Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

People tend to assume that when Chinese people are atheist, they are not really anti-religion, they are just brainwashed by the government to do. And when they immigrate to the West and become devotedly religious, it is because they are enjoying the freedom that they did not have back at home. Now, at the risk of sounding purely anti-Chinese (and making this blog way too China-focused after the last post), I would have to say that Chinese people (in China) are not religious because they have no idea what religion entail and simply thinks religion is some foreign idea that is incompatible with Chinese thought. In some ways, this belief is true. When Westerners label Confucianism and Daoism to be "religion," they seemed to have completely ignored their roles within Chinese (and East Asian) society and history. They have been unifying philosophical ideas that allowed for social integrity and political stability. On the other hand, true religions (such as Christianity, Islam,

OK, I finally got to Shanghai after about two and a half days spent in airports and planes...and probably most annoying aspect of being here, besides the insanely hot weather (95 degrees and 95% humidity) is probably the fact that most sites Americans tend to access (a lot of news sites, Facebook, Youtube, blog sites including Blogspot...yes, I can only post via email now) are completely gone here...while, of course this is not news, but the sites and softwares that allow for proxy access to bypass the so-called Great Firewall of China have themselves been banned, showing the increased sophistication of Internet monitoring in this country. Now, we all know certain sites are blocked for political reasons (news sites and blog sites with their "anti-Chinese" writings) and others for economic protections (Facebook and Youtube blocked so their Chinese counterparts can practically have monopolies of their domestic markets), but considering that both the Chinese netizens and the CCP

I like to take up the pen when I am bored (like right now , as I sit through another few hours in San Diego airport), it makes me fill productive, well, at least my random thoughts are not wasted, haha... motivation to write indeed) For any writer, the ultimate goal is always the same: to publish your works and allow others to know you by the views you express in your words...yet, it seems like the number of aspiring writers is just so great in number, that published newspapers/magazines that accept open submissions seems infinitesimal in comparison. Sure, most of these writers are jokes: their images of their own writings are so great that they generally refuse to even proofread their own works after the initial rush to get the words down on paper. For anyone else who read their works, their often expressed self-confidence is the hallmark of their ludicrousness in proclaiming themselves to be "writers." I am a typical example of this bunch. My writing, especially when expre

In case you didn't realize, that was pure sarcasm coming from someone who is now in his 19th hour being stuck at San Diego airport on his way to China (yes, he never left). Just to give a quick summary of the situation: I was originally scheduled to leave San Diego yesterday (the 16th) at 10am for Salt Lake City, transfer to Tokyo, then onto Shanghai, arriving 9:20pm on the 17th...then, flight from San Diego to Salt Lake City was delayed nearly two hours, meaning that I cannot connect to the Tokyo flight from SLC. The ticket representative thus rebooked me for San Diego to Detroit (at 11pm, a 12-hour wait...) from then onto Shanghai, a direct flight arriving 7pm on the 18th... THEN, after a murderous 12-hour wait in the airport, San Diego to Detroit flight got cancelled, leaving me to reschedule once more: this time leaving from San Diego to Minneapolis to Tokyo to Shanghai, leaving here at 7am (another 6 hour wait at airport...eh...) and arriving at 9:20pm on the 18th (so, exactly

As I mentioned previously, I became a US citizen not long ago , and the celebrations of my fellow citizens at the ceremony, waving their American flags, were quite a sight to behold. And when I was looking at the waving of the flags, a flashback just randomly popped into my head of a major controversy at Yale. Three Yale students, all of whom international, were caught burning an American flag on private property (i.e., they torched a flag that was hanging on the roof of some random house). The discussion of xenophobia and patriotism suddenly spiked because of the incident, and many, students and school officials alike, questioned the motives of the three students and the suitability of their continuing their studies at Yale.