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) “Fifty Cent Party” definition broaden to people not paid 50 cent
Oh, boy, these days it's dangerous to have a pro-Chinese government view on the Internet, even if you genuinely believe it, out of your own volition, and volunteer such sentiment freely, without acceptiong a 50 cent pittance. Here, you can see Rebecca MacCannon just expaned the definition of "Fifty Cent Party" to include those "paid or who volunteer to post pro-government … [Read more...] about (Letter) “Fifty Cent Party” definition broaden to people not paid 50 cent
"Surprisingly", Compulsory Education is Free!
Education is important to China's future, and education reform has been a long drawn-out complex process, which people of all stripes agree has basically been inadequate. From the early days of Project Hope corruption to the current education spending that still hasn't reached the 4%-of-GDP target set by the central government, people have much to complain about. Among all the … [Read more...] about "Surprisingly", Compulsory Education is Free!
(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!)