I'm on an extended visit back to my hometown, Vancouver, a Canadian city full of Chinese. Chinese is the second-most commonly used language after English. My wife and I were running around a Chinese mall for fun to practice Mandarin and buy some Chinese DVDs when we overheard Chinese people talking about us in Mandarin saying, "Those foreigners are speaking Chinese!" I … [Read more...] about (Letter from Joel) How should foreigners feel about being called “鬼子,” “鬼佬,” “老外,” etc.?
(Letter from EugeneZ) Spring 1989 in Shanghai – A Memory of the ’89 Student Movement
One year ago, Buxi asked me to write something on 6/4, and I did not get around to do it, but promised that I would do so this year, the 20th anniversary. At the reminder of Admin a few weeks ago, I started to think about this "action item". I pulled out a diary/report that was written within the weeks after 6/4/1989, the report was 50 some pages long. It did not have any … [Read more...] about (Letter from EugeneZ) Spring 1989 in Shanghai – A Memory of the ’89 Student Movement
(Letter from Joel) Understanding popular Chinese notions about “racism” (help me out here!)
I have a growing suspicion that the way many Chinese people understand the word "racism" (or "racist") is quite different from the way I use it. This causes communication problems because I use the term "racism" like most North Americans do, but my Chinese acquaintances react in ways that don't seem to make sense. Obviously there's a disconnect. I want to know why my … [Read more...] about (Letter from Joel) Understanding popular Chinese notions about “racism” (help me out here!)
(Letter from TonyP4) The Chinese are coming!
The quality problems of Chinese products show up almost every month. It is the experience of most developing countries on their way to a developed country. The last one is S. Korean which adopted a similar model as Japan. What have not been reported extensively are the improvement of the Chinese products and why Chinese will compete with the best in the world. The … [Read more...] about (Letter from TonyP4) The Chinese are coming!
Letter: A Brief Memoriam for the Yellow Flower Hill Uprising
Yellow Flower Hill Uprising could be the most significant event in our time. The following is written by Bai Ding, my high school classmate. I have his permission to publish it here. Bai is the descendant of one of the patriots. I bet this history event is written differently in China, Taiwan and even Hong Kong, so feel free to express your point of view. The two poems in … [Read more...] about Letter: A Brief Memoriam for the Yellow Flower Hill Uprising