Category Archives: chinese

Women and Science

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“Did you know if you push the button on one of the barbie dolls, she will say ‘Math is hard! Let’s go shopping!’ That’s why we don’t have many women in the field of computer science.” – Ted Neward said at the nofluff open discussion and the crowd bursted into laughter. I looked around and noticed there were about 10% women in the audience.

But how true is that? Yesterday I discussed this topic with a female coworker. Even in today’s age, another guy in the field of computer science openly discussed how he will raise his daughters to be stay at home moms because he believes men in general are genetically built with stronger logical thinking skills. Seriously?

The only thing that’s preventing more women to be successful in the field of science is the mindset of that belief. And this belief is so deep rooted in all cultures.

I recently finished a historical fiction Peony in Love. The most amazing fact I learned from this book is there was a period during seventeenth-century China, women published books and those books were popular. Although after the policitical chaos, the reprint of those books were banned. But it’s wonderful to know such historical moments existed as early as seventeenth-century.

Why is this significant? Before Mao’s revolution in China, women were oppressed. Women were taught to strictly follow the three obedience four virtues (三从四德) from Confucianism. Emperors throughout Chinese history gave men absolute power to enforce these. Basically they were allowed to execute any women in their household for disobeying these rules. From Baidu:

The three obediences are “obey her father before marriage, her husband when married, and her sons in widowhood” and the four virtues are morality, proper speech, modest manner and diligent work. These are spiritual fetters of wifely submission and virtue imposed on women in feudal society.

In ancient China, women were caught to read and write so they may appear educated as a part of an elite family. However, they were not allowed to THINK. At least they had to keep their thoughts to themselves or behind the closed doors of their bed chambers. Even under these conditions, the fact women were still able to leave their writings behind was a great historical moment. Even though most of these publications were later banned from reprints once the emperors found out. It proves just because women were traditionally oppressed does not mean they had inferior logical thinking skills than men.

For the most parts, I’m not a Maoist and I think he brought much sufferings to China and led the country into great poverty and turmoil. But I have to give him credit for women’s liberation in China.

The Marriage Law passed by the People’s Republic in 1950 prohibited forced marriage and marriage of young girls, bride prices, domestic abuse, and gave women the right of divorce.

Women were given more power than they ever had in China during Mao’s era and this revolution was a huge step of bringing China into the modern times. When I grew up in China, I still heard stories about how in the coutry side boys were cherished more than girls and later I heard plenty of talk on the abortions of female babies in China. That is probably still true in China because the industrial revolution never happened for farming and it still has not happened. Plenty of farmers in China still farm by hand using the most inefficient/ancient farming practices. And the Chinese government has no established crop insurance programs like the US to help them out. When your family business is so heavily relied on physical labor, I can understand why you’d cherish males over females. In addition, the Chinese are still heavily influenced by their history to believe sons are meant to remain as a part of the family while daughters are married OUT. This belief however is much heavier in the rural areas than the cities. To tell you the truth, growing up in the biggest city in China, Shanghai, I never felt discrimination against me because I am female. My mom did not have to change her last name because she married my father. I think women’s place in the Chinese society at least in the cities is equal to men.

So why exactly in the US, a country that is supposedly THE LEADER of the world, still exist people who have such — hmm I can use the nice word “traditional” or “backwards” for not nice — beliefs? This makes me ponder…

Some things to consider:

First time watching the Olympics as a U.S. citizen

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Citizenship vs. Nationality

Nationality:

Membership of a nation in the sense of ethnic group (a group of people who share a common ethnic identity, language, culture, descent, history, and so forth). This meaning of nationality is not defined by political borders or passport ownership.

Citizenship:

Citizenship is determined by jus soli, jus sanguinis, or naturalization, which affords the state jurisdiction over the person and affords the person the protection of the state. The most common distinguishing feature of citizenship is that citizens have the right to participate in the political life of the state, such as by voting or standing for election.

This is the first time for me to watch the Olympics since becoming an Amercian citizen in 2009. This allows me to view the Olympics from prespectives I never had before. I simply realized that citizenship DOES NOT equal nationality. The decision to become an U.S. citizen was really a practical one for me. I was a greencard holder/permanent resident alien prior to becoming a citizen. For me, the biggest reasons to become a citizen instead of a permanent resident are:

  • I do not wish to pay the U.S. government a significant amount of money to renew my greencard every ten years.
  • I do not wish to pay the Chinese government money to renew my Chinese passport every five years.
  • I do wish to vote in the U.S.

I never really thought much about nationality. The truth is obvious since I started to watch the Olympics that just because I’m technically an American citizen doesn’t mean I feel 100% like a natural born American. After I heard much bad news regarding the Chinese men’s gymnastic team’s qualification round performance, I felt disappointed and was not expecting them to do well in the final round. However, after I found out they won the gold medal, I was EXCITED to watch their performance on the premiere time NBC programming. I told my husband who’s a naturally born American that I was excited about the Chinese winning the gold, he asked how did the Amercians do. Truthfully I did not pay attention. I said I don’t know and he remarked “Did you want to change your citizenship back?” I was hurt by the comment.  I dug deeper as why I felt that way. I guess it’s because he was suggesting that I was disloyal to the country of my citizenship. Then I suddenly realized why people as famous as Maria Sharapova never changed their citizenship. None of the practical reasons for me (maybe except the last) to become a U.S. citizenship is really applicable in Maria’s case. She wants to align her citizenship with her nationality so she wouldn’t feel split when it comes to matches where she represents more than just herself.

This however doesn’t mean I’m not proud of Americans. It’s when the Chinese and Americans go head to head, my heart still goes to the Chinese. Will this feeling ever change naturally? Only time will tell.

Medal Count Rant

So much of the medal count competition is purely political. China claims the rest of the world except U.S. order medals by number of gold, silver and then bronze. This may have some truth as I see that’s how they were ordered on google. I can tell U.S. is getting some pressure regarding this since Bob Costas has to mention the comparison in the number of golds as well as the total now.  Although it would not mean a difference how you order the medals this year, either way U.S. is #1 in medal counts. It’s the 2008 Olympics where this was a huge debate.

Badminton Drama

Eight women were disqualified from the doubles tournament in this Olympics.

Why did this happen? From a technical perspective the Chinese wanted to maximize their chance of winning both the gold and silver medals. The way Badminton works in the Olympics is that you’d play earlier rounds to decide your seeding in the knockout stages.  The knockout stages start with quaterfinals. You get one shot and you are out. Each country may only enter two teams for each badminton event. This rule was added recently as more or less an anti-China affirmative action rule. China has traditionally dominated this sport since it became official in the Olympics so in order to give other countries a fair chance of medaling, each country may now only enter two teams. In the group stage of this year’s women’s double, one of the Chinese teams unexpected lost. This lowered their seeding so instead of meeting the other Chinese team in the finals, they would have met each other in the semifinal. In order to maintain the seeding to allow the two teams to meet in the final, the other team must also lose a match.  I did not look deep into the Korean team’s motivation for also wanting to lose that match. It’s possible that the Koreans just did not want the Chinese to get what they want. I really don’t know. But the result was both teams made it EXTREMELY obvious that they both tried to lose the match.

I was furious and disgraced when I watched the throw away match.  Even after I learned its motivation, I still believe it was fundamentally wrong.  But I want to entertain different perspectives in this story.

First, is there nothing wrong with the badminton tournament system that would encourage such match losing “strategy”? Should we question the design of the system as how & why would anyone GAIN from losing?

Second, are the players purely to blame for such acts of disgrace?  To tell you the truth, I find it extremely hard to believe that the players WANTED to lose a match they trained all of their career to win. I researched by reading many Chinese online articles on this topic.  The articles complained that it’s the Chinese coach 李永波’s “tradition” to execute such game losing strategies. Because he wants to show that he is the medal winning coach. Many badminton players previously had left the team due to the fact they were told to lose matches on purpose to work the system.  From a political point of view, China will never admit that they were trying to gain advantage by working the system.  If they actually do get political pressure for such acts, I can see them firing the coach and using him as a scapegoat.  So the players may be doing the losing for two major reasons.  They may have  truly believed they were being patriotic. They did it to help China to win the gold and silver medals in the event. Such brainwashing in China is quite commonplace and easy to understand.   On the other hand, they may have done it in the hope to expose such “corruption” in the system and coach to help putting it to an end.

Gymnastics (China’s torture)

Someone on my facebook friends list recently shared a photoshoped photo from this article from a facebook group titled “Some Amazing Facts”. The author of “Some Amazing Facts” photoshoped three of the worst photos from that article and then that photoshoped version spread all over facebook. People who don’t bother reading the original article would comment stuff like “China should be stripped out of all of its gymnastics medals for such torture!” Well, I went a little above and beyond the average facebook users and did some critial thinking. First we start with 1+1=2. Let’s examine the origin of these photos. They came from The Daily Mail. The Daily Mail is a CONSERVATIVE, British daily middle-market TABLOID newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. Oh you mean those publications with gigantic ugly celebrity photos on the newsstands you try to ignore while waiting at a grocery store checkout line? But HOLY SHIT! Once the source photos are photoshoped into one and shared under a facebook group titled “Some Amazing Facts”, how can you question its authenticity? So now we know these photos are at best questionable but knowing China, I would not be surprised if the photos are authentic. The truth is the parents of these children are well aware of the amount of discipline it takes for their children to succeed and are willing to go through the scarifice. Just because no American/Western culture will understand or accept this doesn’t mean it’s TORTURE. Discipline is a part of China’s thousands year old culture. Right? Wrong? This is purely a question to the civilization. Slavery was socially accepted until the civil rights movements, right? Read the book Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother to get more extreme examples. A basic example of discipline would be that all Chinese students have summer homework and they actually DO THEM. There are many other photos of happy children in that article which were completely unshown on the facebook group because the facebook group is basically promoting a campaign. They are showing ads for the message “China is unworthy of medals! Look at all of the tortured kids!” which reminds me of the anti-abortion campaign “Abortion is bad! Look at all of the mangled fetuses!”

Table Tennis

Table tennis is definitely one of the sports I miss dearly after moving to the U.S. To be able to watch it on a world stage is a great treat. While watching these matches, I’ve noticed something obvious. A lot of smaller countries seem to have Chinese “export” players to represent their countries. While I was watching the women’s quarter final between China’s Li Xiaoxia and Netherlands’ Li Jiao, I noticed during the breaks the conversation between the coaches and players on BOTH SIDES were in Chinese. I found that rather ironic. I suppose from a business prespective it makes sense. Why bother raising a table tennis player from scratch when it’s easier economically to allow an older Chinese player to be an immigrant to represent your country? I do not know if any money has been exchanged in such immigration process. I’m sure it’s attractive to many Chinese table tennis players to go through such immigrations. After all, you are constantly being replaced by younger and better players in China. The “career” in the sport of ping pong in China must be pretty short. So if you want to remain a ping pong player all of your life, I can see the better alternative is to go to a different country. That’s why often the Chinese players representing other coutries are older. That being said, I highly question the alignment of patriotism in these older players. Even if their skills allow them, do they really want to win and hinder their mother country’s chance of getting the medals? I wonder…

我们,是否都在为童年疗伤?

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年初当我忧郁症很糟时我和心理医生谈到我童年和成长的一切不幸. 他说每个人或多或少都在为童年疗伤. 童年是我们最需要呵护和爱的时候. 但许多人的童年恰恰是最无助最受伤害的时候. 这种伤害对不同的人照成很不同的影响. 有些人选择自暴自弃放弃前途. 有些人变得过分内向,很难沟通. 而有些对他来说几乎是奇迹现象会很成功很正常,几乎无法想像会有不幸的童年. 他很赞美我的表现,认为我是属于奇迹的一类.但我不知道这种赞美我是否可以接受. 无论表面上多么的成功正常,内心深处的痛楚与针扎不是可以完全抹去的.时间可以帮助淡忘但无法消除. 有些话题还是无法碰触.

从某个角度上来讲,我们是很孤独的. 没有许多人愿意倾听伤心往事.就算愿意,真正了解理解的又有几个? 因为得不到知音,我们就深藏一些很重要的情感. 在失眠的夜里,日记里涂写着. 所以我在这里写着. 因为有些童年和成长的点滴还是会在我脑海里浮现,提醒着我我人生中很难弥补的缺陷和让我深夜难眠的不安.

幸福是什么感觉

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幸福是什么？其实幸福没有绝对的答案，关键在于你的生活态度。善于抓住幸福的人才懂得什么是幸福。一直以为感受幸福是件很困难的事，那是一种灯火阑珊处的境界。经过岁月的流年以后，才明白，幸福其实很简单，只要心灵有所满足、有所慰藉就是幸福。
幸福就是一种满足感。
健康的活着就是一种莫大的幸福!!
幸福无处不在 只要用心细细体会 你就能感觉到。

My father’s Gui Lin experience

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Gui Lin (Chinese: 桂林; pinyin: Guìlín;) is a prefecture-level city in China, situated in the northeast of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on the west bank of the Li River. Its name means “forest of Sweet Osmanthus”, owing to the large number of fragrant Sweet Osmanthus trees located in the city. The city has long been renowned for its unique scenery.

My father and his girlfriend’s family visited Gui Lin about a month ago.

Although the scenery was exceptional like you’d expect but his experience was far from it. Gui Lin is a cyclone for tourist traps. He shared some of his bad experience and they were so jaw dropping, I have to blog about them.

The Taxi
There is no meter on any of the taxi in that city. You bargain the price prior to your ride with the taxi driver and then s/he takes you to your destination. See a problem with this particular arrangement or lack of governmental enforcement of honesty? Well, he’s experienced it.

On the way back from a previous trip, my father inquired the average cab fare from his hotel to the dock for his next day’s cruise. The driver indicated around 60 rmb. The next morning, a different taxi driver wanted 80 rmb for the ride. My father did not give in since he thought the fare should be 60 rmb. The taxi driver instead of not agreeing to the ride, took the 60 rmb and dropped them off at a different dock than their actual desired destination. It took them a while to figure out they were at the WRONG dock since they were unfamiliar with the area. They were late for their cruise and had to spend additional fare in order to travel to the correct dock.

The Bamboo Raft Ride
A bamboo raft takes you down the stream of the river slowly by its current. My father had arranged a taxi to pick them up at the end of the trip. Although the price of the ride was advertised to include food, they provided inedible dishes on the raft so they could market other dishes for extra cost. There were various vendors who stationed at different locations down the stream. Some claimed the fish dishes were prepared with fish freshly caught in the river earlier in the morning. They charged a lot for them. My father and his girlfriend’s family did not purchase any. They were later dropped off at a dock in which they thought was the end of the trip. However, after a half hour wait for the taxi, my father called the taxi driver he paid for. The taxi driver informed my dad that he was dropped at the wrong location. The raft people dropped them off way prior to the end of the trip. My father was once more duped for exercising his right of not purchasing overpriced marketed tourist goods.

Gui Lin has been on my list of must visit places for a long time. Based on my dad’s accounts, I think I’m going to wait a little longer for that wish.

Fort Lauderdale's dawn

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今天早晨我在海滩上等日出。海上多云，虽然太阳已经在海上了却被云遮住了。看沙滩上自己的脚印，感触良多。上次在软软的沙上走是多少年前了？岁月如梭。一转眼我也快三十了。怀念少年的天真无邪。好多事都没有开始，满脑子幻想，满心期望。如今还是有很多幻想和期望但多了怀念。偶尔回首，时过境迁。

花非花

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花非花，雾非雾。夜半来天明去。
来如春梦几多时？去似朝云无觅处。

小时候上语文课要背许多古诗。大多数是唐诗。前几年回国我特地买了一本《唐诗三百首》以为会学一些新诗。其实脑子里有印象的诗还是小时候讨厌背的东西。记忆最深的是这首白居易的《花非花》。这首诗对我来说很特别。它不是语文老师而是音乐老师教的。教它的目的是为了让我们学为这首诗写的歌。教之前老师让我们闭上眼睛，在我们脑海里打造了这首诗的弥朦境界。那时的我可能只有小学三年级。但我被催幻了被打动了。我仿佛真的进入了诗人的世外桃源。我想那是我对诗词的情窦初开吧。

The story behind Chinglish

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A while ago I posted some photos of Chinglish. I found it amusing that some people thought they were fake and photoshopped. Well apparently I owe you an explanation. I was reading some of my favorite Chinese blogs today and found this particular entry. It talks in details where some of these translations came from. If you are interested, please read the Etiology and Elaboration of a Flagrant Mistranslation.

IVA – Individual Voluntary Agreement
IVA provides a viable alternative to bankruptcy and is therefore for those individuals that really cannot afford to pay off existing debts any longer. An IVA can help because it is a proposal that is sent to all of an individual?s creditors offering a settlement over a period of five years or so. After that period, the debt is settled. However, there are certain criteria that your proposal has to meet before coming in to being!