The Conversation
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (247)
- bigWOWO: Not sure if you’re a “bot” or a real person, Andre, but I know lots of Chuas. Only...
- Andre M. Smith: Further on Chua as a Chinese surname . . . My wife, a gyn surgeon, hails from a family of...
- Jeremy Lin: Our Generation’s Joe Louis (8)
- “But he hit me back first!” (44)
- King: I will be kissing Asian women like Linda against the wall without a shirt”. Yuck!!!
- Raguel: “I’m glad you guys are pissed off at blacks. It takes the pressure off of me while you are hating...
- Siegfried: I’m glad you guys are pissed off at blacks. It takes the pressure off of me while you are hating...
- Seeking Asian Female (8)
- Raguel: Yes! I mean with me. How did I miss that part out? And why do I suddenly feel some anxiety?
But here is an... - King: “If I ever get a mail order bride I will get her addicted to sex first.” I assume you mean with you...
- bigWOWO: Linda, Haha! Maybe that dude is on to something with the foreign language nagging. But to be honest, maybe...
- Raguel: Yes! I mean with me. How did I miss that part out? And why do I suddenly feel some anxiety?
- The Other-Directed Personality (1)
- Siegfried: Mitt got Obama worried. He is shaking in his boots. It’s over for Obama because Mitt is going to...
- Holy Jesus, Jeremy (9)
- N: @TD Good pick up on that one.
- trolldetector: @Colin I love how whites keep trying to troll their divide tactics Asian blogs under different guises.
- Eurasian Sensation: @ Colin: I’m pretty sure Jeremy Lin and his supporters are not the same person.
- Jeremy Lin shines (21)
- trolldetector: GO JEREMY LIN
- N: @danny You should youtube his college games. The two against Boston college and the one against UConn. Lol, he can...
- Lingyai: @Ben Efsaneyim Why would it be surprising a non Asian crowd cheering for Lin? Most of the NBA fans going to...
- What Cultures Value (22)
- trolldetector: @Colin. Dont you belong on a Lord Of The Rings filmset? Thats where most white trolls dwell isnt it?
- colin: A bit late to this, but bigwowo, you grossly underestimate the anti-work and anti-intellectual ethic here in...
- bigWOWO: Yeah, I could go for that.
- About A Boy by Nick Hornby (6)
- bigWOWO: That’s a really good point, Raguel. Like it or not, TV executives control everything (including what...
- Raguel: I could be wrong but the distribution windows for media and especially film seems very hierarchical. If you...
- bigWOWO: Illegal streaming? I had no idea anyone did that! Well, I really should check out some movies one of these...
- Superbowl Recipe and Xenophobic Superbowl Ad (22)
- Raguel: Time to get your concealed carry licences, folks!
- Eurasian Sensation: Jeff Yang has a good article about this ad: http://inamerica.blogs.cnn....
- Raguel: I haven’t even gotten to why the ad really is so offensive to us, ROFL
- Stop SOPA and PIPA (9)
- Raguel: ^ Nice one Byron! I’m reading through the NYT picks, they’re good!
- bigWOWO: The Times had an Op-Ed by the President of the RIAA, and I commented. My comment was picked as a...
- Raguel: Found a great website, take a look at this: https://www.cdt.org/ Why should privacy be important, in an age...
- The Perversity of Human Biodiversity, a.k.a. “Scientific” Racism (402)
- bigWOWO: Here’s an interesting suggestion coming out of MIT: Connectome by Sebastian Seung...
- Battle Hymn of the Kitten Daughter (36)
- Raguel: You know Andre, you and me, I think we and a lot of other folks may have gone through some pretty harrowing...
- Andre M. Smith: Russians call me German, Germans call me Russian, Jews call me a Christian, Christians a Jew....
- 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...
- 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...
- 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.
- “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...
- Amy Chua: Chinese Conceit, Chinese Ignorance, and the $24,000 question (247)
Tag Archives: China
Maine high school scouts for students in China
Saw this article in the Times today. China’s status as an emerging superpower is attracting all kinds of ideas for business. In the latest news, a Maine high school with a dropping student population is proposing that Chinese students attend their school for the low, low price of $27,000 a year. The school enrollment is only 200, dropping from 700 during the 70′s, and the school is facing some budget shortfalls. The author of the article asked some hard questions:
Chinese Professor Ad
Thanks, Azn of Reason, for posting the ad above.
I did a quick look around the blogosphere. Azn of Reason thinks Chinese dominance is the future, Frank Chow thinks the ad is yellow peril, and Angry Asian Man thinks it’s racist. James Fallows from the Atlantic has a blog post about it here that references a politico blog post that talks about how the ad was made. The politico post reveals that the producers cast a native Chinese guy as the professor and DC college students as the extras. The Atlantic post humorously says: “They are DC-area college students. Their skin and teeth are different from what you’d see in a big Chinese college lecture hall.” LOL! Yup, those good ol’ straightened American teeth! And yes, those kids all have perfect smiles when laughing at how China’s taken over America. They must’ve kidnapped our dentists!
Old People and Economics
Here are three Times articles that together make some very interesting statements about age and economics.
The first is an opinion piece by David Brooks, where he talks about how government is paralyzed because of the enormous pensions that government jobs offer. He writes:
New Jersey can’t afford to build its tunnel, but benefits packages for the state’s employees are 41 percent more expensive than those offered by the average Fortune 500 company. These benefits costs are rising by 16 percent a year.
Scary Thoughts for Your Weekend on the Chinese Economy
Thanks to Alpha Asian, who posted this article on the topic of whether the Chinese are manipulating their currency. According to the article, people in the U.S. take it for granted that China is manipulating its currency, while the Chinese think that American politicians are twisting and oversimplifying a complex issue just before elections.
I think it’s hard to refute that China is controlling its currency. It’s quite clear that that is why they’re buying all those treasuries. If they let it float, the reminbi would shoot up.
Obama’s Reputation Falters
Man, look how much can happen in two years: How did Obama Lose his Mojo. It looks like the Dems are running from him in droves, and the GOP–the Party of No–has been very successful in blocking his every move to make sure no Democrat gets credit for any progress in this country.
I agree with the article. I think Obama may have overshot. I don’t fault him for overshooting, but in hindsight, maybe he should have concentrated only on jobs. Healthcare is nice, and it’s very important–maybe important to the point that that was the only time in history they could approve it–but people aren’t going to be happy unless there’s a good economic engine in place. The job market is horrible. People tend to worry when there’s no money coming in.
Chinese economy surpasses Japan
China is now the world’s second largest economy after it surpassed Japan, according to numbers released Monday (today). Experts are estimating that it will surpass the U.S. by 2030.
Two thoughts:
1. The article says,
Economists say that China’s economy is too heavily dependent on exports and investment and that it needs to encourage greater domestic consumption — something China has struggled to do.
First, I’m not sure this will be a problem. Right now people in China don’t yet have the money to engage in consumerism, but once those salaries hit a critical threshold, I’d be surprised if it continues to be a problem.
Rent a White Guy
Man, the price of Whiteness is skyrocketing through the roof these days! According to CNN, companies in China are seeking to boost their appeal by hiring White actors to masquerade as executives.
Zatkin was paid 2,000 yuan (about $300) to fly, along with a couple of Russian models, to a small city in the central province of Henan where he delivered a speech for the grand opening ceremony of a jewelry store there.
China Strikes
Chinese Worker Demonstration Outside Honda Factory
No, “China Strikes” is not the subheading of the new Red Dawn remake. I’m talking about the recent labor demonstrations in China that just fizzled out this morning when Honda responded by advertising open positions and getting scabs to break it up.
It’s clear this strike didn’t work. Still, it’s a step in the right direction. Without a middle class, and without people fighting to make a middle class living, it’s impossible for China to aspire to greater cultural achievements. Of course, towards the end of the article it becomes clear that there’s that small problem of the state controlled media. It’s hard to succeed with a strike when no one else knows about it. Still, that media firewall may eventually fall too as the country and economy and people become too big to micromanage.
Institutional Power and Censorship
The NY Times had an interesting article a few days ago: How Chinese Censorship Affects Writers in the West. It talks about how China’s influence is growing so large that writers, even those in the West, are censoring themselves out of fear of repercussions from Beijing. People are fearful not of physical violence but of getting on the wrong side of Beijing’s politics. Some writers, after offending China, have allegedly found it hard to get visas to the country, which, if one is a writer with interest in China, can make one’s life rather difficult.
This is how the censorship is developing:
24 Million Bride Shortage
I’ve seen this CNN story around the blogosphere, but I first caught wind of it at the Anti-Social Ladder. Read it here: China Faces 24 M Bride Shortage by 2020.
I’ve written about this before. It’s the same issue–the one-child policy has resulted in Chinese people undergoing sex-selective abortions, and the gender balance has been swinging towards males. Too many men, not enough women. Skewed male gender ratios results in increases in prostitution, kidnapping, forced marriages, and all other kinds of problems. If you want to read a great book on this issue, check out Den Boer and Hudson’s Bare Branches. Bad things happen when there are too many men and not enough women.
