The Conversation
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
- Siegfried: If it was a Russian or any other white man who told blacks”to go back to Africa”, it would...
- Raguel: I saw that Spike Lee film “Do the Right Thing” years ago but still can’t understand it.
- bigWOWO: Stele: “Care to qualify that statement? Even if that were true, you have to look at this case on its...
- Two podcasts that address racism in the military, and Danny Chen the person (9)
- Raguel: The origins of racism in the American military as described by loudestfuckingazns is accurate. Very recently,...
- bigWOWO: Sorry, Larry, just noticed that the spam robot junked your comment. Approved!
- bigWOWO: Agreed. It just has more weight if you include your name. Not that the ideas are any less valid, but it just...
- Facebook IPO (5)
- King: Actually WOWO, I bump into plenty of Asians up at the Art Center College of Design http://www.artcenter.edu/a...
- bigWOWO: Agree with King. This might not be a bad thing for Asian Americans to hear about. We can jump off the STEM...
- Raguel: People are too accustomed to thinking about value only in terms of money. Even artists are guilty of it. Some...
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (7)
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- Raguel: Following the temporary shelving of SOPA and PIPA in the long line of net neutrality battles, the feds and...
- Chr..: “Asian American men have to get more involved, not less. It’s a civic responsibility, and you have to...
- Activism is as activism does (10)
- trolldetector: Brooks also goes onto say ‘You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of...
- bigWOWO: By the way, speaking of activism, there was a great David Brooks column recently. He talks about how people...
- Raguel: I have no experience whatsoever with activism. I simply do not feel safe participating in it. There is always...
- How to Win a Streetfight (18)
- bigWOWO: No worries. I feel the same way. Nothing against her, but just doubtful.
- Raguel: Hi Byron! I’ve been occupied doing a lot of reading and thinking recently. I suppose its just another...
- bigWOWO: Hey Raguel, What about your comments on ASSK?
I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
- What Cultures Value (19)
- UFC 117 Sonnen vs. Silva Recap (1)
- bigWOWO: I think Michael Bisping solved the Chael Sonnen puzzle today, even though he lost a controversial decision....
- 6 on 1 Beatdown of Asian Man (36)
- King: “I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima...
- SWR: Apparently the girl in the second video was not the girl who filmed the fight. It was probably unwise of her to...
- Raguel: I mean I look around me and 99% of the time there are no women that look like or dress like Adriana Lima in...
- Selfish Reasons To Have More Kids by Bryan Caplan (Review) (6)
- bigWOWO: Jeff, You called it! They were (if I recall correctly) 7 (twins) and 2. He’s still in the honeymoon...
- jeffat8asians: “Overpaying?” With the possible exception of college tuition (and even that is arguable),...
- Hitler: Kids suck lol.
- The Asian Rock Thread (16)
- ben: I’ve been getting into Asian rock music recently so thank you all very much for uploading all these videos.
- Simple Pickup on ABC News (132)
- Tommy: I think I’m coming here more for Moro’s comments than BigWoWO’s posts.
- Moroboshi: I didn’t say that. All I said was guys who believe in HBD are the same guys who probably also follow...
- Chr..: Moro, I don’t want to argue with you anymore! You seem to think that AMs are just as popular as other...
- “Lazy” Americans and the Decline of the American Middle Class (6)
- bigWOWO: But kobu, how can we have literature and art without money to support artists and writers? About...
- kobukson: I don’t know why everyone seems to think the notion of the decline of the middle class is such a bad...
- bigWOWO: There are a lot of veterans (supposedly) on that site. I can kind of understand it–military guys are...
- Aung Sung Suu Kyi Movie with Michelle Yeoh (45)
- bigWOWO: Eurasian, Lee Kuan Yew has always been upfront about Singapore’s hybrid system. To the best of my...
- Eurasian Sensation: @ BigWowo: New governments following independence or a major power struggle often have the sort...
- N: @bww And ironically, one of the rare democratic successes in the region that is Singapore behaves much closer to a...
- Paper Pushers by the Stunt People (4)
- Andre M. Smith: I divide my year annually between New York and Shanghai. One of my common visitations in the latter...
- Raguel: Smiley tests 8 )
8( - Raguel: ROFL! Thank you for thoroughly destroying Amy Chua, Andre. WELL SAID ^_^ You know the destruction is so...
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (245)
- Andre M. Smith: I believe some useful purpose will be served by offering here, what the lawyers might like to call,...
- N: What’s your opinion on Yundi Li and Yoyo Ma.
- Andre M. Smith: Amy Chua has never lived in China. Her understanding of its culture, that is, the culture as it’s...
- How to Finish Life With No Regrets (9)
- trolldetector: ^ i’d agree with that. but i wouldnt call them ‘idiots’, just misguided. crazy media...
- N: Agree with Jeff that not one regret is unlikely, the key is learn from it. Another way to look at it is that...
- American Jobs and India (14)
- lingyai: I am not sure what happen there with my name, that is not my email, so just ignore.
- lingyai@hotmail.com: @bigwowo Just because the average income in India is $2 a day doesn’t make a person...
- AM/AF couple: Nottyboy, Yes, just like every place of employment, upper management needs to do a better job in terms...
- Literary Fiction vs. Realistic Fiction and the Literary Hierarchy (6)
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
I wouldn’t say...
- Sana Rose: Well, now I am confused. I still can’t classify the novel I am writing.
- National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) 2012 (32)
- Raguel: http://www.occupydream.org/ ^ I heard about this from Russell Simmons. I hope that things develop well to...
- Raguel: So is that the reasoning for why you don’t need the right to due process? Are you some kind of fucking...
- N: @King The constitution gave power to the states to benefit white america or the constitution gave benefitial power...
- When Your Fan Base is Full of Crazy People (24)
- N: @American girl Too be honest, I don’t really see why this video that ‘disgusting’ –...
- Mitt Romney and the Problem of Wealth (6)
- Raguel: Where do people get their information and knowledge from, though? Media, and education, word of mouth only...
- “But he hit me back first!” (13)
Tag Archives: China
“Lazy” Americans and the Decline of the American Middle Class
The NY Times had a great article on Apple and why Apple employs so few people in the U.S.: Apple, America, and the Squeezed Middle Class. We’ve talked about Tyler Cowan’s Great Stagnation and how Google, Twitter, and Facebook don’t need lots of bodies to make their products, but Apple, a company that manufactures electronic components, does need lots of people. They just don’t hire them here. Apple made $400,000 per employee last year, in large part because they outsource their work overseas. Apple says that the labor costs aren’t the major reason for outsourcing, that there are other logistical reasons for centralizing their work in Asia. But when Foxconn, the company that assembles iPhones, pays many of its workers $17 a day, it’s a bit hard to believe that labor costs don’t play a role.
Go East, Young Man
Saw this Op-Ed in the NY Times: Go East, Young Man, in which an American guy in his twenties recommends that people move from the U.S. In Jonathan Levine’s case, he moved to China. I like what he had to say:
China wants you. Job prospects are abundant. The effects of the Great Recession of 2008 may be felt in the United States for years, but they barely scratched China. Demand for native English speakers is white-hot. ChinaJob.com, TheBeijnger.com and Dave’s ESL Cafe are just a few of the places where you can search for work.
The Flowers of War is the Most Expensive Chinese Film Ever
"Looking sexy, Mr. White Man."
The Flowers of War is the most expensive Chinese film ever. The NY Times reports:
“Made at a cost of more than $90 million, part of which came from Chinese government sources, “The Flowers of War” is the most expensive Chinese film ever made.”
After experiencing the nationalistic ridiculousness that is Ip Man, and now seeing this ridiculous history-justified-by-the-presence-of-a-White-man film, I think I can safely say that Beijing needs to get out of the movie-approval and movie-promotion business. Sorry, Chinese propaganda doesn’t have the same appeal here that it might over there. It’s not the Chinese government’s forte.
China to Cancel College Majors Where Grads Can’t Find Work
China is having a similar problem to the U.S.–people are graduating college and are not able to find work. But instead of a laissez-faire attitude, they’re taking the reins and chopping those majors that don’t pay: China To Cancel College Majors That Don’t Pay. The article says:
China’s Ministry of Education announced this week plans to phase out majors producing unemployable graduates, according to state-run media Xinhua. The government will soon start evaluating college majors by their employment rates, downsizing or cutting those studies in which less than 60% of graduates fail for two consecutive years to find work.
Where Do the Dollars Go?
Thanks, MLC, for the following Chicago Tribune article: ‘Made in China’ ranks only 2.7% of U.S. spending. According to the article:
Goods and services from China accounted for only 2.7% of U.S. personal consumption spending in 2010, according to the report titled “The U.S. Content of ‘Made in China.’ ” About 88.5% of U.S. spending last year was on American-made products and services.
The article says that a relatively small amount of money is leaving the country because 2/3 of what we spend goes towards services. Most of our dollars go towards our dry cleaners, accountants, financial planners, mechanics, and doctors. Then there is food and gasoline–most food is produced locally, and relatively little gasoline is imported from China. The article goes on to describe what we import:
Chinese Maternity Tourists
Hope the NY Times paywall isn’t bothering y’all, but here’s an interesting one: Officials Close ‘Maternity Tourism’ House in California.
According to the story, there was a “maternity tourism” house where wealthy Chinese women stayed in order to have babies while on tourist visas. Aside from the zoning law violations against the owner of the home, no laws were broken. It’s perfectly legal to have babies in this country on a tourist visa. You can travel here, give birth to an American citizen, and go back to China. If the s#$t hits the fan in China, your baby cannot be stripped of his citizenship, so he or she will always have a home here. Man, talk about do-it-yourself Asian Americans. It’s like the Home Depot slogan–”You can do it, we can help.”
Martin Jacques: Understanding the Rise of China
Thanks to the Alpha Asian, who posted the TED talk above in which Martin Jacques talks about the rise of China. From my own perspective as a Chinese American dude, this TED talk was among the most interesting I’ve heard. The thesis of the talk is that Americans fail to understand China for three reasons:
1. The Civilization State vs. The Nation-State
2. The Chinese Perception of Race
3. The Chinese Relationship with Government
I don’t know what the commenters on this blog think, but I highly recommend this talk.
China’s College Educated: The Ant Tribe
The NY Times has a great article on China and its new graduates: China’s Army of Graduates is Struggling. In the article, the author writes about how there exists a glut of college graduates whom the economy doesn’t yet support. People with degrees in accounting, computer programming, and finance are having trouble finding work. Factory blue collar jobs are booming, but the white collar sector is falling. The article says:
Between 2003 and 2009, the average starting salary for migrant laborers grew by nearly 80 percent; during the same period, starting pay for college graduates stayed the same, although their wages actually decreased if inflation is taken into account.
Chinese Students Coming to U.S. in Large Numbers
Great article from the NY Times: The China Boom. It’s about Chinese young people who are coming to the U.S. for college. Man, the U.S. is in trouble. China has all these students itching to learn and ready to change the world. What ever happened to our confidence? Where did we go wrong? I fear that we’re becoming the next Japan.
In any case, it’s refreshing to hear about these young brave souls making the trip across the Pacific. Read the entire article; you’ll be glad you did. Here are some of my observations and commentary:
Chinese Company is First to Sell E-Ink Color Display
So China leads the charge in solar energy, has the world’s fastest supercomputer, and now has the first company to sell a colored E-Ink color display. That’s right–color without the backlighting. I’m still not understanding how China managed to surpass everyone else so quickly.
