Micah Sittig - China, Shanghai, Books

September 2, 2002

A little time shift...

Today

I can't express how much I enjoy reading news from North Korea at the Korean Central News Agency. Where else in the world today can you read articles like this?

The squad put on the stage chorus "Song of Comradeship", dialogue and poem "Road for Great Army-Based Policy", instrumental music and song "Soldiers, Let's Become Heroes" and other colorful numbers. Kim Jong Il noted with great satisfaction that the art squad members successfully gave the performance of rich ideological content and high militancy, fully reflecting the WPK policies, as befitting artistes of the revolutionary army, and highly praised their achievements made in art activities.

Late Last Night

Urge China to Let Information Flow: a letter to the editor of the New York Times urges president Bush to strongly suggest journalistic freedom to Jiang Zemin in their upcoming October meeting. Read on.

In episode 8 of Salaryman Kintaro, which aired tonight on KSCI 18, Kintaro's company Yamato Construction holds a press conference to announce that they are cutting their ties with the underworld and ceasing to work under the table with corrupt bureaucrats and politicians. President Yamato and Kintaro are helpless as companies begin to withdraw their cooperation from joint projects with Yamato. They can only vow to stand firm under the attacks of Mr Osuga and his hoodlums. A simple plan occured to me, which would probably run so much against the grain of Japanese culture that it is no wonder it did not occur to Kintaro. Publicize a list of the companies that refuse to cooperate with the "clean" Yamato Construction, and leverage this new reputation to build the business. Transparency of information! It's the enemy of hidden deals and smoky backrooms! It's a two handed sword of Reveal Evil! "For the wrath of God is reavealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." (Romans 1:18 NASB).

In my humble opinion, George W Bush should ask Jiang Zemin to encourage future Chinese leaders to pursue "transparent politics", a painful and difficult strategy (as Yamato Constuction learned) but worth the effort in terms of political legitimacy and international reputation. When I saw the title of the link, I was overjoyed to think that somebody else had the same thought as me. But alas, it was not so. Maybe I should write a letter to the NYT. (Edit: aha, the Washington Post agrees with me. Say no to secrecy.)

Miniflats catch on in crowded Beijing: "Before Solo was Solo, it was just another tower of spacious luxury apartments, each about 1 350 square feet. At the end of 2001, the building was still empty." Why didn't I think of this?

China introduces family planning law: What had been a policy now becomes a law. Some features of the law, according to the article:

• National standardization of penalties ("social alimony").

• Sex education for students.

• Encouraging women to marry and have children at a later age

• Prohibition of the use of ultrasound technology to determine a foetus' gender

• Prohibition of abortion based on gender preferences

Ozma is playing at the Key Club this Friday. If we get Borders set up on time, I will be available. Will you?

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance is online! Search the Bible to your heart's content. PTL!

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September 3, 2002

A minor earthquake (4.6) occurred while I was watching Letterman tonight. The house creaked but the ground did not shake too much. It only lasted a couple of seconds. I immediately reported it on the Caltech USGS website, and they already had received over 150 reports!

Friends and neighbors, I have a new favorite artist. Presenting Y0UNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES. She uses Flash to set quickly flashing words to a jazz soundtrack, in a very stark white on black minimalism that punches you in the face, and glazes your eyes over as you try to keep up with the message. In an interview with Young Hae Chang, Thom Swiss draws out this remark on locating the tone of the artist's work:

As for the look of our work, we do what we can. We've never been interested in graphic design (a lot of Web artists—and even writers— start out or double as graphic artists). There are hundreds of fonts, millions of colors, and we don't know what to do about that.

She also goes on to talk about the joy of creating new work, saying that "it's more satisfying to create than to criticize". Creating takes a million times more effort, but is a billion times more satisfying. Links: more commentary, won a Webby in 2001.

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September 6, 2002

China's Leader Won't Hold On, Anonymous Author Says according to the New York Times. This means that Jiang Zemin would step down, giving up his position to the younger Hu Jintao. In his China Weblog commentary, Richard notes that the information is being edited and published by Columbia proffesorAndrew J. Nathan, who has a history of releasing inside information from anonymous Chinese sources. Also, note that Mr. Jiang will also "sign over to Mr. Hu his third title, chairman of the Central Military Commission". This is very significant. It was expected that he would keep his spot on the Military Commission in order to exert influence over future leaders. This revelation would leave him in a weakened position.

Also, mad props to Li Ruihan on his probable promotion. Tianjin in the hiz-ouse!

Via Addicted to Life, Utada Hikaru married her video director on Friday. And here's something crazy: a picture of Hikki shaking hands with George W Bush, and Prime Minister Koizumi smiles in the back!

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September 7, 2002

Peking Opera Classics Videotaped: "China has finished a 17-year project to videotape 355 Peking opera classics by the end of August." Now the question becomes, when will they be released on DVD?

And a quote from this week's Time magazine:

Personal news:

I will get fingerprinted next week and turn in my application for an emergency credential so I can start a long-term substitute job at my alma mater, Brea Olinda High School. I anticipate keeping my evening job at Borders Bookstore in La Habra. On the far future front, I am deciding upon a combination of applying to grad schools, the Peace Corp, and testing for the Foreign Service. Links: Tales From a Small Planet (see the message boards), Yahoo group for the Foreign Service Oral Assessment, the Association of Professional Schools of International Relations, the Peace Corp, Georgetown School of Foreign Service, American University School of International Service, Monterey Institute of International Studies.

I can't express my gratitude sufficiently to Brian O'kane for today's bokane.org entry, which transported me back to China for 10 minutes of my day. He is a gifted writer, and I feel priveleged to read his blog every update.

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September 9, 2002

I've confirmed that the layout works in IE 6, so the Sinoblog page is now open to the public. I'll be adding more as I discover them; for example, Joseph Wang's China Blog. This is NOT a Who's Who of China weblogging. It's my personal weblog bookmark file. If Frank Yu starts up a Chloggers page, I will defer to his.

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September 10, 2002

Graham Hutchings in "Modern China: A Guide to a Century of Change", says this about the Taiwan issue:

Realpolitik has persuaded all but about thirty countries in the world, most of them small, to establish relations with the People's Republic of China, and maintain only unofficial ties with the Republic of China on Taiwan. The Communist government insists there is only one China, that Taiwan is part of it, and Beijing is its capital. There can be no question of 'two Chinas' or 'one China, one Taiwan'. This book, free of the conventions of diplomacy, takes a different approach: it not only recognizes 'two Chinas', or 'one China, one Taiwan', it exults in their existence as a source of diversity and, ultimately, of benefit to China as a whole.

Right on! I'm all for conflicting opinions, because this promotes discussion and critical thought. I applaud Hutchings for putting this more eloquently than I ever could have.

Maos_ear_wax makes a good argument regarding complacency in the face of villainy on the Lonely Planet message board. The thread was started by a staff member of CCTV 9 looking for good attractions to feature on a travel show. Posters responded rudely, others took offense at the rudeness and disagreed, but maos_ear_wax thought it over and spoke thusly: the people themselves who work at CCTV 9 may be innocent, but cooperating with an arm of the same Chinese government that blocks Google is still condoning silence. "Nobody speaks out, nobody questions, everyone just plods on."

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September 11, 2002

Poverty of Dignity

Tom Friedman, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the New York Times, was on NPR today. He explained that the anger felt against America in the Middle East is due not to poverty per say, but to a "poverty of dignity". Young Muslim men are brought up learning about the glories of Islam, only to find themselves disappointed by their Islamic countries' failure to modernize and keep up with the western world. This creates a sense of loss of self-worth and dignity. This feeling is expressed in the form of anger towards a successful Western country, the United States. This is very insightful.

This is the same man who put for the theory that "No two countries that both have a McDonald's have ever fought a war against each other"

Lessons in American Foreign Policy

I'm reading Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World by Walter Russell Mead. The first chapter is spent refuting the claim that the USA has never had a clear foreign policy by giving examples of highly successful policies of the past, particularly pre-WW2 examples. The second chapter examines why Continentalist (European) diplomats would believe that the US has no foreign policy, citing our focus on economics rather than politics, our world-wide rather than Euro-centric view, and our belief in a democracy being able to form an informed consensus rather than having a learned aristocratic leader singly formulate a nation's foreign policy. Discussing the last point, Mead explains that there is "a moral gap as well between the experience of the citizens of a democracy and the conditions of their state." In democracies following the rule-of-law idea the citizens are under the power of the police and courts, and wrongdoing will be punished with a suitable penalty. There is no "diplomacy" when the policeman pulls over a motorist for speeding. On the other hand, Continentalists would argue that in the realm of international relations there is no global policeman, lending "a curious moral air to international diplomacy, one far removed from the morality and habits of thought that make for a healthy domestic society." In the global forum, every man stands for himself and "Machiavelli reigns as patron saint." A different set of skills is required from policemen and diplomats, because moral standards are less clearly defined in the diplomatic forum.

Applying this to our situation with Iraq, it could be said that Bush and his American counterparts see the lack of a global policeman as a vacuum in diplomacy to be filled by the United States, while Europe accepts the absence as a matter of fact. Hence the opposition from our Old World colleagues to see us involved military in Iraq. As to whether to appease the Europeans or declare ourselves to be righter than they and take on the badge of sheriff, that is the decision of the current administration. I think it's quite clear which path they've taken, although Colin Powell has made his influence as a skilled negotiator felt in the White House and President Bush is making some concessions to the Continentalist objectors by providing some final agreeable diplomatic outlets for Iraq before resorting to more menacing solutions.

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September 12, 2002

Haha, I saw Tom Friedman on Charlie Rose last night, and his book Longitudes and Attitudes was on display today at Borders. Yes, I got suckered into supporting a mass media campaign for his book. Which doesn't necessarily mean that I don't plan on reading it...

Under Construction

An update to Sinoblogs is in the works. I've gotten wonderful e-mails from several people with more sites to add, which I will do gladly. The September 11^th Rice Cooker is a little discouraging, apparently the number of China weblogs you can find through Google approaches infinity. Yikes!

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September 14, 2002

Haven't I learned my lesson already? Seven years on the internet, and I still don't copy-paste my stories before I submit them. Mozilla crashed and took with it a mega-post that took me 20 minutes to write. What follows is but a paltry shadow of what once existed.

Creative Writing

Frank Yu communicated to me that he prefers reading women's blogs to reading ones by men. Women tend to write about their inner thoughts, while men tend to comment on the thoughts of others. The creative process is a difficult thing to understand, but an incredible tool for those who master it. My new design was intended to look more like a book and follow certain conventions of typography. I intend to make my writing more creative, more link-sparse, and more substantial in terms of personal reflection.

Smart Slackers in Beijing

A recent feature article in That's Beijing discusses the phenomenon of smart young expats hanging out in Beijing, working English teaching jobs and living it up on their relatively high salaries while falling behind in marketable skills and intellectual growth. I was almost headed in that direction. After a year of teaching at CRIS Elementary in Tianjin I felt intellectually unstimulated and figured I could find an editing job in Beijing. China was still holding me in its grip, but I hadn't much to offer. So I'm back in the United States, working on furthering my education or building some career skills. Someday I hope to be back in China, but as something greater than a simple native speaker English teacher. Maybe a Foreign Service officer, or a business person, or (as I've often returned in my dreams) an itinerant freelance museum exhibit translator.

The article referenced above appears in the September 2002 issue of That's Beijing. [ Link ]

Featured Search Request: Site #4 on Google for Toast Boy's Kiss.

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September 21, 2002

I apologize to my regular readers for not posting regularly.

California Economy

The California economy has followed the rest of the country in its recent downturn. We have a handful of spots open at Borders and have probably received over 300 applications, not to mention the two or three more we get every day. I feel very lucky to have landed the job I did. I'm pretty sure there are dozens of people more qualified to sell books than me. But I work my hardest and try to do a good job, and that's enough to earn my pay. Which was a fat wad of cash this week, by the way.

As proof that we are in the dumps, the New York Times reports that France has passed up California in the race for the world's top economy. The Golden State is now sixth. Read the article, it's amazing and yet not suprising that the interviewees are so non-plussed at the news. China ranks seventh. [ Link ]

Personal News

My list of grad schools has been narrowed down to four: Georgetown, George Washington, American and Tufts. I've also decided to apply to the Peace Corp, and take the Foreign Service Exam in April of next year. I received a sizable paycheck from Borders today, which makes me extremely happy because I'll be able to take my car in for a check-up. Whenever I drive anywhere, I'm constantly worrying about one strange noise or another. Hopefully a few hours under the knife with our friendly Firestone mechanic will remedy that. Also, I finished two days of observation at the high school. That means I'm on call for substitute teaching. It will be a six week assignment teaching Integrated Math 2 and Func/Stat/Trig, starting when Mrs Valenti goes to the hospital to give birth.

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September 23, 2002

New York Gets Connected

Connected to Beijing, that is. Due to the opening of Russian airspace near the North Pole, several airlines have begun to offer non-stop polar flights to Beijing. This has cut flight time down to 13.5 hours, comparable to a direct flight from Los Angeles. Introductory ticket prices start at $600, also comparable to Los Angeles. [ Link ]

Google is testing a news service. Try searching for China, Beijing or your favorite Chinese government official. [ Link ]

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September 28, 2002

Under House Arrest

Zhao Ziyang, a reformer placed under house arrest after the 1989 Tiananmen massacres. (Zhao remains incarcerated for fear he might emerge as a rallying point for reformers.)

Why wasn't I aware of this earlier? Why the cloud of silence surrounding Zhao Ziyang's house arrest? I assumed he had passed away. If I turned my webpage into a "Free Zhao Ziyang" (cache that, Google) page, how quickly would the Great Firewall block me? I will be researching this intriguing finding and posting my results at a later date. [ Link ]

Books, Wonderful Books

I've been through 5 weeks at Borders and I'm still not sick of books. Employees can borrow two hardbacks or quality paperbacks at a time, provided they come back in sellable condition. At the moment, I've got on loan two books: Robert's Rules in Plain English by Doris P. Zimmerman, and Graduate Admissions Essays: Write Your Way into the Graduate School of Your Choice by Donald Asher.

The first is a book based on Robert's Rules of Order, which dictate how a meeting should be conducted in a civil and fair way.

Parliamentary law is the basis of all constitutional governments. By protecting and practicing correct parliamentary procedure, we also protect our democratic institutions. Parliamentary procedure protects the rights of the people to join together to accomplish common goals and enables them take action in a fair manner with the least amount of controversy.

Because it is written in plain English and gives lots of examples, it's good for beginners and people like me who just want to dabble in procedure and not be bogged down by the extensive rules and vocabulary of the original Robert's Rules.

The second is a guide to writing a graduate essay that will set you apart from the other applicants. In reality, though, the guide will give you far more advice than just how to write an essay: it starts with deciding whether grad school is right for you, and goes on to help you choose schools, set deadlines, find financing, and get good letters of recommendation. The author is even not afraid to face the brutal facts (Jim Collins reference!):

If you have procrastinated until the last minute, the first thing you need to do is relax. You can still finish a great essay by tomorrow morning.

But he assumes that the majority of his readers are intelligent people, and willing to put hard work into applying to graduate school. The writing is frank and humorous, and the example essays are varied and inspiring. If I were not taking it on loan from Borders, I would probably still buy it.

This morning Shirley and I dropped by the Yorba Linda library book sale. I picked up a stack of books for $5.45. These include All the President's Men, about the Watergate scandal; a Deng Xiaoping biography by Richard Evans; a couple of government textbooks to review for the Foreign Service exam; The Socialist Economies in Transition by Robert W Campbell; and The Complete Air Guitar Handbook, a complete crack-up of a book. You'll find me under the covers with a flashlight tonight.

I might as well make this a long entry.

Say Yes To Thugs

Apparently, not only were gangs were extracting tickets from the group who owns the Tokyo Dome, they had also set up "massage" shops inside the Tokyo Dome Hotel. I know all about this. I've been watching it weekly on Salaryman Kintaro 3. The final episode is this weekend. [ Link ]

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