Into the World:
The Random Thoughts in My Mind

Just got back to Shanghai after an overnight bus ride from Fuzhou (where I only walked around for an hour and a half after I landed on a ship from Matzu Islands in Taiwan)...now with the trip over and not much else to do before my father returns from the States and my grandmother getting here from Nanjing, I suppose it is time to write some reflections on the entire trip (two weeks long...even thought it was too much...after all, the Taiwanese leg happened rather spontaneously without much planning). The main purpose of this entire trip, seen retrospectively, is the comparison of mainland China with Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Same language and culture does not mean a similar present, and the result of 6 decades of different political and economic backgrounds really show on the outer appearance, social order, and especially, the characters and attitudes of the people, both to themselves and to each others, especially in the case of mainlanders vs. the other Chinese-speakers. Perhaps

When I was planning my trip to Taiwan not that long ago (in fact, I didn't seriously think about it til I got to Xiamen, across the Strait from Taiwan....AFTER already on the road for a week in Wuhan, Guangdong Province, plus Hong Kong and Macao...I was kind of suspicions from Chinese border customs regarding why I am leaving the country 3 times in 4 days), going to an Internet cafe was definitely part of the plan...all the blocked sites, especially Facebook and this one (I have been posting via email for the past month and half on the mainland), need to be accessed... Now here I am, sitting in a loud 24-hour Net Cafe in Tainan City, my first chance in accessing the Internet in Taiwan...there is a dog barking and walking down the hall in the net cafe rather leisurely and I am getting constantly distracted by the sounds of someone playing some gambling machine next door (I suppose the net cafes here also do other entertainment options?)...so yeah, the writing is and will be pretty h

Recently, my mother has been worrying that my brother's writing is not up to par with his classmates and the requirements for getting into elite colleges. Besides the fact that he is still only in 7th grade, a period of time that is really premature is judging the readiness for college-level writing, I suppose the fear is legitimate for a parent who does not know better. Chinese people can't stress enough about the importance of writing in American education system (primarily because Chinese people generally believe in technical stuff, such as engineering, medicine, and sciences, as the only legitimate education for preparation for good jobs...and because they generally suck at English writing) as Chinese kids, even those that have lived most of their lives in the US, tend to fall apart on the writing section of the SAT and in English classes both in high school and college. Having taught writing for so long to high school students in Korea, I have a general grasp of what are

A week into complete boredom at home with not much to do...the weather is so hot that I am only going out to resupply food...staying home and doing laundry, sweeping the floor (believe me, I hate cleaning...there are dust bunnies everywhere...thats why I prefer carpets to floors...the dirtiness shows easily on floors), and watering flowers (plants, to be exact)...Went to the hospital a couple of times cuz my left ear was plugged...now that my left ear is cleaned out (first time in years...probably more than a decade), I am just amazed by the amount of noise I can hear on the street...and how my right ear (which just got a partial cleaning) feels stuffed and weak on hearing when compared to my left....I do regret not cleaning both ears at the same time when I had the chance... Ok, besides these boring daily happenings, I am really having not much to do...yesterday was designated a disaster day here in China to commemorate the victims of gigantic mudslide in Gansu Province (it was gigant

Watching TV last night (not much to do except that nowdays with no passport and no travel plans), I saw Tibetan singer Alan perform. Now for those who don't know, she signed with Japanese company Avex Entertainment (a company that I almost worked for…damn that last round phone interview) a couple years back, and has made a name for herself in being distinctively Tibetan in voice yet good-looking and fashionably dressed in a way Tibetans are traditionally perceived no to be. Now, with my theory that Tibetan traditional culture is ultimately bound to be neutralized, a character like her would be seen as the inevitable vanguard of such a trend. Now, I don't know how she would be perceived back home in Tibet (not that favorably I bet, after all, she gave up traditional culture for money), but as far as Han Chinese and Japanese people are concerned, she represents a dramatic, and welcoming, break, from the Shangri-la image that we always seem to have about Tibet (perhaps her next