The Chinese womens field hockey team won the silver medal, their first ever medal, and their head coach is actually a Korean. He's been coaching the chinese team for the past 9 years, and has learned to speak pretty decent Chinese. His wife and three children live with him in Beijing. He is really proud of his team, and has decided to retire after winning the silver medal. Despite retiring, he decided he won't be returning to Korea. Two of his children go to university in Beijing, and the other one goes to middle school in Beijing, and he enjoys his life in China very much. I really enjoyed seeing the passion and bond he shares with his players, celebrating birthdays, celebrating wins, giving lectures after losses. Kim Chang Back is his name. Also, his annual salary is just $45,000, but he donated $15,000 of his own money to the Chinese earthquake relief cause.
Shawn Johnson also appeared on China's top talk show with the Chinese gymnastics team as well. It was a cute little show. Shawn was really sweet, and the audience and her Chinese opponents really loved her. I think she's a stark contrast from the scary and highly competitive Nastia Liukin, who wasn't even invited despite winning all around gold. Johnson spoke whatever Chinese she learned, congratulated the Chinese gymnasts, and talked about her own interests and hobbies. I think the audience and Chinese gymnasts and coached really admired her. Despite looking like a tiny 16 year old girl, she has a lot of inner strength and I think the Chinese gold medal team even felt that and looked up to her.
I actually had the ticket to see the men's 110m hurdles final, which is auctioning for as much as 20,000 rmb in China. Unfortunately, Liu Xiang, the 2004 gold medalist, was injured and could not compete. It's a bit dissapointing to have the most desired ticket of the olympics and have it go to waste.
I haven't been able to watch NBC. I love NBC olympic coverage, but I heard this year all it's been is politically biased coverage and lots of whining. I think that's pretty lame.
At one of the track events I went to, an elderly late sat next to me and talking to me a lot. She asked me how's American peoples impressions of China, and I said it's good. She also asked me "why do so many Americans like to criticize Chinese human rights?" and I didn't know how to respond, so i said "I don't know." There's lots of places I'd like to see Chinese improve upon, and I think i'm as passionate about it as anybody out there, but I think the Chinese feel that they do not need others telling them that their lives are messed up because they have no civil rights. I think they feel if their lives we're as freedomless as Americans say it is, the Chinese would probably be the first ones to notice.
Today, I went to see my first olympic competition live at the National Aquatics Center, which was really awesome. I watched the women's 10m platform diving. China won gold, Australia silver, and Mexico bronze.
I read in the news that Beijing would have tight security, and i even read an article calling this the "no fun games". From my experiences at the airport and subways, the security has been heightened, but I would definitely not call it "tight." I could EASILY sneak in a bomb or a tibet flag through the subway or into Tiananmen square. Yesterday, I had 3 shopping bags and they didn't even make me put it through the machine to check for bombs.
Another thing i've been seeing is how normal the North Korean delegation is. In America, I think often the news media depicts North Korea as such an evil state or whatever. But from what I've noticed of the athletes and coaches and stuff, is how normal they are as human beings. Cheerful, happy to be here, dreams to win, etc. I've met South Koreans in the past who realize that the North Koreans are simply in bad luck and put in a bad situation, but that it doesn't mean they are bad people. On the other hand, I've also met South Koreans who believe that the problems North Koreans face has nothing to do with South Korea, and that South Korea is better off by itself and forgetting about the North. Seeing the North Korean delegation this time really makes me feel happy that they are so happy to be here, but also makes me feel bad for their situation.
I also have to give props to Yao Ming. I watched him play his heart out today against top team Spain. His team mates don't even belong on his team, because they are not even close to the same level. China has no chance of winning a medal, and probably it would be best for Yao to rest during the summer, and prepare for the NBA season where he has Artest and Mcgrady for a legitimate chance to win a championship. But Yao is so loyal and admirable, that he played his heart out today with scrubs even though he probably knows the team has no chance. Very unselfish, very admirable.
More bombs are going off in the Muslim region of China. You can expect China is going to crack down and put a stop to it as much as they can. For the most part, the muslims live quite well in China. I went to a muslim restaurant the other day. Middle Easterners speaking Chinese is a pretty amusing sight, although i think the majority of Muslim in China can speak Chinese. The lady who owns that restaurant drives a sports car, so she makes a good life in China. I hope more of the Muslim can integrate into Chinese society like the ones I saw.
I've been thinking a bit about psychology lately. I told my aunt about the Milgram experiments.
In case you don't know about it, read up on it on wikipedia, it's really interesting. Basically, Professor Milgram concludes that most humans do not have the resources necessary to resist authority, thus explaining events like Nazism.
Also, The Wave is a book based on a true story of a high school teacher that tries an experiment to re-create the nazi movement in his own class. Amazingly and scarily, he succeeds.
I spent a long time today watching the Olympic coverage on TV. I watched China's defending gold medalist in air rifle perform miserably, and 2 other Chinese win gold in weightlifting and air pistol.
The Olympics are SUCH a big deal to the athletes and to the Chinese public.
I watched an interview of the defending gold medalist after she failed to win the air rifle event. There is just so much pressure and expectations on their shoulders. During the interview, she broke down in tears, so sad that she couldn't win a gold, saying all she wanted was to hear her national anthem played. All the athletes feel such a devotion and duty to their people to perform their best, and she looked devastated that she couldn't live up the expectations. The interviewer was so moved that she continued the interview, while choking on her own tears. By the end, both the athlete and interviewer and both in tears, as the interviewer tried to comfort the athlete, saying not to worry so much about the expectations and that nobody blames her for not winning gold.
Several of the news broadcasters also commentated on the immense pressure, and generally expressed sympathy for the athletes who unfairly feel the guilt of not winning.
Yao Ming was great in the Opening Ceremony. He walked with a young boy who survived the earthquake last month in China, and went back to pull out 2 of his classmates from the rubble. Yao was interviewed, and gave great praise to the young boy for his courage. Yao is such a kind person and cares so much about his country and all his adoring fans.
There have been several small protests around Beijing, usually involving a few people who unfurl a tibet flag, and then are quickly deported. I haven't seen any such protests first hand. I thought there might be some larger organized protest, but it doesn't seem like anything of that sort will occur. I'd like to see China allow protests as a natural way for people to vent frustration and for positive change to come about. But I also think these protestors are idiots for trying to disrupt such a special event meant for celebrating mankind and global understanding.
My first Olympics I watched were 1996 in Atlanta, and I've been a huge Olympics fan since then. This Olympics looks great so far. If i could be born again, I'd like to be an Olympian.
Wow, I've been doing so much and been so busy I haven't had a chance to post for a while.
I watched the opening ceremony tonight for 4 hours standing in blistering heat outside on the large screen TV. There were literally thousands upon thousands of Chinese and foreigners stuffed together to watch the TV. I heard some Tibet activists were detained already.
So much to say...where to begin. The weather seems good in Beijing, the air seems fine, and prices all seem pretty normal.
I was wandering around yesterday, the day before the opening, and there was a buzz in the atmosphere. There was just so much built up excitement for the games. People were going crazy buying Olympics goods, shirts, stickers. Today, the atmosphere was so rowdy. The locals were thrilled to see foreigners in their home, not protesting or criticizing, but just enjoying the spirit of the Olympics. The foreigners cheered for China and their own countries. Most of the foreigners, and almost all of the locals, had Chinese flags, or stickers or face paintings of the Chinese flag. It was just a really amazing atmosphere. The Chinese seemed so proud and happy to host the Olympics and to show China to the world. Locals took photos with foreigners at every chance.
The French president showed up, after threatening not to attend....what a faggot.
As the countries started walking out during the ceremony, I was a little worried about how the audience would treat the Taiwanese and Japanese delegations. Both received very loud and welcoming cheers. Bush was momentarily boo'ed though.
The foreigners all seemed very excited and happy, yelling cheers like "australia and china are great friends". Locals sang the national anthem like 50 times.
Team China received a monstrous roar, and all the other countries received applause.
Chinese girls look way better than they did just a few years ago, which is a pleasant surprise. Stronger economy leads to fashion and makeup.
For a while, I didn't have a cell phone, and I had to make a few important calls. So I was asking some of the locals if I could borrow their cell phone to make a call. I asked a total of 5 people so far, and only 1 allowed me to make the call(and he ended up stalking the person who i called, asking to be friends with her and such). The others either flat out said no, lied to me saying they have no batteries left, or gave some other explanation. I guess you can't really do that here.
I've been visiting buddhist temples, taoist temples, a confuscian temple, museums, pagodas, and all of that in blistering heat. I visited the military museum today, which was pretty interesting. Another place for China to promote patriotism. I went to a anthropology museum a few days ago, and that was pretty awesome.
I ate a birds nest yesterday. I like eating weird food, but it was pretty gross.
I think there's a lot more that's been on my mind, but i can't remember right now. I'll update later.
Well I've been in Nanjing, China for 4 days now, and i'll give my impressions.
First, I'm not sure if it's because of the rising modern generation, or if its specific to nanjing, but the people i've met are some of the most interesting and friendly people. When i'm on a taxi, or in a restaurant, I've been chatting with everybody and everybody is willing to chat. China has some of the coldest people, but if you have a good attitude, it also has some of the friendliest people.
I can't read the foreign news articles about Chinese sensitive news, but there's been whispers about planned terrorist attacks in beijing. I'm not sure what kind of progress these guys hope to achieve by disrupting the Olympics. Seems pretty uncivilized to me.
At a restaurant yesterday, I saw the most beautiful girl, the type where you just have to sit back and admire, without any dirty thoughts. I also watched an epic movie yesterday called "Red Cliff" which is about the Three Kingdoms warring states period in China. I actually know very little about this historical period, but watching the movie raised interest. When I have time, i'm going to go read up on this.
I also went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial museum. There were lots of sad sites, like a live pit where 10,000 skeletons were burried. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the readings in the museum were not particularly biased, but just slightly. I think a lot of people who go to a museum like this, or a holocaust museum, walk through it and think to themselves, "this museum is very important. It is important for people to come here and learn about the truth." My feeling is that most people fail to really learn the significance of a museum like this. It doesn't matter that it happened, because what's done is done. And the lesson isn't even, "Japanese should know what they did, and learn from their mistakes." Humans by nature are very weak creatures in the mind. They are easily crazed, manipulated, and controlled. To judge the Japanese, or the Nazi's as something different and say "I would never do that" is a grave error. I feel many Chinese may criticize the Japanese for their atrocities, but fail to remember when the Chinese themselves went up in a craze and killed countless people, like what the Chinese Red Guards did. All of us have the potential to do harm like this. To me, the lesson that we should learn from these historical memories is just that all humans, no matter how good in nature, are capable of doing inhuman destruction, and that maybe if we are just a bit aware of this, we can prevent it in the future. At the end of the museum, there were paper doves and ornaments made and gifted by the Japanese School in Shanghai, which is pretty nice to see.
In any case, i think the Nanjing Massacre museum, and the Atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima are both important to visit.
Well I travelled around 30 hours in total from New York to Nanjing, China. I'll try to update with interesting stories and cool things I see in my travels.
Actually a lot of interesting things happened today. On the flight, i sat next to a 40 year old man and a 26 year old girl, and we chatted a lot about various topics. I really enjoyed our conversation, because I think its rare nowadays to meet people with geuine wisdom and insight.
We talked about racism in America, marriage, and about mainland Chinese girls marrying for H1 Visa status to stay in America. It was really refreshing to hear the girl say she would never sell herself just for the opportunity to stay in America. I think my cousin, who i love, wants to marry an American just to get the right to live in America, and I think it's retarded and lame.
She also told us a story about a friend of hers. This guy was a white american, who, according to her, was very average in America. He wasn't particularly intelligent, didn't have great academics, wasn't particularly athletic or good looking, and was just a regular guy in America. But one day, he decided to go to China and teach english, for like $700 a month. And since then, he's crazy about China. He makes money for doing the easiest skill for him, he has all the girls chasing him, and he sings praises about his life in China.
We also talked about how it's a bit silly for Chinese people to spend so much money to buy foreign brands. I personally think its retarded, but maybe there is something that I'm not getting.
A couple months ago, there was a really interesting election in Taiwan. The left party supported relative Taiwanese independence from China, while the right party pledged to ease tensions and promote economic ties.
I supported the right party, and honestly....I cannot imagine why anybody would ever vote for the leftist party.
Just a week or so ago, Taiwan and China established historic flights between their nations. Previously, there were no direct flights between China and Taiwan. It was ridiculous. Two neighbors cannot even establish a flight to see a relative because of stubborn heads in office. So this is great news, millions of Chinese are going to be able to visit Taiwan, and will greatly help Taiwanese tourism industry. I hope, and expect, more economic relations to come and further help both economies.
Seriously, if you look at history, every single disaster or war has basically been become of one small incident or a few stupid men who could not come to terms with each other. The strait between China and Taiwan is one of the world's most potentially disastrous places in the world. All it takes is one hot head here or there to spark a major war.
So i'm glad both these great nations are restoring ties and easing tensions. I can't for the life of me see how any rationale human being would ever vote for a party that pledges to seek independence from a mainland China that is bent on bombing and invading to prevent independence.
A friend of mine just reminded me of an interesting incident back in high school. I was upset with National Honors Society because I deemed them corrupt, and also I just didn't like the advisors. I wrote a lettor to the editor of the school newspaper to expose NHS. It was a pretty interesting time, it created quite some controversy. Some people loved it, some people hated it. It pissed off the faculty advisors, and some of my close friends (including Janet who I wrote about previously).
I remember that I was the only person at graduation who was not wearing the ceremonial outfit that NHS gave us, and it was a really proud moment for me. I don't need some stupid badge to tell me what I'm worth.
Actually my original version was probably slightly harsher, but the editors at the newspaper decided to edit some parts of it. I also included NHS's actual response to my criticism, which also appeared in the paper. To me, it doesn't really say anything, and doesn't admit to or counter any of the points that I made.
I watched Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao knock out David Diaz, with my coworkers Kathleen and Weihan. It was pretty cute, Kathleen is Filipino so whenever Pacquiao got hit she would go "oh no".
There's been a lot of commentary about Pacquiao being a historic figure, for the first time giving Asian boxers legitimacy. And he does it in a big way. 1) he's now considered the pound for pound champion. 2) he doesn't fight the way a stereotypical "Asian" would. Instead of fighting smart and careful, he fights like Tyson, aggressive and powerful. I think it's great to see a guy like this breaking stereotypes, knocking out the legendary Mexican boxers left and right.
It'd be great if he really did set the stage for more Asian boxers to fight. He's a great guy, and a very good role model.
There's a lot of stupid stereotypes out there about Asians, but I think Ichiro in baseball, Yao Ming in basketball, Liu Xiang in track and field, and Manny Pacquiao in boxing will go a long way in terms of fighting ignorance and erasing stereotypes.
Recently, I think my dream for my life has become more clear than ever, that I want to bring something really special to human civilization and become a motivational speaker. My old old and best friend Janet from back home has all the potential, intelligence, and ability in the world. For the longest time, I've been highly critical of her allowing others to dictate her life, studying for teachers, or letting things get in the way of her dreams. The one thing I did not want, was for her to succumb to the pressure and become a doctor or something. Yeah, it looks good, it makes a lot of money, but I think you have only one life, and you gotta go for your dream. Last week, I got a really great letter from Janet, thanking me for my support and advice on life. Janet now has an awesome internship at Disney, and is in position to achieve her dreams, which has always been to work for Disney.
Janet wrote me, "You've taught me a lot about dreaming big and not being afraid to follow them through, so thanks for that. Without you, I'd probably be premed and lost in life. Please don't ever lose your optimism and self-confidence that's unshakeable - that's what defines Michael Zhuang"
It really makes me feel great to see this. I love Janet and she really is one of the best friends I have on this planet.
I also talked to great lengths with another really close friend, Yinbo. Yinbo has an amazing mind, incredibly gifted at math and physics. He's doing his PHD in physics at UCSB next semester. He can be a little backward minded though.
The one point I wanted to get through to Yinbo is the following. Of the people who openly proclaim today, "I'm going to achieve my big dream and be great", only 1% of those people will eventually achieve their dream.
However, of people who have achieved their big dream, 100% of them openly claimed "I'm going to achieve my big dream and be great."
So many people are afraid to go for their dreams because they are afraid to be one of those 99% who fail. There is no shame in not achieving your dream if you give it your all. But running from your dream from fear of the embarrassment of failing is just fooling oneself. You're not helping yourself in the end if you think that way.
It's like a psychological defense, aim low, so in case you fail, you won't feel bad. But you're just fooling yourself in the end. So dare to dream, think big, and go for it. Nobody will laugh at you for trying, and if they do, they're just idiots and it doesn't matter. I love Yinbo so I want to see him achieve his dreams and be happy. I hope I can help him to do that. He said that my words provoked deep thought in him, so I hope he'll come around and cast away his fears.
Anyway, thanks a lot to Janet and Yinbo for making my dream ever so clear. I'm going to reach my dream, of having the world's most innovative company that brings great things that human civilization would otherwise never see. Then, I'm gonna be a motivational speaker, and hope I can help the younger generation achieve their dreams. That's my dream.
I told my Japanese friend, Shoko, "If you're 40 and i'm 40 and we're both not married yet, lets get married". She said "Ok! Good idea!". So I guess that's pretty cool and funny.
Well I live in Harlem during the summer to save money, and today I took a walk to the Apollo theatre. It's an interesting neighborhood. I always wipe my usual smile off my face, to try not to stand out so much. Still, everybody still seems surprised to see me, and always ask what race I am.
So while I was walking, i came across this huge crowd of black guys yelling at the cops. The cops arrested this one black guy, and we're a little bit extra rough with him. So everybody in the neighborhood was yelling and getting mad, throwing bottles, throwing signs, pylons, and whatever at the police. I thought they were going to break out into a brawl. I kinda hate the cops also, I always think people with power abuse their power.
I ended up eating dinner at Pizza Hut where the cashier tried speaking Chinese with me.
It's amazing how much all the controversy surrounding Tibet has calmed down. Although it's probably in good taste, 70,000 people were killed by the recent earthquake, with millions more homeless due to the earthquake and floods. A crazy time for China right now.
I went to a comedy club the other day in Times Square. It was so lame, i was really disapointed. First off, there were 6 comedians. 4 of them asked me if I am a ninja. Now, i realize i'm Asian........but I don't see how that is remotely funny. So those guys were idiots.
But even worse, there were a couple Pakistani guys to my left, and one of the comedian was really offensive. First he kept joking that they are terrorists, which is old, overdone, and not funny anymore. Then, he said like "wouldn't it suck if you spent your whole life doing whatever crap you have to do, then one day find out that allah doesn't exist. You'd be screwed, wasted your life. aren't you worried about that?"
I thought that was really low class.
I'm really enjoying my work. I'm covering some alternative energy companies. The one that really caught my attention is a company called Energy Conversion Devices, ENER. They make solar energy panels to generate renewable clean energy. I'm really high on this company. When it was trading at $62, I thought it was BUY. So i recommended it to my manager, just in the past few days, it's been up 5 days in a row, culminating today with a 15% single day gain. it's up to $77 now!
So if you looking for a stock with great potential, you can't go wrong with this one. I honestly think solar energy is the future. Thinking about a clean solar powered world gets me excited. It's great that i get to learn about such emerging technologies at work.
Well it's been a long time since my last post, I've been super busy studying for finals, writing final papers, and moving to New York for the summer and starting my internship.
I read up a little on Iris Chang's Rape of Nanking book, and it got me thinking about some stuff, including why I don't know or care enough about Darfur. I'll write about that in the coming days, cause I think it's an important topic. There's also been a major earthquake in China, putting 5 million people out of homes. It's terrible, but in a way I'm happy. The builders of the buildings are being sued by civilians who say corruption and misuse of fundings is why the buildings were so weak. So if these people are exposed, I'm very happy.
I've been very troubled lately, trying to figure out what to do with my life in the short term. Basically it all started because my girlfriend all of a sudden wants to get serious, and possibly marriage.
She's a really great girl. She's highly intelligent, very beautiful, super kind, caring, understanding, and our personalities are a very good match. She is also from a classy family, so she's well spoken and polite as well. She's a year older, so she's mature too, which I like. She also is very innocent, in the way that she doesn't have shady thoughts and plans like so many people do(think gold digger). She's really a fantastic girl.
But the thought of getting serious with her puts a lot into perspective. My ultimate dream, the dream i've had for as long as I can remember now, is to run a great company that makes innovative and revolutionary products that provide a positive to mankind that would otherwise not exist. To me, this is like Beethoven, providing music that would not exist without him. Most companies can easily be replaced, but there's a couple truly special companies out there, that push human civilization forward, and that's my dream.
To achieve this dream, I have no idea what path to take. I don't know in the short term what kind of work I should do. Also, I have a lot of side dreams that i've wanted to do. For example, I'm close with both American and Chinese society and culture, but i've always wanted to become closer with European and Japanese society. Should i really waste time in these places, when I should be focused on pursuing my career dream? I also love intellectual topics, studying history, society, culture, etc. But I probably shouldn't waste my time studying these things if I want to achieve my dream?
I heard a line from a song, that I love, "It's ok to be inferior student." I think a lot of people find it strange that I like this quote, they see me as a classic good student. Honestly, that's not remotely true at all. I identify myself more with the rebels of society who don't want to conform with the norms. People think I study because it's the "right thing to do" or the "proper thing to do". Honestly, I hate the school system, i hate grades, i hate being forced to do any of that. It's really just by chance that I love to learn, and i'm very curiuos about things, so I end up studying quite hard. I think it is OK to be inferior student. The measure of a man is in his true ability, his original thought, and his ability to rise up to challenges, it's not how he can perform on state mandated academic tests. I hate being praised for being a "good student". To me, it's shallow, and it has nothing to do with the spirit of why I do what I do.
I haven't written for a couple days. Been pretty busy studying for midterms. Anyway, there was a discussion panel with 4 professors yesterday about Tibet and China controversy. They said some interesting stuff, but I was pretty bored for the most part. There were a lot of Chinese grad students in the audience, and they talked way too much. I felt bad for the other Chinese, cause they probably felt embarrassed.
On May 4th, there's gonna be a big demonstration from Chinese in NYC. It's gonna be huge. Ottawa, Dublin, Melbourne each had Chinese demonstrations, with about 5000 people each. NYC is WAY bigger, so i'm guessing maybe 10,000 people will show up. Possibly way more. I can only hope they don't make themselves look bad, but probably they will. Patriotism and loyalty to your homeland is a great thing i think, but blind pride is a dangerous thing.
Anyway, the main purpose of this post is to express my amazement about how unexpected, and wild life is, and how beautiful life is because of that quality. I had originally been hoping for a summer internship working at one of the well known investment banks. Turns out, financial market goes into disaster, and it suddenly becomes very difficult to find jobs. At first I was really depressed and disillusioned, and I literally panicked. I didn't know what I would do, without finding a good job.
So, based largely on luck, I ended up joining as a summer analyst a nanotechnology and emerging technology focused investment bank, called Livingston Group through Axiom Capital. This is not what I would've asked for, but turns out, could really turn out much better than getting the jobs at the famous companies. There's 3 big reasons to happy.
1) I had always been interested in innovative and revolutionary technology. I greatly admired entrepreneurial technology companies. This job will give me a lot of exposure to these types of companies, the ones that will be the center of the world's economy for years to come.
2)The job is in manhattan and I found a place near Columbia. The manager allows me to work from home sometimes, so I plan on attending Columbia summer school classes! At Penn, all i do is take Wharton business classes that bore me to death. I have a great passion for intellectual topics, and i'll be able to sit in on some good lectures at Columbia.
3) This company turned out to be very flexible. So I asked them for an early start date, so I could have the rest of the summer to go to the Olympics! So that's exactly my plan. I'm gonna finish the internship, then go to the Olympics, and possibly witness a key moment in the history of China's rise into the modern world.
Life truly is like a box of chocolates. There are tons of surprises, that will have big impact on your life. The lesson to take away is, don't be too stressed out or depressed about sticking to some set plan. Life is not something you can map out, and expect a perfect stairway leading to success and happiness. Great things will happen to everyone, that may appear as setbacks. Life is crazy, and surprisingly, and that very quality is what makes it such a beautiful thing.
Well, I'm starting to get annoyed at all the recent controversy surrounding Tibet. There's been so much propaganda, and ignorance on both sides. The Chinese have gathered in huge groups, and they haven't always behaved so well. In a way, their relentless chanting and singing national anthem makes them look somewhat ignorant. It's ok for the Chinese to support their country and hope for the best, but they must recognize the issues at hand as well, which I think some people try to ignore or even deny. The Pro-Tibetan supporters have got to look at more perspective. I've seen banners that say "mass genocide in Tibet." That is the biggest lie I have heard up to now surrounding the issue. Genocide, is a systematic, deliberate, and planned destruction of a ethnicity. Certainly, there may have been a brutal crackdown 20 years ago, but "mass genocide"? Unfortunately, many people tend to respond very quickly to such rhetoric and jump to conclusions. As I posted before, there may be religious restrictions and civil rights restrictions on Tibet(which are not exclusive to Tibetans, but all Chinese), but as activists, people need to tell the truth and provide the entire picture of the situation.
Another idea I've been struggling with, is "Is it ok to use our own concept of human rights to judge another nation?" To me, people should have religious freedom and freedom of speech, which does not exist in China. So I think China should give more religious freedom to Tibet. But by using that same logic, there are tons of issues that Tibet does that would violate the free world's concept of human rights. Separation of church and state? Dalai larma certainly doesn't do that. Tibet traditionally also has a caste system, where you are born into your social class and that's that, again certainly not what we think of as the American dream.
All of the racism, propaganda, and lies from both sides is really annoying to me. But there is hope. Recently, Taiwan elected a new president who pledged to restore relations with China, promote travel, trade, economic cooperation, and friendly relationships. Just yesterday, Taiwanese Vice President had historic and landmark dialogue with China's President, the highest level of dialogue between the two rivals ever. This is a shining ray of hope. These two political rivals can finally put aside political differences, and finally meet to cooperate and building their friendly ties. The Taiwanese President may still want independence, but at least he can put aside his desires, at least temporarily, to promote peace and economic growth.
It is incredible, that these two Asian neighboors do not even have direct flight to each other. To travel from China to Taiwan or vice versa, one must fly through hong kong. It is ridiculous. Chinese investors cannot invest in Taiwan, Chinese businessman cannot live in Taiwan. The new Taiwanese president gives me great optimism, because he pledges to open up trade, establish direct flights, improve relations, establish consistent and effective dialogue, and avoid conflict.
The Taiwan strait is one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints. All it takes is one crazy man on either side to start a huge war, that could drag the USA into the war as well. Tibet is the same, all it takes is one crazy man, one foolish mob, or one stupid lie to start a huge conflict. So, I think everybody should take a lesson from what Taiwan is doing now, put aside meaningless differences, and cooperate for the benefit of everybody.
Hey guys! Thanks for all the comments. keep them coming, I love to hear your thoughts and opinions. The Olympic torch is now in San Francisco, and it's been receiving tons of media coverage. I've been browsing youtube for videos on the topic. Most of them aren't worth posting here, because they've just been propaganda. There is a video floating around that shows a Pro-Tibet protestor who appears to try to steal the torch away from a young girl with cancer in a wheelchair, the Pro-China supporters have been using this video as propaganda. I think it's retarded. It also appears that some Chinese agents of the government have actually been trying to encourage local Chinese students to go out and protest against the Tibetans. There's also been a lot of Pro-Tibet videos that are stupid, and don't take any kind of perspective into account. Some of the things the videos say are actually true(and some are complete lie), but just ignores the wider perspective. Anyway, I've picked out the videos that are fair, and educational.
The most important thing to note, is what perspective means. To be fair, you must take into account perspectives. I think America is a beautiful country, but I could basically go on Wikipedia, make a list of bad things about America, chant these out in the streets of a country that isn't familiar with America and make it seem like a terrible place.
I found this video extremely informative. I was a bit hesitant to post it, because I wasn't sure how fair it is. But I did some research on the man, and it turns out he's a human rights activist, environmentalist, and documentary maker who has spent significant time in Germany, China, and Africa, and has won many awards for his films. So he seems pretty credible. He only really presents one perspective, his goal is basically to clear up misconceptions about Tibet that seem to have developed in the west.
Ok. So I've noticed that a lot of westerners have been out protesting with the Tibetans. So I've been wondering about their motivation as well as their knowledge. Don't take this video for more than it is, but still interesting.
I found this interview very interesting and intelligent. This is a human rights activist against China who still carries the Olympic torch, and she cites her reasons. Some of which are positive hope, improvement in China, avoiding another cold war, celebrating the true spirit of the Olympics, etc.
It's good to see people who can be critical of some policy without losing all sense of perspective.
I'd like to thank you viewers for your comments and remarks, really appreciate them. And I'm having a great time sharing my thoughts and perspective on different topics. I've been holding off on writing about Tibet because there's just so much to say, and because I wanted to see how the events unfold a little bit. I'm gonna try to make the issues surrounding Tibet clear. Now....where to even begin...
There have been major protests around the world against China, but it's also interesting to note that Chinese people in Britain, Germany, and Canada have had their own protests against western media that they claim have been biased and reporting unfairly. And, on this particular occasion, it's probably true. If you actually look at what happened in 2008, who is doing the violence? Tibetans mobs have killed innocent Chinese civilians, destroyed many homes, looted businesses. There's no doubt that China has, and deserves, the rap for brutal military force both against Tibetans and their own people, but on this particular occasion, that doesn't seem to be the case. The Dalai Larma himself has even said he is embarrassed of the way his people have behaved and threatened to resign if they continue the violence. It's also interesting to note that the Chinese media itself is not fair, and the Chinese people's protests(that i mentioned above) would be not acceptable in their own country! So what this means is, those same Chinese people may be proud of their country, but they're still open, willing, and looking forward to reforms like freedom of press.
My personal opinion is that the Olympics is the one truly great opportunity where all nations can put aside differences, and celebrate the human spirit. It's a great opportunity to welcome nations and to learn about Nations. Remember, in 1964, there was still global distrust and resentment against Japan for it's crimes during WWII, the having the olympics in Tokyo exposed Japan to the world and helped to bring it into the circle of allied partners and players. Today, Japan is a major trading partner and political ally.
China, had similar goals with the Olympics. They want to be accepted into the circle of allied powers to promote trade and relationship. And most of the other countries wanted to welcome it, and continue to encourage and push China towards positive reform, that's why China won the Olympics. Now, somehow, protesters and anti-china people seem to have some backward logic, that by antagonizing and isolating China, it is more likely to have positive change.
I'd also like to quickly outline the issues about Tibet. I remember I was talking with a friend once about Tibet, and I asked "If you believe Tibet deserves independence, how is that different from Hawaii?". Her response was "well, because at least Hawaiians aren't starving and in poverty." To this day, I still cringe at this ignorant statement, because China has been extremely key to Tibet's economic growth. First, people tend to have this fantasy that before China invaded Tibet, Tibet was this thriving democratic country. Tibet was extremely backward before 1950(before China invaded), never expressed democratic intent, and was basically a fundamentalist government. More importantly, the issues at controversy have never been about economics, and they shouldn't. China pours billions of dollars into Tibet every year, building schools, roads, highways, railroads, etc. The economy has, for the past 10 years, grown at 12% per year, an incredible rate, and significantly higher than the average across China. GDP is over 30 times more than it was in 1950. Life expectancy has been raised, since 1950, from 35 to almost 70 years. Infant mortality rate has dropped from 44% to less than 1%. These are tremendous advances that people ignore. So if the issue isn't about economics, what is it about?
Victoria posted an analogy of Tibet, which I think is very good. Tibet has a long history of traditions and cultures, and sadly these simply will not exist in 50 years at the current rate of change. China tends to deny it, but it's true, Tibet's lifestyle and culture will not exist in 50 years the way we have known it. Chinese businessmen are pouring into Tibet, boosting the economy, but also slowly chipping away at Tibetan lifestyle and culture. As much as America might try to preserve Native American culture, it's basically gone. Traditional African culture in America is virtually gone. It's a bit sad, but this is the way things are. So this is the central issue that Tibetans worry about. And in my opinion, economics is too strong a force. It's not like most black people are demanding to be sent back to Africa, giving up economic benefits of living in america, to celebrate culture in their homeland. Tibetan youth are going to Chinese school system, watching Chinese media, and they will simply give up their efforts one day as the youth become more and more Chinese and start choosing economic welfare over tradition. So my point is, Tibetans definitely are correct that their culture is on the brink of extinction and it's easy to see why they would be upset about it, but constant bickering, antagonizing, and extreme ideology that will never be accepted by Chinese government isn't solving the problem.
There's basically no real reason Tibet should be part of China, other than historically they have been claimed by China. But that's true of most countries. From China's point of view, they have an attitude of "give Hawaii independence, give Quebec independence, give northern ireland freedom, give Okinawa freedom, give Australian native aborigines their land back, then come talk to us." Tibet has a lot of resources that China wants, so they will never give Tibet up based on that alone. Furthermore, China has long tried to build a multinational country, and most Chinese view Tibet as one of the central ethnicities that make up China has a country(along with Han Chinese, mongolians, manchurians, muslims, etc).
Also, it's important to note that, it's not like western countries have been friendly to Tibet. Before 1950, Britain invaded Tibet, and both Britain and Russia tried to force Tibet to sign unfair treaties. Also, there's sort of a misconception that Tibet has long had independence. Tibet had been claimed by China for something like close to a thousand years, and then had about 4 decades of freedom in between before being invaded by China again.
So i've noted some of the important facts surrounding Tibet. I'll give my opinion now. I Think Tibet deserves to be able to practice their religion freely. They can practice now, but there are certain restrictions(as with all other religions in China). The Dalai Larma and the Chinese government have got to suck it up, get together, and figure out a compromise. Both sides are way too proud, and they can't even freakin sit down and talk. Last week, China said they will negotiate with the Dalai Larma if he renounces ambitions for independence, but he has thus far refused. I think you gotta be more pragmatic here because let's face it.... No foreign countries are gonna start a war with China just to free Tibet....China is never gonna give up the resources in Tibet....So you gotta realize that and do what you can to provide for the Tibetan people. Extreme ideology like demanding independence isn't getting anywhere, and doesn't give more autonomy or religious freedom. I feel for the Tibetan people, I want them to preserve their culture, but their actions are irrational and have not solved anything.
Well I've been showing lots of people my blog, and I'm so happy that people have been telling me it's interesting. I dunno whether they genuinely enjoy it or they are just trying to save me a broken little heart, but I'm still glad for the feedback i've been getting.
Mankind has argued for eternity about the existence of God. Today, I will officially solve this great debate. .............Ok of course i can't do that. But i'll show you a cool little exercise.
I'm gonna show you some philosophy, it's called Pascal's Wager(the mathematician). Just to clarify, utility means goodness, happiness, or value that one gets from the result of a decision.
On Christianity, there are basically 2 possibilities, god exists, and god does not exist. A person can choose to A) believe in god, B) not believe in god. That means, a total of 4 scenarios are possible. See below.
Utilities of your Choice probability god exists=10% p(not exist)=90%
Utiltity of Choose Christianity = 100(if god exists), -1(if god does not exist)
Utility of Not Choose Christ = -100(if god exists), 0(if god does not exist)
So in the scenario you choose to be christian, and God exists, you go to heaven and get +100 utilility(or goodness). In the scenario you choose christianity and god does not exist, you wasted some of your time, and get -1 utility. Scenario you do not choose god and he exists, you go to hell and get -100 utility, cause it sucks to burn in hell. Scenario you do not choose god and he does not exist, nothing happens.
Still following? I basically randomly chose the probability of God existing at 10%, you could argue it should be much higher, or lower, but lets just see what happens.
To calculate the expected Utility of being Christian = (10%)*(100) + (90%)*(-1) = 9.1 Utility of being non-christian = (10%)*(-100) + (90%)*(0) = -10
Therefore, just based on this simple exercise, Pascal argued that choosing Christ is a more rationale decision than non choosing him, based on maximizing utility. Even if we only assume God has a 10% chance of existing, the utility of taking a chance of him is much higher than the utility of not believing in him!
Now my belief is that when you choose religious preference, it should be based purely on your own beliefs, and not on expected utility. In other words, believe what your mind and your heart tells you. Use the information you have available to come to the right conclusion.
So I got my first response from a stranger, and I'm really excited about that. I hope more people that I don't know start reading this blog, and i hope they find it fun, interesting, entertaining, and educational. Also, thank you to Victoria for the insightful commentary on my last post, I will definitely address that in the near future.
Anyway, I just want to talk a little about the things I hate about the internet. First, as you can see from the video I posted, I hate all these videos about ugly/hot asian high school girls. I think some Japanese guy made this video of Korean girls. Ok they are funny......but seriously, it's pretty racist. I keep seeing all these videos of beautiful Taiwanese girls and videos of ugly korean and japanese girls. I always joke with my friends that Taiwanese girls are the hottest, but seriously, there's no significant correlation. Every country has hot and ugly girls. Why the hell do Asians express so much racism against each other? I always keep seeing "dirty jap" "dirty chinese" "dirty korean" all over the internet. The real enemy is the Indians....just kidding. But seriously, I wrote an essay on Japanese inferiority complex for one of my classes, but I think to a certain degree it applies to all the Asian nations.
In my essay, my main theme was that before WWII, Japan had successfully matched the western powers in terms of a thriving society, but they felt disgraced by the Korean and Chinese, who we're still relatively backwards compared to Japan. Japan's line during the war was something like "Japan seeks to rescue our Asian brothers from the shackles of Western imperialism," which meant colonizing taiwan and korea and modernizing them, which they did. Koreans might hate to admit it, but they are a modern society today because of Japan's imperialism, not that imperialism is morally right. So Why did Japan do this? My feeling is that they we're so proud of their achievement, but at the same time, still connected with the other Asians and felt disgraced by them, so they wanted to lift them out of their backwardness to make it seem as if Asians we're superior to the White man.
Anyway, I still think it's terrible all the racism against other Asians all over the internet. Insulting the other Asians, is not gonna make white people think you are superior...and it shouldn't make you feel better about yourself either. Sometimes I see Chinese or Koreans say to each other "you dog eater". WTF? Both of them eat dog..and what's so wrong with eating dog if that's in their culture. You're just being ignorant.
The other thing I hate about the internet, is all the pornography. A couple weeks ago I turned off Google explicit site blocker(I'm a loser, I had no idea you could turn it off) and I was hoping to find some funny picture by some crazy Japanese comedian or something, so I typed in "Japanese". Guess what, nothing but porn, go ahead, try it(with your parent's consent of course). What is up with that? The word "japanese" brings up porn before anything else? cuisine, history, culture, religion, society?
So if people leave comments on the blog, I'll try to address them and also I'd like ideas for other topics to blog about. I want to write about Tibet, but i'd like to wait and see where the current situations heads a little before i write.
CommandoCacho commented about a leading human rights activist in China being jailed. I hate to write again about politics in Asia, but there's just been so much activity over there the past couple weeks. Hu Jia is a leading human rights activist in China, fighting for Tibetan independence, AIDS awareness, environmentalism, and democracy.
I really think it's terrible that he's been sentenced to prison, because he obviously only wants the best for his country. In the Chinese constitution, there is an article that grants freedom of speech to all citizens, unfortunately there are a few restrictions, not the least of which is "subversive actions", which is purposely vague so they can charge simple things as criticism against the government. Hu Jia, basically admits that he broke the law the way it's defined, but he thinks the law itself is wrong. China really is the most complicated and hard to understand country in the world, and there's no way to predict the future. To be honest, it's a shame, because people like Hu Jia really dont' get much support in China. Ever since the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, Chinese government basically said "you guys do whatever you want, don't challenge us, and we'll guarantee you strong economic growth." Unfortunately, this is more than enough for the vast majority of Chinese citizens, thus socially important issues don't get support. To put into perspective, this is largely true in any country, including the US. Hawaiians basically we're brutally invaded by America, but the economy there has been so good, people have good lives, and nobody cares anymore.
It's important to put things in perspective. China has a long way to go in terms of human rights, but to criticize it also is a bit ignorant. Rather than looking at it at this moment in time, if one looks at the progress it's made in the past 20 years, it's easy to see they're improving, rather than getting worse. You can't blame them for where they are now, if they're making progress in their own manner. The right attitude is "we greatly welcome your improvements, but lets not get too carried away because you still have a long way to go." And to be fair, the USA has a lot of human rights problems as well.
In terms of environmentalism, and AIDS, the government is making tremendous efforts. There's huge amounts of research on being environmentally friendly in China, because the government recognizes their resources are gonna run out. There's also huge amounts of AIDS support in recent years, although AIDS is still rampant in the countryside.
Lastly about democracy, as I stated earlier, the vast majority of urban Chinese simply don't care enough because their wealth is growing. Lots of people tend to praise the 1989 democracy movement, and I sympathize with their cause as well, but realistically it was doomed to fail. They didn't get nearly enough support to mount a serious effort, and lets be honest, they weren't really advocating democracy. China consists of about 400 million urban middle class and about 800 million rural villagers. The movement wanted to give political power to the educated middle class basically, the other 800 million would've been left without anything. Also, the movement was highly divided. Half of the protestors were young middle class students who wanted to make China change more rapidly, while the other half were lower class people who thought China had changed too much already, leaving themselves at the bottom of the economic spectrum.
So, certain aspects of China are improving, with a lot of problems still remaining. Whether they will ever have democracy.....I simply can't see it happening with 800 million rural uneducated farmers. If they implement democracy, nobody's gonna give them any power. The people who fight for democracy are urban middle class, and they're certainly not about to hand over all the power to the rural farmers who are the larger majority.
I posted an article about a recent documentary on Yasukuni that has been cancelled in Japan after theatre managers and the film's producers received numerous death threats. Yasukuni is a highly controversial shrine in Tokyo that honors the war dead. There is a museum that is highly revisionist, and portrays Japan as the victim of the war, rather than the aggressor. The shrine also honors 1000 Japanese soldiers who were convicted of war crimes, that's why Asian politicians are very critical of the shrine. Furthermore, Chinese, Taiwanese, and Koreans were forced to serve in the Japanese army, the women as sex slaves. One of the huge controversies of the war, is a famous competition between 2 Japanese soldiers, to see who could be the first to behead 100 people(soldier or civilian).
I’m so disappointed that the recent Yasukuni documentary was cancelled from being shown in Japan. The director, Li Ying, is a Chinese award winning film-maker who has lived in Tokyo for the past eighteen years. He was inspired to start this 10 year long project after witnessing a crowd of Japanese actually cheering during a movie where Japanese soldiers invaded Nanking, one of the most brutal and controversial battles in history. He wanted to explore the nature of bushido that still exists in Japan today. He had financial support from Japanese art societies as well as Korean groups and worked with Japanese people on the film. The filming in Yasukuni went well until they found out he was Chinese, then all hell broke loose. I think it’s a disgrace that the movie is cancelled after theatre managers and Li Ying himself received death threats. The film involves interviewing a swordmaker who actually made swords for Japanese soldiers of WWII, asking if he feels any guilt or responsibility for so many deaths. It also includes much footage of controversial topics, including Japanese people celebrating controversial issues. The daughter of a convicted Japanese war criminal even demand to have her father’s name cleared.
It should be noted that the people who so fervently opposed this film typically are die-hard right wing nationalists. And these people should be ashamed of themselves. Most Japanese, I think, have to take a lot of crap for something that isn't their fault. Many Japanese have been supportive of the film, and have called it's cancellation an attack on freedom of expression.
Anyway I decided to add a column where I'll post anything of interest, importance, inspiration, or controversy that I read recently. Typically it'll be wikipedia or news articles. I posted about the recent riots in Tibet cause I think it's important, and it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
Dulce ed Decorum est Pro Patria Mori. In my Japanese Intellectual History class, we recently studied Bushido, the way of the warrior. This is a mentality that in my younger years, i believed in. It is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. I thought on some level there was beauty in it, and I admired the likes of Samurai who gave their lives to protect their masters, and kamikaze pilots who would do anything to protect their motherland. Now, I realize there is nothing glorious about this kind of death. Alot of times, these people were simply running from troubles by committing suicide. The original writer of the poem was a British soldier in WWI, who was using sarcasm to criticize the senselessness of young boys giving up their lives. The latin phrase was used by some war monger Roman, trying to convince boys that their death in war is glorious.
I think most of the world has changed, and most people don't still subscribe to such foolishness. But I feel bad for people who are still so ignorant to believe in such thought.
I first heard and read this phrase in high school. It makes me sad, because so much of what we were taught in high school, when looking back on it, was really rich and great stuff. I'm ashamed that I didn't pay more attention back then, I was just a stupid kid. I would basically BS my way through high school. But looking back, I can have tremendous appreciation for what we studied.
To close, I will never let my schooling interfere with my education ever again.
Recently I've started to get into boxing a little bit. And I love the klitschko brothers. I can't wait for Vitali's comeback fight against Sam Peter. A chess player, a PHD holder, also happens to be a 6'7 ripped heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Amazing.
In this fight, Klitschko, the white guy, took a lot of criticism. People said that because he grew up in a upper middle-class family that he wasn't as tough as people who grew up in the ghetto. People couldn't imagine a fighter who likes to play chess, who has a PhD, and who is active in philanthropy. I find this guy an inspiration because he bravely fought Lennox Lewis, the undisputed heavyweight champion, in this video despite everybody doubting his courage. In this fight, Klitschko was winning the fight according to all the judges, but was forced to stop because his eye was in such bad condition. He was clearly upset after the fight, because despite his eye being in serious condition, he wanted to continue fighting on. Toughness is not pounding one's chest and acting macho, toughness is about being able to rise to physical, mental, and emotional challenges when needed.
Well my dear friend Janet is going to Japan tomorrow and started a blog, so I decided to start a blog to keep up with what she's doing in Japan. Hopefully I can leave her insightful comments. Actually I really like intellectual topics, so maybe we'll be able to talk about them. I told her about Yasukuni, which she didn't know about. I read in the news today, that a documentary about Yasukuni visits was banned from several theaters in Japan. What happened to freedom of speech?
I named my blog "Never Save Anything for the Swim Back" as a reference to my favorite movie, and the point in my life that has given me inspiration to do everything I've done up to now. The phrase describes the metaphor of two men, who have dreams that are far out in the open ocean. One man tries to swim out to his dream, but is worried about having enough energy for the swim back to the shore and is afraid of drowning. The other man has no regrets, and saves nothing for the swim back, and thus is able to achieve his dream.
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