Last month, Xinhua News had an interesting piece of “被时代” - which translates roughly to “era of being forced” or “era of acceptance.” 被 (bei) in Chinese indicates a passive clause. Thus when you get hit (撞), you say 你被撞了. According to an Internet poll, the most popular Chinese character of 2009 was “被.” Why? Part of the reason is that living in a society charging full … [Read more...] about Translation: Living in an Era of Change – Era of Acceptance
Analysis
Open Letter to President Obama from Chinese netizen, LTML
Following is an open letter posted on the popular Chinese BBS forum, bbs.huanqiu.com, by a member named "LTML." The English version of it follows the Chinese in this post. It is addressed to U.S. President Obama on his decision to sell weapons to Taiwan. President Obama has repeatedly stressed that he wants to reach the people of China. Well, based on what we've read in … [Read more...] about Open Letter to President Obama from Chinese netizen, LTML
You Scratch My Back, but I Won’t Scratch Yours
The two Asian Giants are still not able to figure out the line which divides them – in the longest running border dispute in modern history. This dispute offers interesting lessons on how to, and how not to, handle boundary issues. The analysis of Chinese behavior in the negotiations is doubly important given China’s perception in the west of it ‘flexing its muscles’, and … [Read more...] about You Scratch My Back, but I Won’t Scratch Yours
Opinion: Keeping a cool view of the U.S.-China Cooperatition
The term, "cooperatition" was coined by economists to describe corporations both cooperate and compete at the same time. For example, Apple and Google cooperate on getting Gmail and Google Maps integrated well into the iPhone, resulting in a better finish product and while helping both companies in the market place. However, Google also makes the Android phone operating … [Read more...] about Opinion: Keeping a cool view of the U.S.-China Cooperatition
U.N.’s Application of the Clean Development Mechanism to China – Fair or Unfair?
As is customary for many over the Chinese New Year, I spent a lot of time cleaning up old junk in my house the last few weeks. As luck would have it, I happened to run over a December article in BusinessWeek reporting that the U.N. had stopped awarding carbon funding of green projects in China. An excerpt of the article (cnn copy) is provided here: The United Nations body in … [Read more...] about U.N.’s Application of the Clean Development Mechanism to China – Fair or Unfair?