In Chinatown, politics of old country still spark - Boston Globe

Chinese politics are very much alive in the US! I kinda feel sorry for the city of Boston on this one. At least Taiwan politics in the US stays within the community (Blue & Green, Red has gone away).

When my family visited Washington DC we got a bit lost going to the zoo and somehow ended up at the Chinese embassy. My wife asked for directions and they were very helpful. Next to it was a bunch of posters by FG (adding to our Washington experience).

More Chinatowns of the US & Canada

Cute book - Exploring Chinatown: A Children's Guide to Chinese Culture

Labels: China Politics, chinatown

Chinese Team Searches Museums for Art Treasures - NY Times.

When my wife was in England during college 20 or so years ago, she was invited to a person's house to see some artifacts from China. She refused since she did not know the person, but may be they really did have some artifacts. The old summer palace in Beijing was looted by British and French troops in 1860.

From a political view point getting back artifacts that were taken while China is weak shows how China is now strong enough to get the respect it deserves. The challenge for China is the lack of investment on keeping the artifacts and historical sites they do have safe. There is such a focus on new and modern.

Labels: China Politics, china's future

Clocks square off in China's far west - LA Times.

In Western China the local people set their clocks two hours different than the official Chinese time, which is the same for all of China. Theoretically China should have 5 time zones, but everything is set the same.

I did not know this:

"The reason goes back to a long Chinese imperial tradition in which the emperor is in control of time because it has a cosmological significance," said James Millward, a Xin- jiang scholar at Georgetown University.

Labels: China Politics

Clinton urges stronger China ties - BBC.

Yes, today is BBC day for my blog! One article lead to another that lead to another.

Key Points (with translations!):

• Message - US Savings and Investments are safe (ie please keep loaning us money and trust us).
• Our pressing on those issues can't interfere with the global economic crisis, the global climate change crisis and the security crises (We are not going to badger you about Taiwan, Tibet, and Human Rights).
• Please help more with North Korea, you are the only country that has any pull with them, because you can collapse the country any time you want (you just declare all the North Koreans illegally in China as refugees that can go to South Korea and it would empty North Korea quickly, but it's nice to have a buffer zone and South Korea does not want to rebuild North Korea yet, costs to much).
  

Labels: China Politics

China pushes Russia to investigate ship incident - AP.

I have the feeling there is more to this than meets the eye, but may be it was just a Russian Commander did something dumb and the Russians have too much pride to admit to that.

Labels: China Politics

LA Times has an article with more details - China tries to limit Internet vitriol toward the West

China is using there Internet monitoring ability to delete any posts about boycotts and protests of foreign companies.

China's government is in a tough position. They need to appear responsive and stand up to foreign criticism of China (such as by CNN's commentator Jack Cafferty who described China's leaders as a "bunch of goons and thugs."), and still make foreigners welcome for the Olympics that's goal is to show how modern China is. The 8/8/8 Olympics is seen as China's coming out party, after over a century of China being seen as backward and not a major power (starting with the Opium War).

Previous related post of mine on the subject - China's Response to Nationistic Anger
and China's Youth

Labels: China Olympics, China Politics, china's future

China state media seeks to contain nationalist anger - It's a challenge to keep a balance. This has happened before with the response to Japan on an incident and the US.

Labels: China Politics, china's future

Interesting article that is a good read - it's a positive article. China good for the Jews

At the Piano Recital my daughter was at today (she got a superior + and is so thrilled by that), the participants seemed to be either Korean, Chinese, or Jewish. I am not sure what that means. So many of the Chinese students at my daughter's school play piano. Even a book that talks a bit about this (super cute book) Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear by Lensey Namioka.

A bit of trivia, I found out my Grandmother got a music scholarship for playing piano for college. During my recent visit to the Bay Area we visited my Grandmother and my daughter played piano for her. My Mother also plays piano and is pretty good. My wife plays a little (and wants to learn more). My daughter has been playing for 10 years and per her Piano teacher, if she decided, could major in Music because she is good enough.

Labels: China Politics, music

Some historical issues where Chinese felt that China has been taken advantage of in the past:

• First Opium War,
• Second Opium War,
• Taiping Rebellion
• Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) gave up Korea and Taiwan
  
• Imperialism in China (Russian, Japan, England, France split the country up)
• Boxer Rebellion
• Japanese invasion of Manchuria and the Western response
• Having Taiwan occupy the Chinese seat in the UN till 1971
  
• Bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia

With the above history being drilled into you, you might develop an inferiority complex.

Labels: China Politics

LA Times has an article about a subject I thought about, but did not blog.

Devastating snow evokes China's stormy history Millions of Chinese are trying to return home in time for Chinese New Year celebrations this week. Natural disasters have helped fell dynasties in centuries past, which may weigh on leaders' minds in the ongoing crisis.

Key Points:
1. Historically, natural disasters are seen as omens that a dynasty (ruling class) is not doing a good job, since they are no longer in Heaven's favor.

2. Local government is not as responsive (often incompetent) since they are appointed, not elected. Federal government has limited power domestically due to decentralization (Emperor is far away).

3. This natural disaster won't be enough by itself to be a threat to the stability of the government by itself. But by happening during Chinese New Years, the most important holiday of the year and the only time many people visit their families it is high profile.

Related Information:
- Previous Post on Ice Storms in China
- Half the Sky is sending updates on the Storm's impact on orphanages in China. If you can donate to help them, it would be great!

Labels: China Politics, China's Government, chinese new year

Lots of open press in China about possible issues with the Three Gorges Dam. WJS today had an article on the proposed fixes. It's great that China's government is being open about the problems, but why now? The amount of political capital by Li Peng that was invested in building the dam was huge. It has been talked about since Sun Yat Sen, around 1911.

Here are the possibilities:

1. Chinese Government sees so many potential issues they want them in the open before they explode (literally). Moving a 4 million people could have some issues, especially when some of these people have already been moved once and had corruption problems with their payments.

2. May be the Olympics are involved and China is becoming more open.

3. May be there is some type of internal power struggle going on or a way to show how the government is going to admit issues as part of an anti-corruption campaign.

Now back to subjects related to Chinese Learning Materials.

Labels: China Politics