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china needs more sexual eduation
December 17th, 2003
Why is the Chinese government banning this museum while sex related shops are thriving? Not long ago someone sent me an article published in Chinese describing how many chinese believe sexual positions and special needs in sex are abnormal behaviors. a man questioned a psychiatrist his wife’s sanity because she screamed during sexual intercourse. he couldn’t understand why his wife behaved like that because she was always very quiet during the day. another woman believed her husband was crazy because he liked “animal position” during sex. sex is just a total “no no” in the public. you don’t talk about sex in the public in china. due to the increasing popularity of the internet, more middle school and college students are sharing sexual experience online. but seriously china needs to make sexual eduation part of its curriculum.
I remember in elementary school we did watch some videos about sexual growth but it had nothing to do with intercourse. Just watching male genitals on video totally freaked us girls out so bad that most of us just covered our eyes. We never even attempted touching those topics at that age. Actually by fifth grade I still didn’t know what “period” is because my parents never mentioned it to me. Ironically the first time I heard the word “penis” in chinese was after I came to the US. Some naughty boy in my 7th grade class decided to look up the word “penis” in my english -> chinese dictionary. He asked me how to prounce it. In Chinese it’s “Ying Jing”. I do recognize both of the characters but I had no idea what it was. Later I came home and asked my parents what it was, they did not answer me; they just shaked their heads and said “american children are taught too much.” I incorrectly guessed it to be “vagina” because the word “Ying” is usually associated with female in Chinese. My parents have never talked about sex with me. But sex is totally nature; why should the government crack down so hard educating people about it?!
I never thought of what the article pointed out: “xing,” (pronounced “SING”) the word for “sex” in standard Chinese is an ideograph that combines the symbols for “heart” and for “life.”
Apparently who ever created the word “xing” did not want it to be suppressed.
My feelings are mixed
December 15th, 2003
NOTE! - for those who can’t read the article on geocities, i posted it now on my blurty. please read it if you know chinese and help to spread the word. Thanks!
Politics are so depressing. As I slowly diving into Chinese politics, I start to feel the dilemma. Yesterday I spent much time reading chinalaborunion.org. It provides some of the most heartbreaking stories about chinese citizens. When you see these photos, you will want to jump and say GOSH, CHINA HAS TO CHANGE! Then i read an article that is a letter written to the central government pleading for an investigation in a village in northern china. The article is posted on 2003-12-8 so I assumed it’s written recently. Let me summarize what the letter is about.
A company in the village had poluted the only source of drinking water. Since 1998, the villagers had complained to the local government to make the company produce standard waste into the river so the water won’t be poluted. The government never responded. Earlier this year some villagers had been poisoned for drinking the water. The villagers could no longer stand the irresponsibility and protested against the government. Instead of getting something positive, the company’s manager hired someone to drive a truck through the villager’s work unit. four villagers were killed and six wounded. The villagers found out this because they captured the driver and questioned him. Later the police department sent a team to investigate. despite of the outcries by the villagers, the police department concluded the killing as a simple traffic accident. it’s clear then that the corruption was so deep rooted that there’s very little the villagers could do to protect their lives and to seek justice for those who were killed. so a respresentative sent this letter to the central government hoping they will be some response. since the local government also tightly controlled the media (so no reports of the incident were on TV), the author also posted this article online and wish more can hear about what happened.
I tried to post the link on some mainlanders’ bloggers’ site so they can help deliver the message. But I found the chinese government had completely blocked chinalaborunion.org. I really do believe the article should be heard so I moved the article to my geocities site. When I posted the new link from my geocities site and briefly explained what it was for again to the mainlander bloggers, i didn’t get any response. I don’t know whether it’s just because they didn’t have time to respond or don’t want to visit stuff on a site that’s blocked by the chinese government. it greatly saddens me. there’s another article on the chinalaborunion.org saying how cold hearted chinese people can be. they are much more concerned about their own good than helping others (partly caused by the corruption as well). there are many cases where people will not respond if someone’s being raped in the public or chased by killers even when they heard the screams for help. i partly believe the article and the lack of response from those bloggers reinforced my belief. this morning when i found i got no responses, i just wanted to cry. then i read this interview.. David basically argued what is being brought up in this article: “Asian values can be taken as a code word for a temporary repression of human rights in favor of economic development.” And I know many city people share his belief. Perhaps China will become a democratic country someday. Maybe someday Chinese government will no longer blocking chinalaborunion.org, but what about all the people who suffered so much from the totalitarian government before then?! they are just meant to be scarficed as necessary stepping stones? how much more suffering chinese farmers (and we are still talking about the majority of the population) have to endure? from 1850 to now….. and to when?
side note: chinese government blocked chinalaborunion.org because it’s sponsored by Wei Jingsheng Foundation - Wei is a political prisoner who promoted democracy since Deng’s Four Modernization (calling fifth modernization - democracy)
blogmatch news
December 13th, 2003
for anyone who have joined blogmatch more than two weeks ago, please log in and check the beta matches we’ve obtained for you with our imperfect algorithm. we want to hear your feedback for further improvement. thanks!
Wen Jiabao’s Speech in Harvard
December 12th, 2003
Chinese Premier Wen’s four day visit to USA is an important tour. I find it quite interesting that he gave a speech a Harvard business school. I have to say after reading different news sources about his speech, i’m quite impressed.
1. he admitted human rights problems in china. although providing no solid proposals to improve the situation, he mentioned “Reform and opening-up creates conditions for the advancement of human rights, and the latter invigorates the former.” (source)
2. he supported democracy. “China’s leaders want democracy, the conditions are not yet right for contested elections for senior officials. China is such a big country and our economic development is so uneven. To start with, I think the education level of the population is not high enough” (source) - this i quite agree. I’m not sure whether chinese would truly appreciate democratic election at this point of the stage. i am worried that democracy would not be truly democratic due the huge number of corruption exists in the government. think back to the very first election in Republic of China that led by Sun. What a failure huh? but then who can judge when is the right time for china? i find it interesting how peking duck mentioned even tho singapore is not a democratic country, it manages to provide “people nearly all of the freedoms they crave.” what will work in china should not be judged by outside forces. so i also applause his statement “China is a large developing country. It is neither proper nor possible for us to rely on foreign countries for development. We must, and we can only, rely on our own efforts.” (source) every country has its own problems and needs its own unique solutions.
3. i really like the way he handled the interruption by a woman who stood up to call for Tibetan independence. no matter how legitimate you think that woman’s protest is.. Wen managed to make her look bad. he said “I will not be disrupted because I am deeply convinced that the 300 million American people do have friendly feelings towards China.” the woman was removed from the audience for the interruption and i doubt anyone was impressed by her “bravery”. at least i am not.
After Wen’s visit with Bush, Bush changed his tone on Taiwan issue just about 180 degrees. I don’t think I want to get into why. Just interesting to note.
I’ve been trying to read many different news sources describing Wen’s speech. i haven’t yet found one that’s negative. most people thought Wen was amiable. I’m happy to have him as a premier for china.
news sources i’ve read:
http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/business.bg?articleid=1058
http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/12.11/01-china.html
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/asia/story/0,4386,224879,00.html
http://fpeng.peopledaily.com.cn/200312/11/eng20031211_130140.shtml
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/front/archives/2003/12/11/2003079112
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8130123%255E1702,00.html
christmas gifts and cards
December 8th, 2003
christmas is coming.. yesterday we spent our entire day preparing christmas gifts. man i’ve never wrapped so many gifts in one day before. andy’s family is BIG. let’s see we have to prepare gifts for his mom, dad, sister, brother, aunt (1, 2, 3), step grandpa, step grandma, grandma on dad’s side … the list just goes on. we bought some gifts from various stores. i also ordered over $100 of gifts on amazon. i originally intend to use my paypal account. but can you believe amazon doesn’t support paypal payments? i was incredibly pissed when i found that out.
today i sent all my 14 christmas cards. most who exchanged cards with me should get them before christmas. i sent 8 international mails and 6 domestic mails. when i was buying stamps, they gave me two extra 80 cents stamps. now i can send two more christmas cards. i should send one to my grandma in china.
busy or by choice?
December 4th, 2003
as you can tell, i’ve not been active online. i do wish to work on several web projects but i don’t have time. or do i? it’s true i’m usually very occupied by school work at school. after i went home, i will cook and then i would want to sleep instead of getting online. wow amazing! i think i’m losing interest dealing with some of my web business. I need a break! I have two final exams on the LAST TWO days of the final week at 7:30am. how VERY LOVELY! 1 day and 1 week of school left. keep breathing..
