tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11358905099016274392024-02-19T04:09:24.027-08:00Rocking Offkeyveritas veritatum omnia veritas,
vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitasRocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.comBlogger142125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-2469014024910036252009-08-14T02:03:00.000-07:002009-08-16T02:03:55.299-07:00AhmedHis name is Ahmed. <br /><br />"Ni Hao" Ahmed greets me in his funny Chinese. On any given day, Ahmed would holler at he in either Chinese, English, Arabic, or French, depending on his mood. <br /><br />Ahmed was born in Iraq, he lived in Lebanon. <br /><br />"In Lebanon," He would say, "we say hello to people in English, Arabic, or French, everyday." He learned "Ni Hao" from me - without third intonation. Ahmed didn't learn English in school. He told me he was never in school since he came to the States in high-school age. <br /><br />I didn't know his name was Ahmed, although I had patronized his coffee shop since forever. He didn't bother me with such details besides chatting me up with soccer. Until, a guy upset him one day. <br /><br />"This guy is a douche bag." His chin motioned to a leaving figure, wide and white, while he prepared for my latte.<br /><br />"He asks me what my name is, and I tell him I'm Ahmed. Then he starts to ask me what do I think of the Nine-Eleven; his son is in CIA blah, blah. WTF, just because I have an Arabic name doesn't make me have anything to do with terrorist." Ahmed raises his voices a bit. He never raised his voice over anything besides soccer and holler to the girls. <br /><br />I like South Park, I like douche bags in South Park, so I don't use the word often. But Ahmed doesn't mess around. <br /><br />I actually caught the end of their conversation, wherein the guy commented that "It would be interesting to see how they would kiss up Russia and China's asses." He was talking about Obama. <br /><br />"Yeah," Ahmed continued with his no-nonsense approach, "What about kissing asses, who cares, I say it's better than going around killing people."<br /><br />You don't need to know Ahmed's name to know he is Arabic. His looks, deep and big eyes, shaved bear line, are, for the lack of better words, quite mid-eastern.<br /><br />Ahmed has a fondness for Asian girls, especially Chinese. "Asian girls are the best." He would say. When Ahmed speaks of Asia, he means East Asia, possibly South East Asia too, but nothing beyond, although he is very proud of Iraqi soccer team beating Chinese in the Asia Cup. <br /><br />"This girl has her third boyfriend in two weeks. What's up with Asian girl liking white guys?" He was speaking of the girl having ice cream with a masculine guy in the corner. I couldn't answer that question. For a moment, I almost felt guilty I couldn't hook him up with a Chinese girl many times he asked me. He looked pretty white himself, at least to me. <br /><br />That's when I told him I was going to Australia. <br /><br />"Really? Beautiful place, but I wouldn't want to go on those beaches though. Do you watch Animal Channel? There was this guy holding crocodiles. He was in TV commercials, he was everywhere."<br /><br />Ahmed gave me an incredulous look after I replied no, and continued:"One day, he went to Australia, and stung by a fish. Then he was gone. No Animal Channel, nowhere." He inhaled, "He was dead, just like that." <br /><br />"Good luck man." Now he remembered to add. <br /><br />Ahmed doesn't mess around. <br /><br />__________________________________________________________________________<br /><br />P.S.: The person Ahmed referred to, I later learned, through google, was Steve Irwin, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Irwin" target="_blank">"The Crocodile Hunter"</a>. He was fatally pierced in the chest by a stingray spine while snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-36606954076171009882009-08-13T01:25:00.000-07:002009-08-13T01:49:46.665-07:00Random conversation"Read this", F showed me a lengthy pdf file, with half serious authoritative voice. <br />It was a preface to a book, in Chinese. <br />"Why?" I'm confused, "I've had enough dealing with editors."<br />"My Mom asks me to read", she continued, "but I'm hoping you can read it and then tell me what's it about."<br />I'm speechless. <br /><br />Half a minute later, randomness picked up again.<br />"My Mom would love to read your writing." - Apparently, she wanted to stick with the Mom thing today. <br />"It's the first time I hear of it" - I would have none of it. <br />- "I told her you were always busy" <br />- "True, true."<br />- "I bet you can't write in Chinese either."<br />I was in searching of words again. <br />"Seriously, write one, she would love to read it," F adds emphatically, "but she reads only Chinese. Are you the sage one? Write."<br />- "But, but...I don't have time."<br />That deterred her for just five seconds. "Aren't you write in Chinese and have random conversation with random people online all the time?"<br /><br />That's when I remembered this space - to add more random staff for random people.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-8640777192039288622009-04-28T05:20:00.001-07:002009-05-06T00:22:24.658-07:00Oh So SensitiveThis might be old news. When talking about Shangfang, a Beijing University Professor and scholar claims that 90 percent of those repetitive shangfang people are psychologically paranoid. Shangfang is a Chinese word, meaning skipping local judiciary and seeking justice from a higher authority, usually in Beijing. His claim stirs a big commotion.<br /><br />If you've used Baidu Tiebar, an easy to access forum that is associated with the Chinese search engine, you have probably encountered its "sensitiveness". "Protest" (抗议)obviously is a sensitive word, along with "government" (政府), while complaint (控诉) is ok. Baidu self-imposed so many sensitive words that it's difficult to carry out a normal conversation without using some acronym. Although using sensitive words doesn't mean you can't post them, it means the post needs "editor review" before it can go through, at some point, you just say: f..k this and give up. <br /><br />Modern technology actually acerbate the censorship problem. When the human were in control, at least they would decipher the true meaning of your message. "Language crime", although egregious, was actually rare. Machine intelligence on the other hand can't differentiate between you protesting someone doesn't blow you a kiss, or protesting some social cause. It makes online communication so much more difficult. True, Baidu might be the biggest offender when it comes to sensitive words censorship, there are many more influential liberal sites out there. But I see this self imposing trend spread to others, like Douban. <br /><br />In such an environment, it's pretty much given that you are a bit paranoid or compulsive if you insist getting your message through by jumping through all the hoops. <br /><br />That brings us back to that claim about repetitive shangfang persons. It may well be true that many of those repetitive shangfang-ers are a bit psychologically compulsive. If that Beijing U scholar has any academic credential, I should give him some benefit of doubt. But the question we really should be asking is: what makes them compulsively wanting to skip the local judiciary. What's the injustice that makes them paranoid?Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-19924347674757840582009-03-24T13:39:00.000-07:002009-03-25T03:38:48.998-07:00Cherry Blossom and What notIt's not about the Japanese restaurant I used to eat out. It's the latest internet buzz of public debate in China. A twosome of mom and daughter was chastised and booed away by students of Wuhan University while posing for photos with cherry blossom, wearing Japanese Kimono. And public debate ensues.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://iptv.cnhubei.com/_CMS_NEWS_IMG_/www1/2007-03/20/4_84af7fd380d049e2b49b3587a30907df.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 175px;" src="http://iptv.cnhubei.com/_CMS_NEWS_IMG_/www1/2007-03/20/4_84af7fd380d049e2b49b3587a30907df.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>Cherry Blossom and Kimono make great photo ops, since Japan is known as country of cherry blossoms. The beautiful backdrop of Wuhan University campus provides an enticing make-do for those who can't afford a trip to the east. (*Blossom forecast for D.C. is currently at April 1st.) Unfortunately Wuhan is also a city endured intense battle during Japanese invasion in WWII, and the animosity still runs high for a host of historical reasons. For this very reason, the university has a standing regulation that prevent students to pose with kimonos during the blossom season to ensure public safety. The poor mom and daughter wouldn't be able to hang the "same as there" picture in their sitting room, but good thing no one is hurt.<br /><br />Consider what has been fueling the internet in the U.S., from AIG bonus scandals to newest bailout plans, life is relatively good in China if unpleasant treatment by radical students can cause public buzz. American press is so preoccupied by domestic messes that some border hot-spots in South China sea and skirmish in Tibet have not generated much fanfare.<br /><br />However, it's one thing to grab the chance to preach forgiveness, and promote individual rights; it's quite another to stretch it to something far beyond. China is quite unique, with its political system and all - I busted a chuckle watching Obama prime time press conference when a reporter uttered "communist" in mentioning China - but some has gone far as to suggest Chinese are different people. Brainwashed is something you hear often. Perhaps they are wired differently emotionally - how can they hold their grudges for so long! It's not always the foreigners who suggest that. Some Chinese actually buy into that. Those folks, somehow, have the wonderful abilities of not counting themselves. Their crystal ball apparently doesn't inform them that there are loons and radicals everywhere, and public anger, even unfounded should be handled with caution. Not to mention, we are all from trees in Africa and are all going to die. Many AIG employees don't deserve the public anger that thrust their way, some even receiving threat mails, after all, many of them don't give out bonuses to themselves. But hey, people are angry.<br /><br />Some folks have asked me if Chinese are easy to catch public fever. Idolization of Mao was often cited as evidence. I would cast my glance onto images of Obama on the sidewalk. I've seen his artistic contour on the sidewalks, on windows, on graffiti-filled bridges...you name it. If that's not idolization, I don't know what it is. People like to look up to someone in tough times, it's in our human nature. And, unlike Obama, who hasn't achieve anything significant so far, Mao actually achieved something.<br /><br />Speaking of AIG and what America is up to, you can read by starting with this <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover" target="_balnk">rolling stone article</a>. You should get a pretty good idea of why the system failed, and why it's so difficult - it's often pick your poison - to fix it. The U.S. government is proposing using tax payer money, 1.3 trillion of them, to buy up toxic assets, with plenty room for corruption and back-dealing. That's precisely what the Chinese government did to their big banks and financial companies, circa 1998-2000, when they cleaned up balance sheet by absorbing bad assets. In addition, the U.S. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/business/economy/25web-bailout.html?hp" target="_balnk">seeks to seize too-big-to-fail firms</a>, essentially turning them into state-majority-owned companies. Alas, that again, is precisely the Chinese system, where government controls key big firms and let the smaller ones swim on their own. What has this world turned into?<br /><br />The doomsters would say apocalypse will arrive sooner or later. But I like Keynes' take: in the long run, we are all dead.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-50501179077744668242009-03-15T07:54:00.000-07:002009-03-15T08:03:54.803-07:00California CoastI can never get enough of these.<br /><br /><table><tbody><tr><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiISCkwiAEC5hCtTalATbhZDTDrFkZR_1rCdA7mJ_G7UoFWTFQqQbkZTuf4pgScrdmdoVb3Y5GapCfsmWwwAK1UouVUCDSOpUsqyLhdjzWDTnf01GI25qGYDrijmdHPPTFpY3hI1VAG6bti/s320/lomgbeach.jpg" border="0" /></td><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh07jdhdEiBmxzQkDwYGckSX8L8fTjPXdeCQNyIk8g1CLqD9bcRHpfZGdxngue8a_dkGSugRazZhDFZo01Jovim3zMk0kEqFBkvJ6NhyDMaj0fn-TG1Ew64qsGQ8k0u4vkGDCu8asHwVdq-/s320/walk.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhKlGzi79fBmwFKfQkoxAp-xjZ97bHm3D69gRj5Y2TJJH50Wf7DQlTIxE4fjam81ah6sm5TNmcw5iWbl66kelXpps0Cgnxwo86vSvN0NmO-u6b6w0H5x0VMr88Lp2aLJ_7NzVDJa3VqLlS/s320/bayhouse.jpg" border="0" /></td><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwV45o64AtZcpZINFdvZe8NyuYN6mFt-RxqWSwHpIosduQF9Hkp2wZtR1cVw3KtlmPB9ER8vj1oNShm8meKJ8EuAzRf2KHtZ5R8LK9wZL7D3LW9f3bczBAzC54aUWC_Qmt_kOQ6DE2AnZx/s320/shorelighthouse.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr></tbody></table>Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-78541981586333643432009-03-10T10:17:00.000-07:002009-03-10T11:06:59.756-07:00Look Ma, He doesn't let me spy on his new toy on his curbsideThat's essentially what <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/washington/10military.html?ref=asia" target="_blank">The Pentagon said</a> in a story that breaks out to media. <i>USNS Impeccable</i>, the sonar equipped Navy spy-ship was turned away about 75 miles off the coast of Hainan island, and near the Chinese submarine base.<br /><br />China,<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/11/world/asia/11military.html" target="_blank"> in rebuttal</a>, emphasized that the incident happened in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exclusive_Economic_Zone" target="_blank">Exclusive Economic Zone</a>, which extends 200 nautical miles, or 230 miles, from coastline. In general, ships are free of passage in EEZ, but navy spy-ships certainly raises flags. NYT reports that "The United States and other nations consider the area as lying in international waters. " In fact, it is governed by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Convention_on_the_Law_of_the_Sea" target="_blank">UNCLOS, which the United States accepted all but Part XI as customary international law, although it hasn't ratified it.<br /></a><br />In reality, spy incidents like this happens all the time. Although, the U.S. is probably the only country who thinks it has the right to lay hands on anybody's ass - or spy on toys. It's not clear to me whether it's because the ship finally gets intolerably close to the Chinese, or the Chinese patrols suddenly decides to act like they some backbone after the <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7904484.stm" target="_blank">Russia sinking cargo ship incident</a>. Either way, for the U.S. to protest and claim "oh they laid some woods to block our passage" is pretty amusing.<br /><br />NYT gets one thing right. It draws some similarity to the spy plane incident. Whether who is the initial provoker, it offers some test for the new President. And I'm guessing the Chinese Navy would be a winner out of this too, since it is hotly debated the need to build a Naval Carrier in China. In incidents like this can possibly sway the support.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-73339804092606048902009-02-19T01:25:00.000-08:002009-02-19T02:27:43.579-08:00Dark Comedies in Crisis TimeThese are the times of dark comedy. They make you laugh out loud, and deeply sad at the same time. Even the best New Year's Movie wouldn't have scripted it. (This year's Chinese New Year's Movie, <span style="font-style: italic;"><a href="http://www.douban.com/subject/3313801/">If You Are The One</a></span> wasn't very good.)<br /><br />From <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/china.mistress.contest/?iref=mpstoryview">CNN</a>, the story of Chinese mistress contest taking tragic turn:<br /><br /><blockquote>A married Chinese businessman who could no longer afford five mistresses held a competition to decide which one to keep.<br /><br />...<br /><p> When the economy soured, the businessman apparently decided to let go of all but one mistress.</p><p> He staged a private talent show in May, without telling the women his intentions. An instructor from a local modeling agency judged the women on the way they looked, how they sang and how much alcohol they could hold, the Shanghai Daily said.</p><p> The judge knocked out Yu in the first round of the competition based on her looks. Angry, she decided to exact revenge by telling her lover and the four other women to accompany her on a sightseeing trip before she returned to her home province, the media reports said.</p><p> It was during the trip that Yu reportedly drove the car off the cliff.</p></blockquote><br />If you think only laymen are able to provide laughs, you would be wrong.<br /><br />Zhang Weiying, a prominent Chinese Economist who got his degree from Oxford and a proponent of market reforms, suggests solving China's consumption stimulus problem by giving each citizen a share of the massive foreign reserve. All government assets really belongs to the people anyway, he was quoted saying in open talks, so if we give it back to the people, maybe they can spend it as they see fit.<br /><br />Hold on, Prof. Zhang, do you really understand what Foreign Reserve is? Official foreign reserve, although sounds like government asset, doesn't really belongs to the government. Every time someone, say an exporting company, brings in foreign currency, like Dollar, and he exchange it with the central bank to domestic currency creates foreign reserve. China has massive foreign reserve only because the central bank forces companies to sell most of foreign exchange holdings to the central bank, and China exports far more than imports. So, although those reserves are "official", they don't really belong to the government. For every reserve deposit that is created on the central bank's balance sheet, there is debt to the private sector in RMB created. If you were to everyone a share of the reserve, and he/she was about to spend it, which requires converting into domestic currency, you would end up creating money twice. Stimulating? Yes. But what a wonderfully messy world would it be.<br /><br />Not to mention, the U.S. government and the whole financial world would be in panic. In normal times, it actually makes sense to leave the foreign currency and thus risk management decision in the private hands. But, not in crisis times. Imagine now again, an average person is allotted a share of $10,000. He would worry about the value of those dollar immediately. Now, given all the jittery about Dollar, and prospects of the U.S. bailout programs, he would most likely want to exchange at least a large share of that into RMB just to be safe. Since, nobody is stupid, they all know others have the same worry, the best way to preserve value is to run ahead of everyone else in selling dollar. Bam! you created equivalent of bank runs in exchange rate market. On the contrary, the current arrangement, however unsound it was before, has advantage of stability. The Chinese Central Bank has to taken into account the loss of value on their remaining large holdings when it plans to sell dollar. <br /><br />Mr Zhang's suggestion seems to deserve a hearty laugh. But considering he is one of government's hey advisers, it is actually far less amusing.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-91282264612770148582009-02-07T23:51:00.001-08:002009-02-08T00:37:42.490-08:00When idiots run asylumOnce upon a time, when we were young and restless - yes we did - we would touch upon these unpleasant political topics. My roommates would refer to Chinese intolerance, extreme in times like cultural revolution, as "asylum". <br /><br />I had a slightly different take. "Asylum isn't that bad", I would inject my comments, "Asylum actually has its own rules. It depends on who is running it. It only gets that much worse when idiots, or inmates are running it."<br /><br />That was a distant memory. <br /><br />Then, when a friend talked about forming a group on Doudan, a Chinese social network, my reaction was that I would only form a group if it was about "the more you read, the more counter-revolutionary you become."<br /><br />The phrase that later became the group title was an actually phrase from the Cultural Revolution. It was used as my contempt for Douban, and that unduly adulation of an "educated person". "Counter-revolution" was, of course, a word long buried in the history book. No one actually use it in everyday life, except, maybe, to jeer. My tenet of the group was that too much reading wasn't always desirable, it would stymie your original thinking, especially if you half-understand half-cooked ideas or facts. (In fact, that's my understanding of the original intent of the slogan.)<br /><br />It was never an active group - as lazy as I am, you can always expect that. If I remember it correctly, the longest thread in the group was about "what would you request your daughter to read or not to read", with about 15 replies. <br /><br />Fast forward to today. I got an email, informing me that the group was dismembered due to "violation of related laws and regulations". I believe it was due to Douban's voluntary compliance of internet censorship. Frankly, although not that I care, I can't quite make out what regulation it specifically violates. But the incident does reminds me of the conversation about asylum we had many many years ago. <br /><br />I can't pinpoint whether the group was dismembered because of the asylum, or who runs it. But I would like to think I had a point.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-37983680377381357792009-02-02T13:58:00.000-08:002009-02-02T14:25:04.699-08:00Super "Balls"It wouldn't be Superbowl if it didn't give us some ads to talk about.<br /><br />Apparently, AshleyMadison.com managed to slip their <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwJSD46JSoM&eurl=http://bbs.clutchfans.net/showthread.php?t=161847&page=1&pp=20" target="_blank">new commercial (youtube)</a> into the Super Bowl after being formally rejected by the NFL and NBC from airing nationwide. For those of you don't want to google, the website, a Canadian company, is a dating site geared toward married people who want to have affairs. Yes, that's the sole focus of that website!<br /><br />Ironically, the current economic environment has something to do with the slippage of the standard. <a href="http://news.websitegear.com/view/100919" target="_blank">According to its CEO</a>, "The effects of the current recession are so profound that many local stations were willing to accept Ashley Madison advertising dollars." And what's more, "In this current economic climate," he adds, "Divorce isn't an option for many women who are stuck in unhappy marriages. We want them to know there's a service just for them."<br /><br />Oh, this isn't just a North American thing. I've heard stories from my relatives about Chinese white collar girls advertised themselves to be "second wife", allegedly to weather the economic storm.<br /><br />Ads from the dating website isn't the only banned commercial Super Bowl. A pro-life video portraying President Obama as an unborn child has also been <a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/30/nbc-rejects-pro-life-ad-featuring-obama/" target="_blank">rejected</a> by NBC-TV, alongside with a PETA commercial.<br /><br />Sometime, you wonder what the world has come into. You know, there is Super Bowl, and then, there is super "balls", as in somebody's got the "ball".Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-65117888886725730872009-01-30T00:40:00.000-08:002009-01-31T00:35:46.195-08:00What does Obama want of China?The evidence of policy stance of the new administration towards China is scarce. The only significant comment comes from Tim Geithner, the Treasury Secretary. In talking about the U.S. economic policy, he says that "strong dollar is in the national interest of the U.S.". However, turning to China, he also says of China "manipulating" its currency value, meaning, RMB needs to appreciate. <br /><br />Now let's set aside first China's right to "manage" (as the U.S. often did during the 80s) exchange rates. Let's try to decipher what the heck he really means. So, in Geithner's mind, China needs to appreciate currency value against dollar, which is against the national interest of the U.S. Maybe he is being deliberately ambiguous? Not likely, he isn't Fed Chairman. Or he may imply the Dollar needs to be strong against other major currencies, like Euro, but weak against RMB. That would imply that RMB appreciates way more against the Euro, which doesn't seem likely, not to mention trillions of IOU notes U.S. issued to China - and continued Chinese support that needs for the new debt. Of course, in the event of RMB appreciation, it automatically deflates. Therefore, the only consistent interpretation, it seems, is that Dollar needs to be "strong" in order to support the bailout plan, but the U.S. wants to get an upper hand in the "currency manipulation" blame game, so it can pressure China to appreciate RMB and thus alleviate the U.S. debt burden later. <br /><br />I suspect this would be the central theme in US-China relationship during early part of the administration. It would be very interesting to see how this plays out.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-77885818825030030192009-01-12T23:39:00.000-08:002009-01-13T11:30:25.954-08:00China's New Year Shopping ListWith a retrenching U.S. economy and stash of foreign reserve. What's on China's new year shopping list as "Niu (ox)" year approaches? Early indications are that they are not blowing cash on the wall street, like what Japanese did in the nineties. In stead, China keeps her eyes on talent and human resources. <br /><br />Reports of CIC (China Investment Corp.)'s headhunting in New York has received some media coverage. With much less fanfare, Chinese colleges and universities are making a major push to hire faculties on the U.S. academic market. Record number of schools were present in this year's ASSA meetings (for Economics, Finance, and Social Science). With many of the U.S. markets in hiring freeze and improved incentive packages, they expect better success than previous years. According to a Dean of Beijing University, China has large demand for fiscal theorists now that government surplus creates a happy problem to have, but a problem nevertheless. Even Chinese astronomy observatories are throwing a banquet reception in the field's U.S. annual meetings. Not to be left out, Chinese industries are also quietly making the recruiting push, they don't usually make high-profile noise, but they pop up here and there. <br /><br />I am not sure this is due to low risk appetite in overseas investing or simply brilliant strategic planning, or, China learning from the experience of the Japanese, but this is not the first time Chinese sophistication surprises me. Cue the Mastercard ads...priceless.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-88758319697428022962008-12-17T23:28:00.001-08:002008-12-17T23:47:36.706-08:00The Great...What do they know?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/2008/1101081013_400.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 329px;" src="http://img.timeinc.net/time/magazine/archive/covers/2008/1101081013_400.jpg" alt="" border="0" /></a>I'm really not in a position to spend time writing right now. But here is a perfect dark humor I come across when doing some work.<br /><br />You wouldn't be short that Time would run a cover of The New Hard Times, given the current situation. But maybe you would be amused that just a year ago Times (UK) ran a column of <a href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/gerard_baker/article1294376.ece"><span style="font-style: italic;">Welcome to the </span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Great Moderation</span></a>. Great Moderation is a term that is used to describe the peaceful growth the world has been enjoying. It has caught some fire in the circle of policy makers. I have come across at least one FedRB's research paper that used the term in the title. The subtitle of the January Times piece says:<blockquote>Historians will marvel at the stability of our era</blockquote><br />Maybe the author is mocked by his ten-year-old son right now. It begs the question: what does commentators really know. Yeah, sure, historians will marvel about <span style="font-style: italic;">something</span>.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-80305913730769018102008-11-11T14:04:00.000-08:002009-01-12T23:38:57.289-08:00Is China graduated from "Original Sin"Some more quick thoughts about the sizable Chinese stimulus package:<br /><br />Is China graduated from the class of emerging markets, which are often characterized by inability to borrow in the local currency - the original sin, and countercyclical fiscal policy? Many people in the west are in shock of the size of stimulus that was announced. Although the true figure is hard to verify - I have no idea how they arrive at that figure - China is acting more like a matured economy on that front.<br /><br />Upon further investigation of the detail though, China is unique in many aspects. Perhaps it should not be in the EM class at the first place.<br /><ul><li>Most of the announced stimulus is directive to state-owned companies to invest and expand. The U.S. has been urging its banks to lend more also, but I bet China would have more success in cajoling its companies.<br /></li><li>China enjoys high saving rate. Although many argue the approach has been mercantilism, the high reserve comes in handy in a time of crisis like the current one. </li><li>The mere size of a diversified economy. Countries like Chile and Brazil, and possibly Russia who relies a lot on oil revenue, are more likely to be subject to a turn-of-trade shock from their commodity exports. Although China's external component of GDP is about 70%, which is alarmingly high, China also enjoys the advantage of sheer size and a more diversified economy.<br /></li></ul><br />This reminds me of a<a href="http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/11/10/081110crat_atlarge_lanchester?currentPage=all" target="_blank"> New Yorker critics piece</a>: <blockquote><br />If the invention of derivatives was the financial world’s modernist dawn, the current crisis is unsettlingly like the birth of postmodernism. For anyone who studied literature in college in the past few decades, there is a weird familiarity about the current crisis: value, in the realm of finance capital, evokes the elusive nature of meaning in deconstructionism. According to Jacques Derrida, the doyen of the school, meaning can never be precisely located; instead, it is always “deferred,” moved elsewhere, located in other meanings, which refer and defer to other meanings—a snake permanently and necessarily eating its own tail. This process is fluid and constant, but at moments the perpetual process of deferral stalls and collapses in on itself. Derrida called this moment an “aporia,” from a Greek term meaning “impasse.” There is something both amusing and appalling about seeing his theories acted out in the world markets to such cataclysmic effect. Anyone invited to attend a meeting of the G-8 financial ministers would be well advised not to draw their attention to this.</blockquote><br />He could be talking about market characterization terminology. Developing, underdeveloped, emerging, BRIC, what else?Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-40891768830760081752008-11-09T15:27:00.000-08:002008-11-09T19:23:37.742-08:00Here and There<ul><li>A trip to grocery store, $68.<br />A cup of Spanish Latte, $3.80.<br />Keeping the marriage between men and women?<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/us/politics/06marriage.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink" target="_blank"> $75 million</a>.</li><li>If politicians like an average voter can not be trusted to lead, can you trust voters to pick the right person?</li><li>Taiwan, <a href="http://1-apple.com.tw/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Article&IssueID=20081107&art_id=31119604">violence broke out</a> upon Chinese official's visit to negotiate direct trade deals. A CCTV female reporter was also attacked during the "siege". Taiwan may think of itself as a vibrant democracy, it has much to learn from the relative tranquility on American streets where close to half of the people don't agree with the person elected.<br /><br />If the government should be "by the people, for the people", what if "people" are unruly and violent, happy to take cheap shots, being exploited by politicians in the process?<br /><br />I'm not sure what exactly people on the Taipei streets wanted to achieve, it seemed like a whole a lot for nothing, but here are some perspectives from the top, take your pick:<br />Ma Ying-jeou:"Tsai(DDP Chairwoman) was responsible for (instigating) the clashes."<br />Tsai:"The government that forces people to go into the streets should be held responsible." Hmmm, I'm disappointed in Cornell (where Tsai got JS.)<br /></li><li>One way to weather the storm in an economic downterm is to take money from haves to have-nots. Then the economic wheel can keep turning. Fiscal stimulus may be one politically acceptable way to do that. By fiscal expansion, government debt would be later financed by increased taxes, which would be shouldered of larger proportion by high-earners, or if not sufficiently financed, would cause inflation, which would bring savers' real wealth down. Large inflation is as ugly as a recession, so is to be avoided. Therefore, the tax burden is to be shared one way or the other.<br /><br />While the U.S. congress is contemplating a second stimulus, Chinese government <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/10/world/asia/10china.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink" target="_blank">unveils a large stimulus package</a>, featuring mostly State-driven investment project. The success of it depends on who it really benefits - it should be the poor - and how it will be financed later. </li></ul>Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-15539880834828441862008-11-04T12:07:00.000-08:002008-11-04T13:26:27.468-08:00Trick or Treat“Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself,” that's a famous line from Roosevelt's first presidential speech. People wanted him, in comparison to hapless Hoover, to succeed so much that FDR had to hire many additional workers to handle mails from well-wishers.<br /><br />The election will be over tonight. In the process, Palin went from the most popular governor in the country to be edified on SNL and a Tina Fey double. Republicans complained so much about media bias, it would probably put Chinese grievance in shame. That will be over also for her, win, or in the most likely case, lose.<br /><br />We don't yet know what Obama is going to do, although we know his promises <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122480790550265061.html" target="_blank">add up to 85 pages</a>. Energy policy will probably be the first to gather enough political will to pass, although coal industry is already trembling<a href="http://newsbusters.org/node/25829?q=blogs/p-j-gladnick/2008/11/02/hidden-audio-obama-tells-sf-chronicle-he-will-bankrupt-coal-industry" target="_blank"> in fear</a>.<a href="http://atimes.com/atimes/China/JJ28Ad01.html" target="_blank"> Many Chinese are enamored with him</a>, the way they saw a young, handsome, and energetic politician in Clinton, bill, that is. But his China policy is harder to differentiate. We only know he leans against more free trade, that he opposes NAFTA. Somehow, these issues were not even debated, not on the level of "lipstick on a pig" at least.[Speaking of trade policy, it used to be that American workers are more productive than others, so free-trade naturally favors the U.S., but that edge is rapidly waning, so does the appetite for free-trade. This election, more than anything, is a referendum on American people's acceptance in The U.S. new reality in the world. They don't worry about "the world leader" anymore than "give me the bread today". I wonder what Krugman thinks, since he was a strong proponant for free-trade in his more academic years.]<br /><br />Oh, we also know that when slightly annoyed, while McCain has that it's-so-ridiculous-it's-laughable look, Obama has a more solemn what-the-heck-he's-talking-about look. As FDR could testify, personality plays a large part in a president's initial success.<br /><br />The season of well-wish should not wait for January. Some will ask the "trick-or-treat" question, but the Hallowing is already over.<br /><br />P.s. Here's another paragraph in the same FDR speech that is as interesting to read this time around:<br /><blockquote>True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.</blockquote>Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-15722412908659780732008-10-16T18:46:00.000-07:002008-10-19T13:49:21.569-07:00Sweet Organic YogurtMy organic yogurt tastes sweet.<br /><br />It makes me curious since I can't seem to find sugar in its listed ingredients. Upon further investigation though, I find the curiously worded "evaporated cane juice". "That's sugar" - my third grade science education saves me from puzzlingly over this myth for the rest of my life.<br /><br />But I feel almost guilty. We are not suppose to think through these things. We like our yogurt organic and low-fat, we like sweet taste to help our happy digestion, but we don't like the word "sugar" on our otherwise healthy yogurt. "Evaporated cane juice", the geeky sound of it makes us feel so much better.<br /><br />In Chinese idioms, there was a fable about "three in the morning, four for the evening". Once was a man who raised monkeys, he became poorer and had to bargain to cut their food. "I'd promise each of y9u three chestnuts in the morning and four for the evening." The monkeys were angry, "How can you treat us so poor!". "Then how about four in the morning and three in the evening?" the man re-offered. "That's much better", the monkeys were satisfied with his concession and jumped off triumphantly.<br /><br />The modern day version of the story in the U.S. is probably presidential election. I don't know Barack Obama would keep his promises without raising taxes, nor do I know how McCain would balance his budget by cutting Pork Barrel Projects. No matter, all we care is whether Palin sounds stupid in interviews or eloquent in debates, or what "pro-America" really means. With <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122419210832542317.html" target="_blank">Peggy Noonan</a> weighting with mighty wordsmithship, is there any doubt this is more of a battle of words than anything else? <a href="http://www.insideoutchina.com/">Inside-out China</a> lead to to an interesting article about <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/10/13/081013fa_fact_wood"> verbage, </a>but I see us more of prisoners of words. The challenge of the art is how to tell us we are in trouble without saying the word "trouble", or in McCains case, how to reassure the fundamental is sound without uttering the word "sound". Modern Homo Sapiens are not that different from old-time primates.<br /><br />Certains words are to be avoided. While I'd love to be in that room to see the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/business/economy/15bailout.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink">drama</a>, no one in the media would utter nationalization or sociolization outright. If we were to sustain bailouts and revamps without otherwise changing our economic habit or raising our own taxes, we will sure shedding some of our burden to the next generation. But we don't want to hear that, we prefer to call it economic "smoothing". The chinese, being an old civilization surely understand the power of words, how else can you find naked capitalism basking under the glory of socialism? In a new market de-regulation, the China Security Overseeing Commitee calls the newly allowed short selling "security financing" (融券). My suspicion is that "shorting" would sound too much capitalist and unpleasant.<br /><br />Give us our sweet yogurt, but never say sugar. You are in business.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-90249268294335472032008-10-12T20:38:00.000-07:002008-10-12T20:58:44.308-07:00Calling All MonetFall color is beginning to be in full swing. For kids, they don't worry about the financial crisis, nor do they have the agony of your football team losing, all they call is the 16th birthday of Hanna Montana! Yay! For adults, nothing is quite like a sunny weekend to brush the mood up. I find the pictures loose a bit of color and brightness, so I decide to leave one of them dark and in black and white in protest.<br /><br /><table><tbody><tr><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbf01JiDbljMsxCwwajxzRsH9rgKjiCBr38jdMhhjo8Th2zBuhVNpenJc5knfckqerVIJ2prB-gD4rn0Rl21Tkc9FkNf2aLFkJIa9b1RzcpqtrRJEsYa-EiNFvoPs0qE0Njj1EWyWhb3i7/s320/autumn1.jpg" border="0" /></td><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZYU8F9DxlK45dlncH86k5OdLChC77nvsgEYYru-rtmPqirH4-nGU0cCxzjk6uFUk2zf56yDfkxi8_9Off5xHrMET2u66d8sZAv5eVlo_hGG9M03U448_hgQS5miZblSOzhH4FAFEBTwfQ/s320/autumn2.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr><tr><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigen4CQWphU9tCu8Jf7OOiULgWaf7ycWz5ZNoWRaHUfvGRt-k8dYfq39PWqHPArnJ9WwXF_l3AKh7DI0E807twqYxiUCtltjOcOoXCvLhyphenhyphen16-tY3fzhmv78qZkns7Sm66qOTuJJ2Rm-M3D/s320/autumn3.jpg" border="0" /></td><td><img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs-jlWY-Jt8_0nDZPQdbKfdAnQoqb_WNDmPc64vFkBNNLGmUhrTLOrc2CIOmWx7_SzyuGIg-3TeJ9QROWMRl9rO8JMesBxfq2nIyt1DvoXg6qthyphenhyphenDBi8NHxmHgCsky88kmSPb_R3w8JW-x/s320/autumn4.jpg" border="0" /></td></tr></tbody></table>Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-89111582689713325882008-10-08T11:15:00.000-07:002008-10-14T03:45:04.285-07:00Next Big Step in China?<img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXCDSZN_2WNbHWjpK5fysxio2Zd4A1OM9albWjDfXUteFlWbhardQ_ILBEWV-IpczSQTKy6lyIVBkAoQ9Gjb2ycqiNbRcyUa_MgyvUfoahd1bG3Wrhfu2JF1085KImKNGs00yWXI5PJbDo/s320/IMG_8815.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5254736339162881218" border="0" /><br />This autumn is a bit extra chilly. I don't hear the topic of trade policy and China from the presidential debates when turmoil on the Wall Street is all the rage, but let's not lose sight on changes in China that could have potentially significant effect on the world economy for years to come.<br /><br />China is said to address agriculture policy on the coming parliament conventions. The new policy would "allow agriculture land to circulate". Many believe the wording is a cover for capitalization of the agri-land, and a prelude to complete privatization.<br /><br />Whether privatize or not, a new wave of land concentration and corporation of agriculture production are in sight. Many of those who are now called "migrant workers" will then simply be called "workers". Many of them, for one reason or another, will sell their land asset and become permanently labor force, whether in urban factories or on the newly formed agriculture corporations. Many of the young in China's rural areas have already left their home. Years after, a young man who wants to start up on agriculture will have the same problem as young ones in Indiana - it's difficult to get into since land will be difficult to lease or purchase. After the private capital pours into agriculture, there will be no longer an excuse to keep the price of agriculture products down, thus changing the relative price of Chinese economy. And since China is so big, it will have profound effect on the world economic structure too. [On a side note, the word "farmer" will no longer has a connotation of slightness in China.]<br /><br />It's hard to judge if the new direction of the policy will be successful. But if the process in the cities are of any guidance, we can probably anticipate that the increase in productivity and the economy will be there but rights of individuals will be encroached in many cases. As economists would say, economists care not the redistribution problem until there is a crisis.<br /><br />It all seems remote compared to the financial crisis we are in. However, some argues what happens in China is the single most important factor shaping our changing world. The integration of China into the world economy has realigned world's manufacturing industry and jobs; the cuddling of foreign capital and poor protection of workers rights has put pressure on the negotiation positions American workers are in; etc. The dead-weight will be cast, the credit issuance will resume. The next step of what China is going to do will have prolonged effects for years to come.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-74738476834519046412008-09-26T20:36:00.000-07:002008-09-27T01:10:16.326-07:00Topsey Turvey Economics<a href="http://finance.sina.com.cn/g/20080924/06425336795.shtml">funniest news piece about the economy</a> on Sina Finance. Translated into English, it reads:<blockquote>President of SoHo China, Pan Shiqi, in pleading for government help in the real estate market, warns that suffering of developers would lead to higher housing prices, not lower. Houses, he says, like coal, pork, and baby milk formula, will have higher prices when supply shrinks.</blockquote><br /><br />I have to solute him for not mention just one non-durable product, but three as comparison; I'd also solute him for understanding concept of higher price with negative supply sift. However, before doing that, he needs also assume the market for housing, a durable good, is in equilibrium - then why the hell he cries for government again? China has been worrying about an American style meltdown originated from real-estate market, and this quote can be viewed as an empty threat from the troubled developers.<br /><br />Don't ask Chinese real estate tycoon about economics.<br /><br />It reminds me of a research paper by Chicago economist. The gist of that thesis is that inequality isn't as bad as previously believed when measured in real consumptions because the rich buys differently. While the poor has enjoyed steady or declining prices as a benefit of Chinese exports, the rich has not been as lucky - the price of luxury cohort of the same goods don't decrease as much.<br /><br />The consumers of China's contaminated diary products, because they can not afford the more expensive foreign brands, would surely disagree.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-18634149920405492742008-09-20T09:36:00.000-07:002008-09-20T09:36:00.258-07:00Cows on the StreetWhat do China's milk incident and America's financial turmoil on Wall Street have in common?<br /><br />A lot, actually. For starters, we are in a era of having to pay for someone else's responsibilities. The well behaved financial companies would have to pay for overly aggressive firms; if Washington's proposed bail-out, amounting to hundreds of billions of promised money, was to carry out, taxpayers are expected to pay for the greed of the money managing industry. The government would in effect control a huge stake in the financial industry, and in turn control a large chunk of the economy. Who says the U.S. is capitalist and China is socialist again? In China, well behaved milk producers are suffering the same as corrupt and negligent firms turn public confidence toward mil product to historical low. Diary farmers are also in a bind. As government rush to sort out the mess, for now, their daily output are only to be trusted to feed the flowers and plants.<br /><br />Let's play the blame game. Washington blames greed on the Street. Traders blame stupid quants giving the wrong model. Quants blame business people feed their computer with the wrong data, and business people naturally blame banks. As banks blame on hapless people like you and me, you blame on your stupid neighbor who brought houses he couldn't really afford. The folk would undoubtedly point back to politicians in Washington. Oh, Merry go around. On the other side of the globe, consumers want to slaughter the diary giants. The diary producers would point fingers at farmers. After all, that's a easy target and it has always been first instinct of firms and officials caught red-handed to blame on them. The farmers would blame on the market and milk collectors that squeezed their profit, or everybody else who made their lives equally hard. Or, as the joke goes, they would blame on the cows, and let cows blame on grass feeds.<br /><br />But you get the sense something systematically is wrong, in both cases. Oh, you can always point to greed for an answer - that's always there, but you also get the sense that the game wasn't set up right.<br /><br />I read somewhere that mainstream Chinese economists - "mainstream" is a negative word in China when associated with experts - argue that China has established a bright, ideal system of localized competition, provinces, counties, and municipals competing against each other with their own industries and resources. That sounds fine and dandy, like a theory, at first glance; until you realize it involve the madness of competition of political power in the market place. Firm behavior when backed by local governments are like throwing two boxers into the ring with no judges. They would scratch and scrawl, taking turns to be judge themselves. When competition intensifies, they could literally choke babies - see the milk incident, and until then would central authority step in for a fix. Speaking of central authorities in China, they are finding out the new realities quick. Their usual ways to fix and control are lagging in this information age, so they always find a step behind the public's expectations.<br /><br />The same can be said of the government in Washington.<br /><br />After the dust settles, the too-big-to-fail firms on the Street will live on, the too-much-government-asset-to-fail dairy producers of China will have a happy new life. The market was up Friday, but don't mistake cows as bulls. If the Wall Street were raising cows, the situation would be described in Chinese joke parlance as "The cows remained calm," a joke with similar connotation of <a href="http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/news/2003/04/58452">wacky Iraq minister</a> in denial.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-48325625811610543182008-09-15T10:04:00.000-07:002008-09-15T14:16:33.733-07:00Say Cheese<a href="http://static.youku.com/v1.0.0324/v/swf/qplayer.swf?VideoIDS=XMjI2MDUyNDg=&embedid=-&showAd=0">Antonioni's film <i>Chung Kuo</i></a> was shot in 1974, under special approval from the then Chinese government. It was subsequently banned for "negative portrait" of China, the ban was lifted after 30 years in 2004.<br /><br />Those days in Antonionno's film are long gone. You can hardly identify the scenes in the film of today's Tian'anmen Square, or Shanghai, except maybe the ritual way people taking pictures - in wedding photography boutiques. Zhang YiMou would later make a name for himself in the west depicting the rural China - before he resurrected himself directing the Olympics Ceremonies, that is, those days are gone too. But the film remains particularly interesting, you can see the pace of life, the innocence on people's faces of that time.<br /><br />I am interested in photography, as a way to capture reality, and present<span style="font-weight: bold;"> perceived</span> reality. Susan Sontag's comments about the film in <span style="font-style: italic;">On Photography</span> provided some interesting perspective beyond the film. Frankly, both "They are trying to bring us down" crowd and "You are either with us or against us" crowd will benefit reading it. As <a href="http://zonaeuropa.com/20070803_1.htm">ESWN</a> comments, this is hardly about this particular movie but extends to the rest of life. Of course, no one should take everything said in an art critique as literal truth, so no need to boil your blood over:<br /><br /><blockquote>Nothing could be more instructive about the meaning of photography for us -- as, among other things, a method of hyping up the real -- than the attacks on Antonioni's film in the Chinese press in early 1974. They make a negative catalogue of all the devices of modern photography, still and film.<br /><br />While for us photography is intimately connected with discontinuous ways of seeing (the point is precisely to see the whole by means of a part -- an arresting detail is a striking way of cropping), in China it is connected only with continuity. Not only are there proper subjects for the camera, those which are positive, inspirational (exemplary activities, smiling people, bright weather), and orderly, but there are proper ways of photographing, which derive from notions about the moral order of space that preclude the very idea of photographic seeing.<br /><br />Thus Antonioni was reproached for photographing things that were old, or old-fashioned -- "he sought out and took dilapidated walls and blackboard newspapers discarded long ago"; paying "no attention to big and small tractors working in the fields, [he] chose only a donkey pulling a stone roller" -- and for showing un-decorous moments -- "he disgustingly filmed people blowing their noses and going to the latrine" -- and undisciplined movement -- "instead of taking shots of pupils in the classroom in our factory-run primary school, he filmed the children running out of the classroom after a class."<br /><br />And he was accused of denigrating the right subjects by his way of photographing them: by using "dim and dreary colors" and hiding people in "dark shadows"; by treating the same subject with a variety of shots -- "there are sometimes long-shots, sometimes close-ups, sometimes from the front, and sometimes from behind" -- that is, for not showing things from the point of view of a single, ideally placed observer; by using high and low angles -- "The camera was intentionally turned on this magnificent modern bridge from very bad angles in order to make it appear crooked and tottering"; and by not taking enough full shots -- "He racked his brain to get such close-ups in an attempt to distort the people's image and uglify their spiritual outlook."<br /><br />Besides the mass-produced photographic iconography of revered leaders, revolutionary kitsch, and cultural treasures, one often sees photographs of a private sort in China. Many people possess pictures of their loved ones, tacked to the wall or stuck under the glass on top of the dresser or office desk. A large number of these are the sort of snapshots taken here at family gatherings and on trips; but none is a candid photograph, not even the kind that the most unsophisticated camera user in this society finds normal -- a baby crawling on the floor, someone in mid-gesture. Sports photographs show the team as a group, or only the most stylized balletic movements of play: generally, what people do with the camera is assemble for it, then line up in a row or two. There is no interest in catching a subject in movement.<br /><br />This is, one supposes, partly because of certain old conventions of decorum in conduct and imagery. And it is a characteristic visual taste of those at the first stage of camera culture, when the image is defined as something that can be stolen from its owner; thus Antonioni was reproached for "forcibly taking shots against people's wishes," like "a thief."<br /><br />Possession of a camera does not license intrusion, as it does in this society whether people like it or not. (The good manners of a camera culture dictate that one is supposed to pretend not to notice when one is being photographed by a stranger in a public place as long as the photographer stays at a discreet distance -- that is, one is supposed neither to forbid the picture-taking nor to start posing.) Unlike here, where we pose where we can and yield when we must, in China taking pictures is always a ritual; it always involves posing and, necessarily, consent. Someone who "deliberately stalked people who were unaware of his intention to film them" was depriving people and things of their right to pose, in order to look their best.<br /><br />Antonioni devoted nearly all of the sequence in <i> Chung Kuo</i> about Peking's Tien An Men Square, the country's foremost goal of political pilgrimage, to the pilgrims waiting to be photographed. The interest to Antonioni of showing Chinese performing that elementary rite, having a trip documented by the camera, is evident: the photograph and being photographed are favorite contemporary subjects for the camera. To his critics, the desire of visitors to Tien An Men Square for a photographic souvenir is a reflection of their deep revolutionary feelings. But with bad intentions, Antonioni, instead of showing this reality, took shots only of people's clothing, movement, and expressions: here, someone's ruffled hair; there, people peering, their eyes dazzled by the sun; one moment, their sleeves; another, their trousers. ...<br /><br />The Chinese resist the photographic dismemberment of reality. Close-ups are not used. Even the postcards of antiquities and works of art sold in museums do not show part of something; the object is always photographed straight on, centered, evenly lit, and in its entirety.<br /><br />We find the Chinese naïve for not perceiving the beauty of the cracked peeling door, the picturesqueness of disorder, the force of the odd angle and the significant detail, the poetry of the turned back. We have a modern notion of embellishment -- beauty is not inherent in anything; it is to be found, by another way of seeing -- as well as a wider notion of meaning, which photography's many uses illustrate and powerfully reinforce. The more numerous the variations of something, the richer its possibilities of meaning: thus, more is said with photographs in the West than in China today.<br /><br />Apart from whatever is true about <i> Chung Kuo</i> as an item of ideological merchandise (and the Chinese are not wrong in finding the film condescending), Antonioni's images simply mean more than any images the Chinese release of themselves. The Chinese don't want photographs to mean very much or to be very interesting. They do not want to see the world from an unusual angle, to discover new subjects. Photographs are supposed to display what has already been described. Photography for us is a double-edged instrument for producing clichés (the French word that means both trite expression and photographic negative) and for serving up "fresh" views. For the Chinese authorities, there are only clichés -- which they consider not to be clichés but "correct" views.<br /><br />In China today, only two realities are acknowledged. We see reality as hopelessly and interestingly plural. In China, what is defined as an issue for debate is one about which there are "two lines," a right one and a wrong one. Our society proposes a spectrum of discontinuous choices and perceptions. Theirs is a constructed around a single, ideal observer; and photographs contribute their bit to the Great Monologue. For us, there are dispersed, interchangeable "points of view"; photography is a polylogue.<br /><br />The current Chinese ideology defines reality as a historical process structured by recurrent dualisms with clearly outlined, morally colored meanings; the past, for the most part, is simply judged as bad. For us, there are historical processes with awesomely complex and sometimes contradictory meanings; and arts which draw much of their value from our consciousness of time as history, like photography. (This is why the passing of time adds to the aesthetic value of photographs, and the scars of time make objects more rather than less enticing to photographers.)<br /><br />With the idea of history, we certify our interest in knowing the greatest number of things. The only use the Chinese are allowed to make of their history is didactic: their interest in history is narrow, moralistic, deforming uncurious. Hence, photography in our sense has no place in their society.<br /><br />The limits placed on photography in China only reflect the character of their society, a society unified by an ideology of stark, unremitting conflict. Our unlimited used of photographic images not only reflects but gives shapes to this society, one unified by the denial of conflict. Our very notion of the world -- the capitalist twentieth century's "one world" -- is like a photographic overview.<br /><br />The world is "one" not because it is united but because a tour of its diverse contents does not reveal conflict but only an even more astounding diversity. This spurious unity of the world is affected by translating its contents into images. Images are always compatible, or can be made compatible, even when the realities they depict are not.<br /><br />Photography does not simply reproduce the real, it recycles it -- a key procedure of a modern society. In the form of photographic images, things and events are put into new users, assigned new meanings, which go beyond the distinctions between the beautiful and the ugly, the true and the false, the useful and the useless, good taste and bad. Photography is one of the chief means for producing that quality ascribed to things and situations which erases these distinctions: "the interesting." What makes something interesting is that it can be seen to be like, or analogous to, something else. There is an art and there are fashions of seeing things in order to make them interesting; and to supply this art, these fashions, there is a steady recycling of the artifacts and tastes of the past. Clichés, recycled, become meta-clichés. The photographic recycling makes clichés out of unique objects, distinctive and vivid artifacts out of clichés. Images of real things are interlayered with images of images. The Chinese circumscribe the uses of photography so that thee are no layers or strata of images, and all images reinforce and reiterate each other. We make of photography a means by which, precisely, anything can be said, any purpose served. What in reality is discrete, images join. In the form of a photography, the explosion of an A-bomb can be used to advertise a safe. </blockquote>Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-67496647778424316842008-09-13T19:26:00.000-07:002008-09-15T01:01:30.494-07:00The Election and Baby formulaThe presidential election has attracted many eyeballs, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chinaelect6-2008sep06,0,1593768.story">including many from China</a>. To many Chinese, it's a political show, not unlike Chinese contest of Supergirl. To be a good onlooker, basic terminology is a must. So many learn Republicans are conservative and "right", Democrats are liberal and "left". But, they may not realize, by Chinese standard, both parties are conservative.<br /><br />People on the GOP side may charge the liberals with cynicism; conversely, people on the left may charge conservatives of hypocrisy. And their policies and view about the role of government may differ. But Americans are united by American value that is largely based on Cristian value. However people on the left detest "religious right", or the first African American, Barrack Obama, my be elected TPOUS, the simple fact is no non-religious (i.e. Christian) person can be expected to win the presidency.<br /><br />To many Americans, it is unthinkable to place the greatest power of the country in the hands of non-believers. The prospects of evil with power are simply too frightening. All the check and balances of a modern nation can potentially fail, the belief, and character of the man will become the last and ultimate defense against the prospect of horror. (Not that Bush has registered a high score, but that's another matter.) Therefore, American presidential contest inevitably will have elements of characters contest, with "just-like-me" mixed in. Some on the left don't understand <a href="http://edge.org/3rd_culture/haidt08/haidt08_index.html">what makes people vote Republican?</a> As this excellent essay explains, it is the moral simplicity that people prefer.<br /><br />If China were to install an American style presidential election, I imagine China would split right along the Beijing latitude line, with coastal provinces to the east being the "red state", preferring a freer economic policy, and inland provinces to the west being the "blue state", preferring more government welfare to neoclassical policy - quite different from the American demography. Social moral issues like stem cell research and abortion would never enter the main debate.<br /><br />I'm about to enter the main point of this blog post. Before I do that, I'd like to point to an online poll I just encountered when perusing SINA. The poll asks, <a href="http://survey.news.sina.com.cn/voteresult.php?pid=26990">"how do you consider the various naked/nudity incidents?"</a> - nudity, as a way to catch attention, has been encroaching from the online world to Chinese daily lives. To my slight surprise, the top choice is "It's nothing but a result of an open society", followed by "getting naked is the freedom of who possesses the body". "It's morally wrong and need to be curbed" is in the last place. Moral judgment aside - morality itself has no right or wong, it shows China has become more socially liberal than the U.S. This also reminds me I usually detest Chinese websites, even big internet gateways. A lot of content would be crammed into tight page space, with suggestive pictures and popups to the taste of no-eighteen-and-under spreaded here and there. It seems eye-catching, and the money behind it, is the only criteria of those websites.<br /><br />If getting naked is a harmless moral issue, then the tinted baby formula issue is life or death issue.<br /><br />I was telling my friend of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/13/world/asia/13milk.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin">tinted baby formula</a> story. She had a hard time to believe social functionaries would all break down to prevent much a thing from happening. It was harder for her to imagine melamine pollution was originated from someone trying to enhance the protein reading in food, all for some extra money, or someone would try to hush the story. Her eyes almost welled up. She can tolerate the corruption of money grabbing, but not this. But that's what happens when social conscientious being replaced by a money-first value system. Someone would have slipped melamine into glutton protein, and with a money-weaken monitoring system it eventually found its way to the baby formula. The ultimate deterrence should comes from sever legal punishment of an established legal system, or the moral belief of the economic agent. Unfortunately, China hasn't perfected the former, but the latter seemed to be already shattered.<br /><br />There are many debates about <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121958712606066933.html?mod=hps_us_whats_news">China's economic future</a>. But my biggest concern isn't what they teach in economics classes, it's whether and how China can regain her core social values. The failure would pose the biggest risk toward China's economic future. My friend, like myself, is no Christian, but she can now better understand why nonbeliever would find a hard time into the White House, given the historical role of Christian religion in providing the core American social values.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-27953450584773931962008-09-10T00:00:00.000-07:002008-09-10T01:41:14.665-07:00Behind the Juicy StoryWho would have thought juice would make headline story. An potentially important news that slipped through last few days was that <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=4&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marketwatch.com%2Fnews%2Fstory%2Fcoca-cola-bids-24-billion-china%2Fstory.aspx%3Fguid%3D%257B24178540-FCA9-4D59-95EE-FB2199EED821%257D%26dist%3Dmsr_1&ei=NnLHSNT_DIjeMJy4kRc&usg=AFQjCNGbApa1Bg_vtttluHEeeuZJZ-Wx_w&sig2=qEnPUZPkzhdu1M9b0HIqbQ">Coke is bidding the takeover of HuiYuan</a>, a dominant Chinese juice make for $2.4B, potentially making it the biggest takeover bid of Chinese firms to date.<br /><br />The outcome of this take over bid will have much to say about the direction of Chinese global economic policy. Internet opinions, especially those have promoted for domestic name brands, have seen plenty of displeasure of yet another multinational takeover. Do not discount the importance of beverages either; America has been through an similar episode of foreign bid, by a Belgium beer maker, of maker of Budweiser. That deal ended in veil. Chinese fruit juice groups<a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7BA8ABB584-99EE-4ED7-AB34-F61F85569270%7D"> were considering joint opposition to the deal</a>, arguing the proposed takeover, which if successful would give Coke a dominant share of the market, would put them at a competitive disadvantage and threaten their survival. Market awaits to see if the deal can get pass <a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/story.aspx?guid=%7BAD32AF11-4B6A-4993-80CD-A85F1A8950ED%7D">regulator overhang</a>.<br /><br />But, what is the deeper revelation of this juicy story? The coming takeover touches a nerve of the public, not only the business communities, because foreign capital has permeated many Chinese businesses, many of which, the public believe, have been sold under value. A criticizer would point to high dividend payouts, higher than the IPO take-home of Chinese state banks. Complicating matter is that China is a transition economy from a socialist system, and a lot of the assets sold was accumulated while other parts of the economy was making sacrifice. So, possibly of "sell-out" is always on people's mind.<br /><br />Yet, such takeover scenarios are inevitable. In particular, current economic structure precisely dictated that, even when Americans are mounting historical deficit against the Chinese. The comparative advantage of the American economy is no longer in manufacturing. In stead, it's more and more in corporate financing, even when its financial markets are in turmoil at home. On the Chinese side, the financiers, mainly banks, have their own bigger moral hazard problem; and for firms, the prospect of property right protection would be higher with foreign capital involvement. It thus creates incentives to sell assets to U.S. capitals seemingly undervalue. Therefore you get the current financial structure. Capital flows from China to the U.S. for low-risk, un-intermediated investments, mainly government bonds, keeping the interest low. Capitals then flow back to China for intermediated investments, snatching up assets. So, for China, the biggest concern is the American inflation; and for American investments, the biggest concern is Chinese growth.<br /><br />It is a convenient and attractive setup for both sides right now. The real test comes when Chinese economic growth gets stalled, thus amplifying the asset risk. There is a lot of riding, of both sides, on the Chinese economy.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-16104952294483556542008-09-06T23:24:00.000-07:002008-09-07T00:00:08.556-07:00The Other Opening CeremonyNBC didn't broadcast it, but you can check out the opening ceremony of Paralympics Game <a href="http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?&_MODE_=ONDEMAND&DB_MENU_ID=&SPSID=107828&SPID=13327&DB_OEM_ID=23000&CLIP_ID=137914&CLIP_FILE_ID=142581" target="_blank">online here</a>. It's smaller in scale, but equally spectacular, and in parts warm and moving. Twelve-year-old ballet student Li Yue, who lost her left leg in the devastating <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1220733755_7">Sichuan earthquake</span> earlier this year, captivated the crowd, dancing from her wheelchair.<br /><br />The best part of watching an online stream is that you can skip forward the parts about lengthy athlete entering procession and official speech. You won't be bothered by CCTV's cheesy line or NBC's overbearing interpretation either. And you can watch as many times as possible.<br /><br />Do watch the lighting of the torch at the end. It's uplifting idea and fits para game perfectly.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1135890509901627439.post-77792098284729282132008-09-02T22:06:00.000-07:002008-09-05T13:10:06.051-07:00West Wing HopefulsI feel like watching episodes of <span style="font-style: italic;">West Wing</span>. Actually I don't watch a lot of that TV show, but it ought to be more melodramatic than the real thing, or does it?<br /><br />A young, energetic and eloquent black president-hopeful (move over Morgan Freeman) delivers a forceful speech. A man in well-tailored suit, with pristine hair that rivals the God Father, rises every two minutes, or five syllable, to applaud. His beautiful wife smiles on, trying to catch the applauding action in unison.<br /><br />If election were to be decided on looks, Democrats had a thundering punch. Even Michele Obama, ever so slightly pouty-mouthed however hard she tries, has a genuine sparkle in her eyes with wifely admiration and motherly love that makes her shine. The republicans after all have only <a href="http://www.usmagazine.com/files/cindy-mccain-view-b.jpg">Cindy McCain</a> to hold the court.<br /><br />Enter Shara Palin.<br /><br />Pageant score: R2:D1. She not only evens up casting eye-candy-ness on the Republican side, but also ups dramatic scale of the usually blandish party. She is immediately suspected of claiming her daughters baby as her own. Before you know it, her 17-year-old daughter's knocked-up is front page news. She is then questioned from the way she delivered her baby to her high school basketball team uniform. There is even rumor of tape of her daughter getting drunk available. (Do we really need to know?)<br /><br />If you think paparazzi in Hollywood are sneaky, think again. I doubt <span style="font-style: italic;">West Wing</span> writers have enough imagination to outdo the script either. I'm less convinced of vast policy difference, I just want a good show. But to prevent the show from degenerating to <span style="font-style: italic;">Beverly Hill 90210</span>, I have an idea for future <span style="font-style: italic;">West Wing </span>hopefuls: call <a href="http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/tv/commanderinchief460.jpg">Geena Davis</a>.Rocking Offkeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12525600377871125547noreply@blogger.com2