will I always know
Very white it was and came from above.
Perhaps the plum trees are still flowering
And that women now perhaps has her seventh child
But that cloud blossomed only for minutes
And when I looked up, it already was disappearing in the wind.
Thursday, May 10, 2007
In the lovely month of May
Haven't written a real post in a while.
Probably read more books outside of class in the last four years than in class. The bad news is that the total number of those books are not many. The more interesting authors are Naipaul, Borges, various contributors of the LRB. At the moment I feel like reading nothing in particular and just something in general.
Some occasions, realized that the girl in front of me is a pale imitation of the woman I want. It is hard to imagine less when you think you have seen your ideal.
Staying another year in school. Why? To take ballroom dancing, read a bit more outside of class, build the resume a bit more, take a few more Chinese lit classes.
Wish there are more peers with the same interests and more lofty ideals. Most people just want to get by and not leave their mark on the world; they scoff at the notion of contributing something back to society, of making it better through sheer will and intellect. Even in this day and age of specialization and free exchange of ideas... disappointed.
Probably read more books outside of class in the last four years than in class. The bad news is that the total number of those books are not many. The more interesting authors are Naipaul, Borges, various contributors of the LRB. At the moment I feel like reading nothing in particular and just something in general.
Some occasions, realized that the girl in front of me is a pale imitation of the woman I want. It is hard to imagine less when you think you have seen your ideal.
Staying another year in school. Why? To take ballroom dancing, read a bit more outside of class, build the resume a bit more, take a few more Chinese lit classes.
Wish there are more peers with the same interests and more lofty ideals. Most people just want to get by and not leave their mark on the world; they scoff at the notion of contributing something back to society, of making it better through sheer will and intellect. Even in this day and age of specialization and free exchange of ideas... disappointed.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Monday, May 07, 2007
Spiderman 3
Too much exposition; where is the inquiry? where is the subtlety?
Rushed. Good overall, but the other points prevented it from being great.
Rushed. Good overall, but the other points prevented it from being great.
Friday, May 04, 2007
安静 - 周杰伦
...
你要我说多难堪
我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑來带过
我沒有这种天份
包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多
我会一直好好过
你已经远远离开
我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的沒有天份
安静的沒这么快
我会学着放弃你
是因为我太爱你
...
你要我说多难堪
我根本不想分开
为什么还要我用微笑來带过
我沒有这种天份
包容你也接受他
不用担心的太多
我会一直好好过
你已经远远离开
我也会慢慢走开
为什么我连分开都迁就着你
我真的沒有天份
安静的沒这么快
我会学着放弃你
是因为我太爱你
...
Monday, April 30, 2007
Regression toward the mean and cruel
In the marketplace of ideas, competition creates virtue.
Some people here at the business school have no maturity to participate in an open academic environment. Their grades might have gotten them here, but grades alone shouldn't keep them here. Trying to silence dissent and claim sole credit for teamwork is not only petty, but worst of all - against the spirit of the marketplace of ideas. The best part is that they end all their speech with a quote about how great a leader they are. How they can afford to live with that attitude and intellectual dishonesty just baffles me.
Some people here at the business school have no maturity to participate in an open academic environment. Their grades might have gotten them here, but grades alone shouldn't keep them here. Trying to silence dissent and claim sole credit for teamwork is not only petty, but worst of all - against the spirit of the marketplace of ideas. The best part is that they end all their speech with a quote about how great a leader they are. How they can afford to live with that attitude and intellectual dishonesty just baffles me.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Necons in the Treasury
In Gold Digging, China Matters writes:
"Glaser injudiciously escalated the confrontation by promising further investigation of mom-and-pop banks in Macau, possibly an indictment of BDA’s directors for being knowing conspirators (something that was bruited about in the Macau press) and, most unwisely, threatened to make it known that Treasury considered Bank of China Macau to be implicated in the North Korean money laundering web.
This kind of threat against the reputation and viability of Bank of China Macau is the best explanation I can come up with for China’s remarkably harsh and pointed subsequent summons to Treasury...
If the sanctions against BDA were removed explicitly to facilitate the Six Party Agreement, then the legitimacy of Patriot Act Section 311 investigations—and their intimidating aura of implacable, inexorable malice—would be lost.
And Daniel Glaser and his boss, Stuart Levey, would look like jerks who had been using the pretext of supposed U.S. law enforcement obligations to promote a secret, unilateral, destabilizing North Korea policy under false pretenses...
Given the general contempt for North Korea and the credulity and sloppiness of most Western reporting on this subject, the only reason that we know or care that the Treasury Department is out to screw the North Koreans no matter what is the embarrassment and chaos its intransigence has brought to American diplomacy."
"Glaser injudiciously escalated the confrontation by promising further investigation of mom-and-pop banks in Macau, possibly an indictment of BDA’s directors for being knowing conspirators (something that was bruited about in the Macau press) and, most unwisely, threatened to make it known that Treasury considered Bank of China Macau to be implicated in the North Korean money laundering web.
This kind of threat against the reputation and viability of Bank of China Macau is the best explanation I can come up with for China’s remarkably harsh and pointed subsequent summons to Treasury...
If the sanctions against BDA were removed explicitly to facilitate the Six Party Agreement, then the legitimacy of Patriot Act Section 311 investigations—and their intimidating aura of implacable, inexorable malice—would be lost.
And Daniel Glaser and his boss, Stuart Levey, would look like jerks who had been using the pretext of supposed U.S. law enforcement obligations to promote a secret, unilateral, destabilizing North Korea policy under false pretenses...
Given the general contempt for North Korea and the credulity and sloppiness of most Western reporting on this subject, the only reason that we know or care that the Treasury Department is out to screw the North Koreans no matter what is the embarrassment and chaos its intransigence has brought to American diplomacy."
Friday, April 13, 2007
Ignorance Collides With Political Naïveté, and the Olympics become the Sandbox for the Promulgation of the Yellow Peril
"One possibility that activists are weighing: trying to get Olympic athletes to carry a replica of the Olympic torch from Darfur to the Chinese border."
Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields - New York Times
Perhaps Steven Spielberg should read The Twisted Triangle: America, China, and Sudan and redirects his letter to the Bush administration.
Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields - New York Times
Perhaps Steven Spielberg should read The Twisted Triangle: America, China, and Sudan and redirects his letter to the Bush administration.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
The Good Tinker
Just watched The Good Shepherd. It reminded me of Smiley's People.
It seems the people who prefer discretion are the ones end up leaving their mark in the world.
It seems the people who prefer discretion are the ones end up leaving their mark in the world.
Monday, April 02, 2007
April Fools from the Chinese media
Better than anything you read in the U.S.
some examples are: PhD holders are exempt from the one child policy, China would return to Daylight Savings Time, the Qianmen Tower had been sold off, Jinan had installed pipes for beer distribution, and counterfeit goods could be legally purchased with counterfeit money
and of course there is the other stuff about problems of higher education in China
some examples are: PhD holders are exempt from the one child policy, China would return to Daylight Savings Time, the Qianmen Tower had been sold off, Jinan had installed pipes for beer distribution, and counterfeit goods could be legally purchased with counterfeit money
and of course there is the other stuff about problems of higher education in China
Accountants, the soldiers of modernity
There is a Chinese saying, "Don't use good steel to make nails; don't use good people to make soldiers." We hear that from our parents, we hear that from our peers. If there is a profession that suffers the same level of under appreciation, it would be the accountant.
I suspect the hierarchy of the prestige ladder for Chinese people all over the world looks something like this:
1. Doctor (U.S. ones, of course)
2. Lawyer
3. Engineer (hard sciences)
4. Scientist
5. Entrepreneur (in China)
6. Engineer (software)
7. Accountant
For Chinese expats in the U.S.:
1. Doctor
2. Investment banker
3. Lawyer
4. Engineer (hard sciences)
5. Engineer (software)
6. Scientist (professor)
7. Entrepreneur
8. Accountant
The scientist is less desired by the Chinese community in the U.S. because they are so badly compensated. You spend your whole life to get a PhD and then end up getting paid $50,000 a year doing research in a lab.
The entrepreneur is lower on the ladder because the Chinese community here is conservative. Chinese parents prefer their kids to get jobs in big MNCs for job safety and also bragging rights "Oh yeah? my son works in the #3 Fortune Global 500 company!"
But, those who become scientists and entrepreneurs are true idealists, admired for their technical mastery and daring visions. So that leads me to the last on the ladder, the accountant.
Let me clarify the previous Chinese saying, one would not "willingly" use good steel for nails, nor "willingly" use good people to make soldiers. So, in this day and age, who would "willingly" become an accountant?
The idealist? Sure, young Chinese people dreammmm of becoming a number cruncher sitting in front of a general ledger.
The materialistic? I could start as an analyst in an investment bank for $100,000 a year, or I could be an accountant, working the same hours, and getting paid 50% less. The latter sounds like a deal!
To be sure, those who know a bit more about the accounting profession would say that Due Diligence and Compliance work approach the same level of respect that lawyers get, but doing anything meaningful in these work require you to be a Partner in any well respected accounting firm.
In short, there are very few people in the Chinese community who would willingly become accountants because the profession is perceived as equivalent of becoming a soldier. Indispensable? yes, like nails, but also commodity, expandable. Who would let their good sons and daughters become that?
I suspect the hierarchy of the prestige ladder for Chinese people all over the world looks something like this:
1. Doctor (U.S. ones, of course)
2. Lawyer
3. Engineer (hard sciences)
4. Scientist
5. Entrepreneur (in China)
6. Engineer (software)
7. Accountant
For Chinese expats in the U.S.:
1. Doctor
2. Investment banker
3. Lawyer
4. Engineer (hard sciences)
5. Engineer (software)
6. Scientist (professor)
7. Entrepreneur
8. Accountant
The scientist is less desired by the Chinese community in the U.S. because they are so badly compensated. You spend your whole life to get a PhD and then end up getting paid $50,000 a year doing research in a lab.
The entrepreneur is lower on the ladder because the Chinese community here is conservative. Chinese parents prefer their kids to get jobs in big MNCs for job safety and also bragging rights "Oh yeah? my son works in the #3 Fortune Global 500 company!"
But, those who become scientists and entrepreneurs are true idealists, admired for their technical mastery and daring visions. So that leads me to the last on the ladder, the accountant.
Let me clarify the previous Chinese saying, one would not "willingly" use good steel for nails, nor "willingly" use good people to make soldiers. So, in this day and age, who would "willingly" become an accountant?
The idealist? Sure, young Chinese people dreammmm of becoming a number cruncher sitting in front of a general ledger.
The materialistic? I could start as an analyst in an investment bank for $100,000 a year, or I could be an accountant, working the same hours, and getting paid 50% less. The latter sounds like a deal!
To be sure, those who know a bit more about the accounting profession would say that Due Diligence and Compliance work approach the same level of respect that lawyers get, but doing anything meaningful in these work require you to be a Partner in any well respected accounting firm.
In short, there are very few people in the Chinese community who would willingly become accountants because the profession is perceived as equivalent of becoming a soldier. Indispensable? yes, like nails, but also commodity, expandable. Who would let their good sons and daughters become that?
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