Trip Planner

Gang's friend told us there are cheap flights to Hawaii recently. Since Gang's passed his qualify exam and I still remain jobless, we find now a good timing to do some traveling. When I recall all the travelings we've done together, Gang's always the idea-creator, and I'm always the trip planner.

The first trip (by trip, I mean more than 2-hour drive, which excludes San Francisco, point Reyes, etc.) we did together was to 17 miles. We didn't do any homework before going there. We drove along the sea with Strongy. It was freezing. The biggest discovery on that trip was Gang's infatuation with almond. I brought a can of nuts to snack on the way, and Gang kept asking me to feed him with almond when he was driving.

The next one was much longer. When my mum visited us in the summer, we went on a road trip to Las Vegas and then Los Angeles. This was the first time that I actually did plan a trip before setting off. The first step was to read other people's traveling blogs and to figure out where we would like to go. After determining the route, I started bidding hotels along the way, making sure each hotel was no more than 300 miles apart to avoid fatigue driving: for example, we stayed in Bakersfield in central California after visiting the Hearst Castle and left the rest 200 miles to Las Vegas for the next day. It was a great trip. I served as a tour guide with my cheat sheets which included highlights of scenic sites, attractions and restaurants.

After this nine-day trip, Gang and I took several other road trips to San Diego, Mono lake, Seattle, Grand Canyon and Arizona. Last summer, we stayed in Geneva and took several trips to our little neighbors - Lyons, Marseilles, Interlaken, Zurich, Lucern; and a longer train trip to Amsterdam, Bruxelles, Schloss Neuschwanstein, Munich, Rome, Florence, Venice and Milan. This year, we also rented a car and drove to Gettysburg and Lancaster in PA from Princeton, and later took a 10-day trip with mum and Joop to Niagara Fall, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and DC. I printed a 16-page trip agenda with two appendixes for my family, but I think only Joop was patient enough to read it.

Trip planning helps avoid some unnecessary spending. Even the same hotel can be priced differently on different websites, and some hotels have good promotions during a certain season while some overcharge customers during weekends. The prices of renting a car also vary across companies and pick-up/return locations. Booking things in advance reduces costs and saves time. When we were traveling in Vatican, I felt so lucky to have reserved tickets for the Vatican Museums and avoided queuing up for hours. Trip planning also provides a general flavor of the places I'm about to visit. Cities are more or less the same, but the stories behind them are quite different. If you're more interested in history and culture, trip planning can be very helpful in revealing the stories behind and spice up your journey. For national parks, you may want to better arrange your time and make sure you won't miss some highlights.

It's true that trip planning can take a long time. But I also find myself getting part of the joy in traveling from planning the trip. All those introductions about new places arouse my curiosity and make me more excited at the coming trip. Sometimes it's annoying to decide between too many choices when facing a limited time (like in Rome). Hum, maybe I should make this my job.

Chinese Halloween

August 31st, which is also July 14th on lunar calendar is a traditional Chinese festival - Zhongyuan Festival, one of the four Ghost Festivals (GF) in China. The other three are March 3rd, Qingming Festival and Octorber 1st (all in lunar calendars). In these days, the door to the underworld is open and ghosts can come back to the earth and wander like human beings.

According to old legends in Taoism and Buddism, ghosts leave the underworld at night. They dress like normal people, and especially enjoy walking around night markets after long and lonely days in the netherworld. That night, ghosts can lead normal people's lives - they bargain with street vendors, play games, buy snacks and drink alcohol, except that you can't find their shadows in the streetlight. And if you happen to join them in drinking, you may want to watch out not to go back to the underworld with them at daybreak in drunkenness. That's why sometimes people set off firecrackers to scare away ghosts, making sure they're drinking with their fellow humans. Children and women are warned not to stay outside too late as they are more vulnerable to be attacked by ghosts. Another custom is to offer sacrifices and burn paper-made notes (currency in the underworld banks) to ancestors, as they will visit their descendants that day and it's our responsibilities to serve them something nice, and assure them good lives in another world. Also, people believe that in the gloomy underwater world lies the bridge to the hell and most ghosts can be found in rivers or lakes. Thus they also go to riverside and put lanterns on the water with candles lit inside as a way to comfort wandering souls and to wish them better lives after reincarnation.

People in other countries also wonder about afterlives and show their respects for deaths. In Japan, people celebrate Obon Festival in mid August. Obon originated in India as a Buddhist festival to expiate sins of the deaths. It spread to Japan through China and became the second biggest festival in Japan. The entire vacation lasts about 7-15 days, people reunite with their families and visit ancestors' graves together. Obon Festival is when Yama, the king of the underworld, goes on vacations. Therefore the unshackled ghosts are released to the world and many of them choose to visit where they used to live -  I mean, the earth. During the Obon Festival, people dance in Yukata, holding memorial ceremonies for the death and praying for good fortunes in the coming year. Similarly, Japanese also believe that their ancestors will visit them during the festival, thus they hang lanterns in front of houses to show ancestors the way. In the fiction I'm reading recently about Abenoseimei, a famous Onmyoji in Heian Era, people in Japan used to sit together in Obon Festival and take turns to tell ghost stories. As one finished his story, he blew out the candle in front of him. After all the candles went out, it was the time for ghosts' parade (Hyakki Yakou百鬼夜行). The earth was occupied by ghosts who lived and talked like human beings. Everything came back to normal after the dawn, but people had to carefully avoid coming across ghosts at night.

The Halloween in the US and other western countries is quite different in the way of respecting the deaths, maybe due to the difference in religions. Both Zhongyuan and Obon are meant for families to memorize ancestors while Halloween is more like a ghost version of Disneyland for kids. (Well you know better than me.) I must admit I was really surprised to see how happy people are in a ghost festival when I saw kids in costumes running around with jack-o'-lanterns and candy bags during my first Halloween in the US in 2009.
                                                                                                             
At the end of the blog, I'd like to list a few taboos for tomorrow (Zhongyuan Festival):
- Don't burn large bills (I mean "paper-made notes") only, as ancestors may come back for changes;
- Don't hang wind chimes above the bed, they may attract ghosts to your bedroom;
- Don't leave your clothes outside as they may be "borrowed" by ghosts;
- Don't stay up late, you may see too much;
- Don't pick up money on the road, it may be left for bribing officials in the underworld (corruption is everywhere);
- Don't call your friends by full name, it may be heard by some wandering souls.

A $700 Bill

I was reading Abenoseimei when receiving a mail from Aetna, my health insurance company. I visited my OB last month and got vaccination as she suggested. The bill I received cost me around $700, with the charge of vaccine at $70, the "administrative cost of vaccination" of $60, and an absurdly high cost of "office visit". It took me one and a half hours to appeal a review, which will take another 7-10 business days to give me feedback.

The health insurance system is one of the most confusing things in the US. It looks like that the hospital redefined my maternal visit to a "counseling" because the OB gave me some suggestions on pregnancy, which as a result excluded my visit from insurance coverage. I do hate reading the 30-page insurance policy and couldn't really figure out the differences between all sorts of visit. But I can't see how helpful it is to separate medical care from medical advice as both contribute to patients' health and address the same problems. Last year I came across a similar issue when I got food poisoned on the plane and was sent to emergency service after landing. The doctor was obviously too used to emergencies that she did not even show up until half an hour after my check-in. In the end I couldn't bear the pain anymore that I just asked her for some pain-killers. The unpleasant visit cost me more than $400. And now it surprises me again with a $700 bill for vaccination.

I remember when I saw a doctor in Beijing, it never took me more than one hour. I was informed of the payment before I decided to receive the medical care or not - if it was far above my budget, I could ask the doctor for alternatives. The insurance plans were much less complicated as well - you pay a certain amount at your visit, and a little more at pharmacy. The advantage is that you are fully informed of the charges, and there is no need to waste time on arguing against either the insurance company or the hospital; and the disadvantage is that some people are unable to get treatment because they can't pay at the counter. Of course it's too bad if lives are not saved due to financial concerns, but it's not less evil if people are deprived of the right to know how much they are to be charged.

As a warning, it's pretty risky to visit hospitals outside the school if you're covered by student health plans. I never paid a penny at Princeton Health Center, but when I saw a doctor in the bay for similar purposes the charges become ridiculously high. I suppose this is a different rule in this continent, inconvenient as it is, leaving me no choice but to better understand its functioning. I just switch to Gang's plan at Berkeley, which does offer a better coverage in the bay area and free access to health center in Berkeley (at a higher cost of course).

(This is a little bit off the topic, but today I also received a mail from superior court in Alameda County, asking me to appear for jury service next month. I'm not even a U.S. citizen! It's funny that I haven't enjoyed the rights of U.S. citizens but are already required to meet the obligations.)

(Source: http://goo.gl/bTwt0)

Reliable Source

About two decades ago, people received news from newspaper and TV, both of which were either dominated by big news corporations or governments. Nowadays, internet provides multi-channels for news delivery. News portals are still controlled by big corps, but audiences have more choices: rather than subscribing to one to two newspapers, they can browse news in almost any website they want to. More importantly, the development of social media changes the traditional unidirectional way of spreading news. Everyone on internet can be news publisher and commentator, and this change already starts to break media monopoly and offers different perspectives on a same issue.

In China, where government has firm control over media, the new and expanding Weibo (Chinese twitter) has largely changed the way people receive and share news. In comparison to the mainstream media overwhelmed by political jargon and empty talks, Weibo users always publish short and easy-to-follow news and comments: with a 140-word limit, the publishers have to make each news concise What's more, because of the relatively loose censorship on Weibo, some news that are banned in paper media survive in Weibo. Though most of them are deleted in the end, people who glimpse the news before their disappearance are informed, and further disseminate them in their own way, like taking screen-shots and publish pictures to avoid keyword-filtering systems. Therefore Weibo has become one of the main news resources for many Chinese, young generation in particular, as people believe that they may have access to some uncensored facts there. I don't read People's Daily or Global Times frequently, but I do follow the main media and celebrities' accounts on Weibo, and skip over their posts every day.

Social media like Weibo shouldn't become the main sources of information - just like people won't rely on twitter for news. Since every Weibo user acquires the authority of publishing news, the information spreading out there is perhaps far from "reliable" as rumors can be found everywhere. But when people are so tired of political leaders' speech and esoteric reviews which always occupy front pages of newspapers that they don't even mind spending time on filtering Weibo news, it's time for media corps and their government regulators to redesign their development strategies. It looks like people no longer buy the propaganda, but are more fond of news that reveal the "truth". By truth, I don't mean unbiased news - such news never exists, but at least it shouldn't twist facts or shun to reporting scandals and other "negative information."

I'm always surprised at how the newspapers and TV programs report the news in the US and by supplying different, sometimes even conflicting news become reliable sources for American audiences. News corps controlled by different political parties and interest groups provide different perspectives to social hotpots, which jointly give audiences different pieces of a full picture. Some people choose to read what they believe is true (I mean reading the newspapers which share similar ideas as them), but some choose to be exposed closer to facts by expanding their information sources. Social media opens the door to multi-channels of information delivery, but how to balance the choices and efficiency of news reporting may be key to producing reliable sources in the future.

Another Accident

36 out of 39 passengers were killed in a highway collision between a bus and a methanol-loaded tanker in Shaanxi. The accident happened at 2am in the morning, most people were burned to death in sleep. This is neither the first nor the biggest traffic accident of its kind in China in recent years. Overload, overspeed and fatigue are three main reasons that keep experienced drivers from normal operations of automobiles, let alone handling emergencies. To maximize the profits of transportation, many bus companies, long-distance transporting ones in particular, choose to load more passengers than allowed. Meanwhile, to accompany the schedule of passengers, many coaches operate at night, known as "red-eye buses." Drivers who own salaries by distances also have motivations to finish the same distance within less hours, which end in pervasive overspeed.

After the news was released, local governments responded very quickly and claimed to regulate the passenger transport industry soon. There is rumor that one of the plans is to cancel "red-eye buses". This policy, if put into effect, may be effective in keeping tired drivers from working all night, but will make it less convenient for passengers as well as exacerbating daytime traffic congestion. Moreover, if transport companies can't afford the increase in costs by replacing red-eye coaches with those in normal hours, they may resort to further overloading passengers in each bus. In this case, risks are not reduced, but transferred from fatigued driving to heavy overloading.

From the perspective of economics, government should facilitate effective allocation of resources rather than hindering them. Night transportation has been proved effective and cost-saving. (Just think of how much more you need to pay on hotels if red-eye flights across coasts are cancelled.) What really contributes to the accident is the long hours that drivers need to work. If two drivers can divide the work originally assigned to one, the accident rate may be reduced accordingly; or if a driver can get enough rest before setting off, he may suffer less from forcing himself to drive during sleeping hours. Of course this will increase the operation costs for transportation companies, however given the potential damages caused by fatigue drivers, these costs may well worth it.

Therefore it's very interesting to see that Shaanxi government did not even discuss the feasibility of correcting the market by issuing a upper limit on each driver's working hours, but went directly for sub-optimal. The reasons behind the decision could be: (1) the concerns over administrative capacity: it's much easier to ban red-eye buses than to regulate drivers' working hours; or (2) trying to show sufficient determination to eliminate similar accidents in the future as this one has already drawn too much attention on a provincial government, thus they have to look tough to the public. In either case, it's just another typical example of how the government are steered by media in decision-making and successfully messes up the market again.

It is an encouraging change for the Shaanxi Government to respond to media and the public quickly, and show some senses of responsibility for public service. However there is still a long way ahead for the governors to understand the role of government in a market-oriented economy and how to balance market leverages and government regulations. When Republicans and Democrats are in the lengthy fight on the size of the government, we are just starting to draw the line between the government and the market. A little too late, but good to have a start.

Ice Age

Gang and I went to watch Ice Age 4: Continental Drift yesterday at AMC. It was late at night, only four audiences (including Gang and me) were watching the movie - probably due to the fact that most kids had gone to bed already at that time.  It's no longer surprising as the first one of the series: the mammoth is tough but gentle, the sloth is more of a hindrance than a help; Diego finally finds his love and the squirrel fails to get the cone - as always. But its producer, the Blue Sky Studio successfully offers audiences a hilarious movie with witty dialogues and imaginative characters. Everyone knows the end even before they start watching, but the 90 min is still quite enjoyable. As a consequence, I can't recall much from the movie, but a few dialogues during watching.

When the landslide happened at the beginning of the movie (as continents drift), all the animals looked panic. I asked Gang: "Earthquake?"

"No, Climate change." He answered assertively.

At the end of the movie, all the animals successfully defeated pirates and emigrated to a new land. At the entrance there is a weird statue holding a torch.

"Statue of Liberty!" Gang laughed.

And I agree with him. This is such an American movie!

With world-class animation technologies and production teams, American animation thrives without any rival over the past few decades. Besides the Ice Age, the Lion King in 1996, Shrek in 2001, Finding Nemo in 2003, Garfield in 2004, Madagascar in 2005, Cars in 2006, Wall-E in 2008, and recent Rio and Kungfu Panda, have shown the evolution of American animations: better pictures, more dimensions, but always the same ideas. Designed for both young and old, these movies are embedded with core values of human society: love, friendship, dream and freedom (and eulogy for the US sometimes.) Equipped with these universal values and stunning pictures, American animations spread out theaters very quickly - just like how fast-food conquers the world. People have fun when watching it, and better still, they don't need to think to understand them.

In comparison to the popularity of movies with straightforward expressions of mainstream values, another form of animation, represented by Hayao Miyazaki's movies, is declining. Tonari no Totoro, is the sort of movie which requires the audiences to take time to see another scene behind the pictures. A similar animation, Mary and Max (2009) which told a touching story between two pen pals was also under-appreciated. It looks like people are reluctant to spend two hours tearing for two cartoon characters.

This is a regrettable trend. However we can't blame producers seeking after fast-paced narrative and plain stories as I'd assume they are only catering audiences' tastes. When we are too busy to think and too stressed to laugh, all we look for in a theater is relaxation. Take a seat, have some popcorn, and have fun.

Ethics and Law

A recent news in China reports that a young man refused to offer his seat to a woman carrying a 5-month infant on the bus (in China it's not requested by law to offer seats to disadvantaged people.) The outraged husband slapped the young man in the face fiercely. With a bleeding nose and broken glasses, the young man got off the bus, leaving shocking audiences and controversy behind.

Ethics and laws are viewed as two molds that shape people's behavior in a society. Laws, made on the assumption of evil human natures, forbid people from committing malefaction; on contrary ethics believe in the goodness of people and encourage them to promote these virtues and help others. In a society, the minimum requirement for its citizens are to abide by laws, i.e. do not harm other people; and in a well-functioning one, incentive mechanisms are developed to encourage people to do good. For example, in the US, if you violate laws, you may be indebted to fines, community work or even imprisonment. But if you've got involved in charity ("ethics"), you are rewarded with honors and tax exemptions. In other words, it's your responsibility to abide by laws, but it's your choice to follow ethics.

Different as they are, the lines between ethics and laws are blurred in China. The terribly flawed and powerless Chinese legal system appeals for heavier reliance on ethics to regulate people's behavior. After decades of propaganda on setting high moral standards, two parallel but very different standards are formed in evaluating people's behavior. On one aspect, laws are ignored in many fields. People find it "normal" for government officials to take bribery although it obviously violates the Civil Servant Law; and the public also finds it a good deal for victims if the murderer offers to pay tens of thousands of dollars to reach a out-of-court settlement despite the fact that the murderer should be sentenced by law. Laws are effective in regulating the mass, but not the rich or the powerful. On the other aspect, ethics are highly respected. People condemn those refusing to give seats to elderly, and denounce those who do not donate to the disadvantaged groups, although these people do much less harm (if there is any) than the corrupted officials or rich murderers. I remember in May 2008, soon after Wenchuan was hit by a 8-magnitude earthquake, China's Democratic League (CDL) organized a donation from its internal employees. It should be a voluntary activity, however it was made compulsory as each employee's donation was publicly announced. (peer's pressure!) Later I learned that CDL was not the worst, some organizations even deducted "donations" from their employees' salary directly. A voluntary charity was turned into obligation. This is a typical transposition between ethics and law.

There is an old saying in China: curfew for the common people, but the governors can light a fire (只许州官放火，不许百姓点灯). The public observes social norms carefully, for fear that their moral standards are not high enough; while elites play around laws, knowing all the rules are made to fool the mass. Back to the story mentioned at the beginning of this blog, later it was released that the young man was handicapped too. However, too embarrassed to defend himself or to report to the police after being beaten because of "low morals", he chose to stay silent. Regardless of being handicapped or not, it was NOT the young man's obligation to give up his seat under current law though it would be laudable if he did. However, the husband who mete out punishment can be suspected of committing the crime of intentional injury. Both of them are victims of the double standards in China today, who are confused by the difference between ethics and laws, and ignorant of their rights and obligations.

The History of Our Old Car

Gang and I plan to sell our old Nissan "Strongy" these days. An experienced buyer checked its VIN on carfax and offered us a detailed report of its history since 1996. This is our first time getting a full picture of what Strongy has been through in the past 16 years. And to a certain extent, it's also a miniature of common people's lives in west US.

On August 2nd 1996, Strongy was bought by its first owner in Arizona who took loans from bank to cover the car. However it was auctioned about two years late. Motor Vehicle Department in Utah bought it and soon sold it to an owner in California in Jan 1999. This guy took good care of the car and kept it until 2007, when it was sold to the third owner, who kept it for another 2 years. At that time, Strongy was already 11 years old,  running more than 10,000 miles in the US. We got the car in 2008 as the fifth owner, and kept it for 4 years until now.

Strongy is no longer what it was 16 years ago: it has been equipped with new battery, tires and other tiny accessories. With old-fashion looks, it functions very well, bringing us the all around the west coast. In summer 2009, we drove it along Route One to Las Vegas. The engine roared in desert for four hours without breaks. Another adventure was in Yosemite, when we drove from the west entrance to the east exit at night on the winding hilly road for three hours. If anything happened during those three hours, I wouldn't be here writing blogs. The last long journey we took with Strongy was to Seattle. We stopped by the Crater lake and Portland in Oregon, and then drove straight to the north. On our way back, we took a break along the high way. Gang stroked its front cover and said "you've worked hard."

When we were apart on coasts, Gang commuted between Stanford and Berkeley for another year. Integrating into the traffic at rush hours, Strongy accompanied Gang during the boring waiting hours. Every time I got off the plane at SFO and saw Strongy waiting outside with the Chinese knot hanging above the front window, it produced a feeling of home immediately.

Strongy has witnessed our drift around in the US during the last few years. I practiced driving in the spacious parking lot at Walmart with it on arrival at California. Gang very patiently repeated instructions, and explained the functions of each button. I drove around for days until I could finally distinguish gas and break. One night I was duped into driving Strongy on a highway, and scared both Gang and myself. I drove off the highway as soon as I found an exit, and stunned in shock for quite a while. We cleaned the car by hand once in a month if not raining. Sometimes it got really dirty, but we decided to ignore. Now I'm still a poor driver, but Strongy is the only car that I'm used to manipulating with sophistication. Its shimmy on muddy roads and the slightly crooked steering wheel both became part of my driving experiences.

(Photo taken in Yosemite after Strongy tramping over all the mountains behind it in 2010)

The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name

In April 1895 Wilde was brought to court charged with indecency and sodomy. Charles Gill, a schoolmate of Wilde's and the prosecutor in the case, asked him "What is the love that dare not speak its name?" Wilde's impromptu response was:

"The Love that dare not speak its name" in this century is such a great affection of an elder for a younger man, as there was between David and Jonathan, such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy, and such as you may find in the sonnets of Michelangelo and Shakespeare. It is in this century misunderstood, so much misunderstood that it may be described as the "Love that dare not speak its name," and on account of it I am placed where I am now. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him. That it should be so, the world does not understand. The world mocks at it and sometimes puts one in the pillory for it."

(Source: Wilde 1997)

I read Wilde quite intensively after returning to the bay area, including his fairy tales, novels, plays and the long letter he wrote to Boise when in prison. His works are flooded with the joy of youth and the desperation of affections. His fairy tales for instance, show beautiful but dreary love that the nightingale's holding for the young students, so as the swallow's love for the happy prince. Youth, no matter how glorious it can be, will be gone one day, just like love will finally fade in vain. With this in mind, it's not too difficult to understand his crush on Boise, the "Lily Prince" who did nothing but destroy his career, then his reputation and life.

Genius are more or less crazy. They need distinctive lifestyles to get inspirations. Being a selfish giant to his wife and children, Wilde indulged in the love with Boise, even though he fully understood that he could be ruined by the relationship, as mentioned in De Profundis. He embraced temptation, eulogized uncertainty, admired romance and let emotions lead him astray. He led a extravagant life with Boise, enjoyed the beauty and roman, but also suffered from the endless fights. Though having tried from time to time, Wilde never succeeded in ending the relationship. He was infatuated with Boise's look for sure - Boise was very pretty, but I think what truly attracted Wilde was the desperation of loving this capricious and vain boy: for Wilde, what can be more beautiful than "dying for his love with the thorn in his heart". (Source: The Nightingale and the Rose) Even after the two-year jail life and that furious long letter to Boise, Wilde gave up all his resolution of ending the relationship when he saw Boise, and spent another three months with him. No record was found about what happened during that time, all we know was that Wilde finally left Boise wounded and tired, and spent the rest of his life in Paris. As Wilde said, there are only two tragedies in life: one is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it. A tragedy, is the best summary of the love that dare not speak its name between Boise and him.

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. Perhaps Wilde is one of those who never get satisfactions from ordinary life, - or in his words, "tedious life"; and the joy of looking at the stars may ease his pain of standing in the gutter.

We are not the Worst

Before graduation, all the MPA'12 went to Blairstown for a weekend. Two years ago, we went on our first group trip there right after the math camp and got acquainted with each other. There we were again, and as a retrospection of the last two years, we were suggested to spend an hour talking about what we had learned at Princeton.

There were about eight people in my group, each talking about the benefits they'd received from WWS: friendship, new ideas, quan skills, etc. Then it was my turn.

"I've learned that we are not the worst." I said, as the only Chinese student in the program, "I thought Chinese government is terrible, but now it's just a typical corrupting and inefficient government in a developing country, no worse than the others."

Everyone burst into laugh. "How does that come?" One of them asked.

Thousands of words ran through my head at that moment. "To put it short, I read a lot of stories on the abuse of government power: people are executed without trial or evidence, dissidents are arrested without warrant, and private property is expropriated without permission from courts. Human rights abuses make me pessimistic about the future of my country. However after I took classes here, I read stories about other BRICS, about Latin America and Africa, and then I realized China was not alone. All the problems we have are also typical in other countries. I must thank Princeton for showing me the world." I shrugged.

Other people in my group couldn't stop laughing. "Oh Keqin, that's so funny!" One of my friends who is also interested in democratization cheered, "Should I moan at losing a determined reformist in China?"

"No worries about that," I replied, "I'm just saying that we are equally bad."

I was wrong. After finishing the reports on Kenya and Ghana today, I believe China is actually much better. Despite the huge income gap, a poorly established legal system, bloody suppression of dissidents and political scandals, China provides some level of health, education to its citizens. A nine-year compulsory education is implemented since 1980s; and vaccinations are provided to most new born babies, reducing the infant mortality to a very low level. Economies, though fiercely criticized, have achieved fast growing rates in decades, and provide many job opportunities - though not enough - to young people. In comparison, even mid-income countries like Brazil should be shamed of its shabby infrastructure and slow government; let alone Kenya and Ghana, both of which cannot even provide enough positions for half of the young population in the job market.

I probably should be thankful to the fast development in China, which also reveals the problems deeply rooting in the political regime, and provide us with some pre-conditions of addressing these problems. If we "stay foolish, stay hungry" like our neighbors in North Korea, no one may even think about the problems or dare to talk about reforms. Now as our basic needs for living are mostly met, we have some education to think, some nutrition to work, and some places to make changes. Yes we are facing big challenges, but at least we acquire some tools. I used to be suspicious of the modern theory of democracy discussed in 501, but now I have different opinions.

Inclined to be a pessimist for most of the time, I'm happy to gain some confidence by looking down. (not good, not good~) There is a zigzag warning ahead, but it's fine - we've got a good car.

Beautiful Poems in Fictions

I talked to Gang about the poems I've read in fictions when taking a walk together last night. Poems have the magic of expressing feelings in a mild and indirect way with only a few words and letting the imagination fly. I think it will be fun to introduce some poems I've read in internet fictions so far. Though the translation of classical Chinese poetry into modern English is very awkward, I will try to explain the ideas as complete as I can.

A guy saw his love off in a restaurant by the river, who was about to board and relocated to somewhere thousands of miles away. In grief, he wrote a little poem:

You embark alone, and I lean against the wall,
君上孤舟我倚楼

The east wind drives your boat;
东风吹水送行舟

May God want to keep you here,
老天若有留君意

Driving the river backwards let the west wind blow.
一夜西风水倒流

(Source: An Encounter of Gentle Breeze and Bright Moon)

I could feel his desperation when his love is leaving. He can hardly do anything but to pray to God for a change in wind direction to retain him. All the words seem redundant at the time of sorrow.

Another poetry was written after a guy attending his love's wedding. The story is a Chinese version of Romeo and Julia. A young man was sent on an undercover mission to an enemy state, unfortunately he fell in love with a general there. However he had no choice but to follow the plan and annihilate the general's troops. The general escaped from the siege, and soon got married after his return. Suffering from the guilt of cheating and desperation of love, the young man wanted to take a last look at the general and finally sneaked to his wedding. When he saw the happy couple, he decided to give up. Thus he left a poetry on the table, which was found by the general in the following morning.

Candles burn to the end, watching the smoke ascending in grief,
高烛泪尽恨烟轻

We meet in a hurry but part forever;
一场相逢一场离

I only wish I will never see you again,
争如此生不再见

My tears drop like candle-mud, and my visions are blurred.
雾作氤氲泪作泥

(Source: Gone with the Summer)

The moment when a candle is lit, the candle and smoke meet each other. However as the candle burns in pain, the smoke keeps ascending into the sky while the candle descends in wax mud until they finally part. It's not that they don't love each other, but they are unable to make each other happy. At the end of the story, one committed suicide and the other lived in deep grief for the rest of his life.

The last poetry was found in a fiction about political struggles in ancient China. A young man's entire family was exterminated, but he was rescued by a friend, who took very good care of him. However he failed to recover from the tragedy and was depressed for a long time. One day, his friend wrote a poetry to console him.

I look back, the scenery looks remote,
回波一望悠悠

The moon in the sky won't get old easily;
明月难见白头

Tough mountains are finally eroded after centuries of withering and flourishing,
拟山荣枯有尽

Only soft trickles run quietly but long-lastingly.
若水细细长流

(Source: Another Spring)

After reading the poetry, the young man realized that he still had many years before getting old, and it was too early to get so demoralized. He changed his name to "water-like" (ruo shui 若水), determined to adapting himself to the society, and living like flexible water instead of unyielding mountains.

This is the beauty of Chinese classic poetry. Writers use a few analogies and line-drawings to uncover the tip of an iceberg, but leave readers fantasying the rest. The first two poems don't even mention the word of "love" or "affection", however you can tell how deep the love is through the blowing wind and burning candles. Similarly the last poem doesn't mention anything about "moving on", but the comparison of mountains and waters speaks for itself. Beautiful poems are truly intoxicating.

Happy Endings V.S. Bad Endings

Online fictions go viral as internet spreads out. These fictions are free of charge, but not free of time: anyone with access to internet can register and post his/her novels regardless of their qualities, and screening always costs readers quite a long time. For me, the challenge lie more on these fictions' endings rather than the qualities. It's not too difficult to sniff out a well-written fiction - the first few lines can give us a glimpse of the author's writing styles and levels, however it's very hard to tell whether the stories are happy ending or not, serial novels in particular. I used to spend several hours reading a humorously-written fiction which unfortunately ends very badly, and got upset for quite a while.

Tragedies impress people with the beauty of imperfections and poignance. If I recall all the fictions I read, what remain in my memory are those ending miserably: either A abandoning B or B betraying A, or a couple deeply in love failing to stay together as a result of unfortunate accidents or distressing misunderstandings. When I was in teenage, I cried over deaths of heroes and their friends, wishing they would resurrect like Sherlock Holmes in the following chapters. I waited for a few weeks, nothing happened except the writer announced "the end", leaving myself unable to get extricated from the mire of sadness and depression for another few weeks. Authors have been enjoying torturing their audiences with bad ending classics for centuries, and they know tears are better at gripping people's heart than laughter. Though loving tragedies so much, I found myself too emotional to read many of them. Therefore I carefully avoid tragedies and choose more with happy endings. Some internet writers have reputations for offering happy endings to all characters, and I feel relieved reading their works. But some of them abuse their reputations a little bit, and give sudden reversions in the last few chapters when all the sweet stories turn into a plot and some important ones die - like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Poor me can only moan for a while, swearing I will never read his/her books any more. However, when attracted by the beautiful beginning of his/her next novel, I tend to forget about all the old pains.

Some readers look for perfect love and lives in fictions because they are so rare in the real world, and some prefer to bad ending ones due to their profound meanings and enlightening inspirations. In either case, good fictions open windows to different life styles and show us alternatives to our current lives: what might have gone wrong and what could be corrected. Reading novels which tell stories of people relevant to us can easily arouse empathy. For example I read a love story earlier today about a young man doing master degree on journalism at Berkeley. He rents an apt in Marin and hates clam chowder. The story has not ended yet, and I sincerely hope it will have a happy ending as I subconsciously take it as a fictitious orthogonal of my own life.

I read for fun. When I hold a book (or iPad) in sunny afternoons in California, and spend a few hours reading a virtual world created by other people, I want a joyful experience rather than memorable regrets. All the characters - though unreal - are blessed by me.

Nationalism

Anti-Japanese protests sprouted all over China again after the escalation of the Sino-Japan disputes over Diaoyu Island. Like seven years ago, streets were crowded with angry people who burned Japanese flag, broke into Japanese restaurants, swept away Japanese products in stores and smashed Japanese cars. Despite a GDP two and a half the size of that in 2005, and hosting two international events - Olympics in 2008 and World Expo in 2010, China shows little improvement in terms of the growth of civil society and independent thinkers. Dictatorship successfully proved its efficiency of driving the mass by its stultifying propaganda no matter how absurd the logic might be. Meanwhile, the re-ignition of nationalism also reveals the political and economic dilemma that China is facing today.

Foreign enemies, either real or fictitious, always make things easier for the domestic government. It's hard to imagine how Kims can survive without all the surrounding "enemies". Similarly, Chinese government rid some blames from the public by turning people's attention towards abroad threats. In late July, people were complaining about the poor infrastructure in Beijing, which resulted in over 70 deaths in a rainstorm. But soon after the Olympics began and Chinese athletes received some unfair treatment in London, people seemed to forget about the outdated drainage systems or corruption in Red Cross China, and showed great patriotism and higher supports for the government. Articles eulogizing China and disdaining other countries - Britain in particular, can be found everywhere online. When the Olympics finally ended, and some people called on reflections on previous unsolved domestic issues, it came the time for the government to intervene. By offering official acquiescence to these "small demonstrations" against Japan, Chinese government killed two birds with one stone. It not only staved off the post-Olympic reflections on the state-run sports system and appeals for auditing government expenditure, but also downplayed recent trial of Bo Gukailai as well, the result of which happened to be announced right after the protests. People have poor memories. All the politicians need to do is to get things done when the public's attentions are distracted.

Politics is always dirty, but what really chilled my heart were the components of these demonstrations. In stark contrast to participants in riots in Europe last year, Chinese protesters are much older. They are not naive teenagers who look for excitement through violence, instead they are mature adults who should have full capacity of conducting their behaviors. However at least some of them did not really understand what these demonstrations were about. The guy in the right picture wore a T-shirt saying "Boycott Japanese products", but held a Canon DSLR firmly in hands. Another photo shows people smashing private Toyota sedans during the demonstration but ignoring government-owned Toyota SUVs. The chaos, euphemistically contorted by media as "patriotism" attracted a large herd of copycats, who took advantages of the disorder to satisfy their lust for destruction and hatred for rich population. They viewed the protests nothing but a violent carnival justified by mainstream media.

With an experienced government too smart to manipulate people's behavior, and a population too tame to think, it's hard to imagine any change in the offing. However it will also be interesting to see how long the government of China can still concoct enemies and lead the public astray. China is very good at gymnastics, as we can tell in the Olympics; but what China really needs is mental gymnastics. This time, not for a small group of people, but for the mass.

Collection of Cups

When I travel around, I always buy some cups as souvenir. Though most of them are made in China, they are different in design and texture. I left most of my collections in China when moving to the bay, hopefully one day I could ship them here after we've settled down.

In 2006, I made my second trip to Japan and visited Kyoto as one of my stops. There I got my first piece of Kiyomizu Yaki, a famous ceramic brand more than 1,000-year old. I bought a small cup for osake (a Japanese alcohol) at 700 yen, the cheapest one in the store. It's in white and sapphire, with a natural transition between these two colors. The surface is smooth and the touch is gentle, though you can get a glimpse of its original clay-texture at the bottom. It's so lovely that even I don't drink, I decided to keep it as a decoration. Master-made Kiyomizu Yaki wine cups can worth thousands of dollars with gorgeous colors and pleasant shapes, giving people a taste of beauty during fancy drinking.

On my return to Tokyo, I visited the headquarter of Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), where I bought my first made-in-Japan mug. You can find cartoons of all prime ministers in Japan from the first PM Itō Hirobumi after Meiji Restoration in 1885 to the latest one, which was Koyizumi Jyuichirou in 2006. After that, five new faces are added to the mug. This mug is so far my favorite one, and has been serving as my "main cup" in the last several years due to its perfect applicability for water, tea and coffee. Even I packed most of my stuff and left them in Beijing, it traveled with me to California and then to New Jersey where I went to school. It's already more than six years old, but never disappoints me with its solid quality.

The most dramatic mug I've got was in Boston. It's about 20 cm high with embossment of famous scenic pots in Boston: the freedom trail,  Faneuil Hall, ducks, etc. I gave it to my mum as a gift from my first US trip. I think she did use it for a while, though finally decided to lock it away out of its impractical volume and expensive look. Another mug ended up with the same cold treatment was one bought in New York. It's an elegant black round belly mug with a logo of "Sex and the City" in pink. I got it on my visit to CNN and used it for coffee for about a year. Its pearl black gloss went perfect with the color of coffee, and always offered me good treatments. But it's unreasonably heavy and I finally decided to leave it in China.

The last cup I bought was in June this year on my graduation from Princeton. I went to a university store on Nassau Street, and bought a black mug with "Princeton 2012" and a school badge on it as my last souvenir. It gained my favor very quickly and I even made a painting for it. (see right, it's called "a mug by my laptop") However I soon found a crack on it and had to put it away, whose position was soon retaken by Japanese PMs.

It's fun to keep these lovely cups by side and recall the stories behind them. I met a friend in Japan who bought a t-shirt everywhere he went. I guess this is our own way of recording lives. Now I only wish I'd find a place for these cute stuff.

Radio Drama

During the wi-fi break-down, I reviewed some of my radio drama collection, which already adds up to a surprising stock of 9GB in my laptop. Even after the unfortunate theft of my previous Lenovo last November, my collection was soon recovered and grew very fast. Now it took at least four days for me to listen from the beginning to the end.

The first radio drama I listened to was in Japanese. In early 2000s, when most Chinese audiences had to tolerate hypnotic radio stories by the China National Radio, Japanese dubbing schools were prospering as animation industry boomed. Graduates became popular by dubbing cartoon characters, some even having their fan associations and annual fan meetings. These famous voice casts then chose to make radio dramas and games, both of which are much more profitable because of their lower costs. Dramas are particularly cost effective - just think of how much less work you need to do in producing a drama in comparison to an animation! Like other pop cultural products, many Japanese dramas were pirated in China, and soon acclaimed by cartoon fans.

Dramas tell stories by dialogues and monologues, thus language skills are crucial if you are not a native speaker. I used Japanese dramas to practice my listening skills and learn slang. But for those who don’t speak the language, it might be challenging. Actually unless you’ve acquired a pretty good level of Japanese, it's unlikely to understand what’s going on. Sometimes you can find their Chinese translations online. However most people listen to dramas when they are walking, sleeping, etc. - basically when their eyes need breaks, and very few are willing to listen while reading. So despite that dubbers have beautiful voices, it’s frustrating if you don’t know what they are saying.

Therefore the demand from Chinese audiences fuel the market of Chinese radio drama. Many radio studios emerged on internet after 2005, adapting internet novels and making dramas. Usually a 200,000-word novel can be adapted into a four- to seven- episode drama, and the production cycle may vary from a few months (e.g. Bat by "Jueyi Studio") to a few years (e.g. Unspeakable Love by "Scissor Studio"). A typical team consists of voice casts, directors, scriptwriters, audio specialists and other staffs. Voice casts and audio specialists are the key components of the team: they use either their voices or technologies to inspire our imagination and create virtual frames. A drama usually has several voice casts for different characters, but always one audio specialist to ensure the overall consistence of the style. Some of them - dubbers in particular - also make names of themselves by making high-quality dramas.

Most people working on radio drama are amateur. They get together out of interests, and none of them are paid. Early Chinese dramas had difficulties in recruiting high-quality staff: a typical dilemma faced by those with great interests but not enough skills. Things are getting better later as more people know the industry and become willing to contribute. In addition, short-term training on dubbing and audio production are also provided at reasonable prices in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai now. Courses are offered at night or during summer, so that college students have spare time to do something fun. A website called "Superior Voices Superior Looks" (You Sheng You Se, a punchline for "impressive" in Chinese) releases information about all the new dramas published by each studio, and provides BBS for discussion, recruitment and get-together. I still check this website from time to time, the amount of dramas do increase exponentially in the last decade.

Ten years have passed since my first drama, voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru (can't remember the name of the other guy.) When I have difficulties falling asleep, or need to walk alone for hours, I still resort to dramas for accompany. Last year, I had almost nothing with me after the burglary in South Africa but my iPhone which happened to be under my pillow when thieves broke in at midnight. During the next several days when I was detained in Pretoria waiting for my new passport and visa, dramas in my phone soothed  my soul and relieved my anxiety. It's a fantastic feeling as if you know someone by his/her voice so well that they are like old friends to you. I'm always grateful for the visual world that they create for me.

Days without Wifi

A day has passed since the modem in my apartment broke down. I can’t describe how terrible it is to live in a world without internet – it’s like a desert where you simply can’t get access to any information. I sat in front of the laptop, finding it useless and boring. I tried to do some cooking, and then realized I couldn’t refer to online recipes anymore. I wanted to write a blog, but I couldn’t use dictionary when having difficulties in expressing myself. Even if I planned to fix the modem, I didn’t know how to do it without online instructions. In short, everything sucks.

High-tech has shaped our lives so much that it’s hard to switch back. Now I can’t either process data or write drafts without online literature and database. But I used to write everything by hand in high school! I read hard-copy books, took notes of splendid words and insightful arguments, and tried to use them in my own writing. To avoid repetitive copying, I thought over every word before starting to write, and tried to make it as perfect as possible. Internet changes everything. Notes are largely unnecessary as almost everything can be found by Google; I no longer rely on my everyday life and traveling for new ideas, instead I browse Facebook and other social media to get information about other people’s lives. Deliberate writing is somehow outdated as updates can be easily done as well. But if internet is cut off and laptop is running out of battery, can I still write with a pen and a piece of paper?

Internet creates an attractive visual world in which things are both far away and familiar. We may bet that other internet users are people similar to us; however we are not certain of their identities, which is the most beautiful part of internet. Distance makes heart feel fonder, and internet caters to our illusion of mystery.  We’d rather communicate with “guys on internet” than talking to real people in our lives. People seem to be much better at listening to strangers instead of building real relationship with acquaintances. We cite ideas from someone unknown and use them to argue against our friends.

All that said, internet cut-off is not purely evil, as it obliges us to go for our sub-optimal as we successful “resist” the temptation of wasting time online. Gang starts to read a book that he has been planning to for a long time, and I finish the latest Economist in a few hours which usually takes me days. Victims of the broken modem – me, my flat mates and neighbors who share the same modem with us, finally leave apartments and chat face to face, sharing recent lives with each other instead of sharing them on Facebook; and we all go to bed earlier because we “have nothing to do tonight.”

It’s depressing to think of how dependent we are of instruments and how weak we can be without them. We, the creator of these tools, are obsessed with the pleasure brought by them, can’t get rid of them anymore. That does not sound good. I want to be independent, I want to still enjoy my life even without internet, and I should be able to do so as I had successfully done that before.

Thank god I still have 3G on my iphone.

Desperado

An outlaw was shot dead yesterday in Chongqing after committing ten murders in eight years. In a country where gun ownership is strictly forbidden, it is shocking enough to know a guy killing ten people with a shotgun. And panic was aroused when he was at large. Even after the police confirmed his death, doubts still remained on whether it was the government's plan of eliminating the fear, specially after the ID card on the dead body was found to be under a quite different name.

In my memory, China is always a safe place except for a few places in the south. But it seems to get unsafer recently. Robberies, pilferage and trafficking are happening everyday, and high-techs are widely applied in fraud. New terrifying experiences are released by Weibo and other social media from time to time, demonstrating culprits one of the most creative groups of people in China. Besides, crime rates are in China are more or less downplayed by the media in comparison to the hundreds died of "accidents" such as coal mine collapse or "natural disasters" like recent rainstorm in Beijing.

But more attention should be paid to the rising crime rates in China. Data released by Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows that the crime rate in China has increased by 10% in 2010, with an unmatched slow increase in the police force and a substantially lower-than-average ratio of police-to-population. In other words, a large number of culprits have evaded justice. There is rumor that the "stabilizing fee" in China has surpassed the military expenditure, but it looks like the money is not spent in the right way.

Many factors contribute to an increasing crime rate, and economy recession is always one of them. Some people may deny this, but China is suffering in the post-stimulus era, which is also released by the decreasing GDP growth rate in recent quarters. If labor work cannot produce enough earnings for a living and social security system is in severe lack, people have no choice but to go for illegal ways. Chow, the recent shot-dead desperado chose to lurk by banks, kill people after they withdrew cash and take away the money. In addition, enlarging income gap between industries, regions and urban/rural areas also exacerbates the tension as these brutal actions are justified by poor people in the sense of reversing social inequality. Other factors also matter, including ignorance of mental health of the bottom, ineffective vocational training to unemployed, lack of capable police force, etc.

People have different views on how many responsibilities that the government should take, but no one'd doubt that keeping peace is one of them. It is opaque how the government of China spends tax payers' money, probably not much is spent against criminals. Some people eulogize the good public security in Mao's era, and criticized the change in Chinese society. On contrary, I view the increase in crime rate as a result of the poor public service provided by the government, rather than the lack of oppressive rules. With a freer market and transitional legal system, Chinese government needs to be better prepared for all the emerging issues, and to build supporting facilities to future development.

Post-Olympics

London Olympics came to a close on Aug 12th, when herds of superstars gathered in London Bowl and sang popular British songs since last London Olympics. The closing ceremony lasted for more than three hours, with athletes swarming on the stage and audiences cheering and laughing. After 16-day excitement, London finally waved goodbye to its guests and hopefully it will soon be back to normal life.

Comments on London Olympics seem mixed. IOC President Rogge hailed it as "happy and glorious games", while Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko accused hosts Britain of using political clout to win medals. Like most Olympics in the history, complaints and glories coexisted in London: athletes get the glory, and judges or politicians receive complaints. Heroes are created by Olympics, like Phelps with his 22 Olympic medals. Disputes over rules are also raised, like Daley's seven dives and disqualification of eight badminton players. We try to enjoy fair Olympics, pretending sports are independent of politics, which however is not true: just think of the advantages British athletes have taken of their nationalities, and the unprecedented No. 3 position on the medal tally of Britain. But compared to media who demonize athletes with different background, Olympics did a much better job. When Ye Shiwen was questioned about doping, Olympics knew it was their responsibilities to clarify the fact. Maybe we are already too used to the hideous side of the world, therefore regardless of all the scandals, we still enjoy Olympics, and probably will only remember the glories of Olympics years later.

And that's what we should really pay attention to. Obsession with glories can only make Olympics worse in the future. Frequent cunning play-around with rules should ring the alarm bell. It not only makes games dull, but prevents capable athletes from moving forward. Mo Farah created the best record of Men's 5000m in London Olympics due to his outstanding strategy and won a gold medal. However because of his intentional speed cut in the first few laps to hinder other runners, his record was much worse than current Olympic Record. The same thing happened in women's distance races as well. I'm not saying strategies should not be applied to games, but better rules should be adopted to prevent Olympics from getting "lower, slower and weaker".

Another concern comes from the inefficiency caused by monopoly. Some sports events are dominated by a few countries: like archery by South Korea and badminton by China. Dominance may impede other countries from joining the game given the hopelessness of winning, and it makes sense to encourage less advantaged countries to participate. One way is to have exchange programs for coaches. Korean coaches help Italian athletes get champion in archery, Sun Yang received two gold medals in swimming under the guidance of an Australian coach, and Chinese coaches can be found in almost every diving team in the final. Better training proves effective in improving players' performance.

However sometimes coach exchanges are not enough to make changes. No matter how excellent coaches are hired, Chinese men's basketball and football teams never manage to improve their records in international competitions. Another option is introduced: exchange athletes rather than coaches. It's interesting to see that in table tennis competitions, there are always two Asians playing against each other, regardless what their nationalities are. These players may even be friends and used to receive training in the same team, but now representing different countries. Athlete exchange is probably the worst situation as there is no real improvement in skills of foreign athletes, nor does it popularize the sports abroad. Monopoly is becoming a headache for IOC, who has tried different ways of restricting dominators, but the effect is small.

205 countries attended London Olympics, but only seven of them got more than 10 gold medals. Medals concentrate in a few countries, and this trend seems to be irreversible. Each country's performance in Olympics is strongly correlated with its economy: richer countries can spend more on training equipment and hiring better coaches for their athletes. As long as inequality in the world lasts, monopoly will continue and even exacerbate as inequality is enlarged. If we believe the Solow's converging point, maybe we can expect a fixed ranking on Olympic medal tally of each countries in the future.

Auto Purchase (3)

We finally got a new car! I drove our old car back from Santa Rosa, with Gang following me in the new Accord last night. Watching the traffic on the road, I felt very much relieved to say goodbye to the endless comparison and negotiations.

After we decided to buy Honda Accord, the bargain process was just painful. We asked for quotes from different dealers, and tried to get an "acceptable" price from them. The challenge was that we didn't know what was "acceptable": who knows how much we should pay for a car! I checked several online auto forums where people shared their quotes. Some good negotiators got low prices and posted information about the dealer. However, as more people requested quotes from the same dealer, the price was pushed up consequently. And for buyers who knew other people getting the same car at a low price, it was difficult to accept a higher one. Therefore the negotiation became a race of patience.

Even if we got a good sale price, all the other operational costs, registration and documentary fees just made out-the-door price ridiculously high. What's worse, different dealers have different ways of calculating the final price, making the whole issue even messy. Some dealership, usually those with high ratings, made it crystal clear about what fees they were charging; but most dealers always added mysterious costs to the final price, ranging from $500 to $1,500. Induced by several cheap "sale prices" and ended with high OTD price, I finally learned how to deal with these salesmen, and asked straight for the final price.

Yesterday when Gang and I were waiting to watch the Olympic closing ceremony, I got an email from one of  previous dealer saying they were offering an extra discount. After a few phone calls, we locked a price, which was not the lowest one I knew, but within our budget. Then we decided to skip the closure and fetch our new car.

It took us an hour to arrive in the dealership in Santa Rosa. We both realized it was our last time sitting in the old Nissan together. Since its purchase four years ago, Gang and I have been on several road trips with it: to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Seattle, Crater Laker, etc. We call it "Strongy" for its great performance in climbing up hills, crossing deserts and long-hour operation given its immense age. In spite of all the joy we had together, we did not hesitate much in finding a replacement. Ah what humanity!

On our arrival, we met the salesman, who showed us the car and did a test-drive with us. It didn't take us too long to decide to buy, but it took hours to finish all the purchase procedures. Even we chose to pay cash, they asked for a lot of personal information and did a credit check, claiming it to be required after 9/11. Well, a Honda Accord doesn't look like a massive destruction weapon to me. Anyway, after filling all the lengthy forms, listening to promotion of unnecessary products and waiting for vehicle cleaning, two hours were gone. Whiling waiting in the lobby, we found an old Honda with a sign saying "the first Honda sold in the US". Staff there told me the first Honda was sold by this dealership in 1970. The car is in an outdated shape, but still good condition with shining windows and neat seats. By the grand-car, there is a latest electronic car, which replaces engine with a huge battery under the front cover and has a MPG as high as 118. It's interesting to see the evolution of Honda in the last forty years, and equally impressive for Honda to transfer from a motorcycle manufacturer to an automaker and occupy such a big market share in the US today.

After the intolerable wait, we went home. Good to have a new car! The next step is to find a good owner for our Strongy.

Benefits for the Host City

After spending approximately $17 billion on infrastructures, Olympic venues and other operational costs, London got paid off in a different way. Olympic referees showed their gratitude for the host city in a barely disguised way. In the just-concluded 10m diving final, Daley, a British nominal diving genius, was offered an opportunity to dive again after his first failure. Daley made his way to the podium after unprecedented seven dives with the help of referees and British audiences.

Daley is not the only British athlete who benefited from referees' favoritism. During Women's Double Sculls Final on Aug 3rd, British athletes got permission from referees to suspend the competition when they found their boat broken in the midway. The game was resumed after they fixed the boat. French athletes failed to keep their leading position in the game, and lost to Britons. Similarly, in the Men's Team Cycling, the British team took advantage of the rules with supports from referees. Philip Hindes fell shortly after taking off on purpose (as he admitted later in an interview) so that he could get a second chance and restarted the game. Britons again beat French and received a gold medal. In spite of Hinder' confession of deliberate crash, the IOC supported Britain and declared no reason to question the result, which looked particularly ironic after eight badminton players disqualified from London Olympics for passive play one day ago.

This was not the first time that the host city of Olympics taste sweetness from referee's unprofessionalism. Hitler did similar thing during Berlin Olympics in 1936, where Jewish and black athletes were strongly discriminated against and German athletes won most of the gold medals. Londoners did not seem to advocate for fair-play, and they cheered for the British medals even if they were donated by referees rather than earned by players. In comparison to audiences in Athens who hissed referees after Nemov's marvelous performance on horizontal bar and insisted revising the intentionally underrated grade, audiences in London are simply too desperate for victory.

$17 billion is not small money. If the IOC was willing to accept this budget, at least it could improve the expenditure structure a little bit by hiring more professional referees. Too many appeals in London Olympics already raised doubts on the correctness of referees' decisions, and the lack of unanimous criteria exacerbated the distrust. A temporary basketball stadium without restrooms is annoying enough, but not as bad as unprofessional referees who brutally defy athletes' efforts and make the results a big joke.

When to Wash the Car

Gang and I go grocery shopping every weekend. Since our reallocation to Berkeley, we hardly use our car but the weekend shopping. It just rests outside the apartment for the most of the time. When Gang was back from his trip to Britain, he found our car covered in dust.

"So dirty", Gang turned on the car, "I can't bear it anymore, I will wash it after we're back from the grocery shopping."

"Sure you will," I answered, "I don't really care though."

Then we drove the dirty car all the way to Costco and Ranch 99, filled up its trunk and came back. After moving all the stuff to kitchen, we were so exhausted that no one even talked about cleaning the car.

History repeats itself the next week, and then the week after the next. Two months have passed since Gang's first complaint.

"It's dirty." Gang said.

"I know." I answered.

Then we were silent for a moment. "I will wash it after we are back," he said firmly, "definitely."

Of course it didn't happen. But we always entertained with the fictitious cleaning plan, and enjoyed mocking at each other about our great ambitions and the dirtying car. To be honest, it doesn't matter when to wash the car, it's more important to share ideas. I always have ideas but too lazy to work on, but do get some satisfaction by speaking them out, like: I will do more exercise tomorrow, I want to make you a big dinner, or I won't sleep until noon anymore. I think this is what people refer to as nagging between couples.

Snacks

Bay area is not a bad place for Chinese. With Chinese groceries and restaurants around, you can get almost the same food as in Beijing with only one exception: snacks. Some snacks are available in Ranch 99, most of which are made in Hongkong and Taiwan. "True" Chinese snacks, Spicy Roast Beef, Stewed Bean Curd for instance, are mainly unavailable.

That's why I was thrilled to receive some home-made smoked fish from a Chinese friend two months ago and now packages of pickled-peppers flavored chicken feet from another. These snacks are not widely accepted by non-Chinese, but they're one of those easily reminding you of the "good old days." The small market share prevents them from mass production in the US, but also makes them a rare treat.

A friend of mine once told me about Chinese people's lives abroad: you may not mind taking two pieces of toasts with jam, or making a waffle with honey for breakfast, but your eyes only light up at Youtiao (a kind of deep-fried dough sticks) and porridge. I still love my cheesecakes and salmon, but can't say bye to stewed pork or fried beef. Similarly, returnees always list "food" as a top advantage of returning to China after living abroad for years. 

There are several explanations for the inertia of eating habit. People can change their minds but not their stomach, as we are always better at changing reasonable thinking, but not desires. If people are exposed to a new idea, they may want to analyze it first to see how comparable it goes with their previous knowledge and experiences. As people grow older, their minds can change all the time (just think of how you adore heroes as a child but believe more in "grey areas" now.) But once their irrational preference has been shaped after long growing-up years, it is hard to change. Although I know how unhealthy these snacks can be given their unclear ingredients, but they are just too good to say no.

Another explanation is that people may associate food with a certain lifestyle that they miss. Chinese snacks do remind me of my childhood and college life, when I snacked with my family and friends. Those days are gone, but the flavors, accompanied with happiness and joy are always remembered. With physical constraints, we need some imagination to live better lives.

Anyway, I'm very satisfied with this new packages of snacks from China. Happy Friday!

It's Show Time

Liu Xiang ended his last show in men 110m hurdle in London in pain. As the first Asian gold medalist in sprint in Olympics, Liu Xiang burst on to the scene in Athens Olympics and shot to fame after creating a new Olympic record in men 110m hurdle. He was hymned as a hero on his return to China, and soon got advertising contracts worth billions. Four years later in Beijing Olympics, people anxiously waited in the packed "Nest", cheering at Liu Xiang's appearance in the 110m Hurdle Heat. However before the starting gun went off, Liu Xiang suddenly signaled the referee and quit the game. Audiences burst into uproar, reprimanding Liu of "deceiving." Later Liu's coach cried in the news release and explained that Liu was succumbed to previous tendon injury.

Controversy has lasted four years ever since. Denunciation on Liu's withdrawal never stopped. Some netizens said, as I quoted, "I would feel much better even if he crawled to the finishing line - that's Olympics spirit. Now I just feel cheated." Liu lost some ad contracts too, but big sponsors like Nike and Tsingtao Beer didn't abandon him. During London Olympics, Liu's ads still account for a quarter of all the ads shown in CCTV live.

When the day came for 110m hurdles in London, Chinese audiences again showed their keen for Liu. A picture showed hundreds of people stopping boarding in a subway station in Beijing to watch Liu's competition on the screen. Although there was rumor about injury after his arrival in London, people still had great hopes for him. Liu didn't withdraw this time, but he stumbled at the first hurdle and fell to the track. He sat on the floor, painfully holding his tendon and looking at his rivals rushing for the end. After everyone else finished his competition, Liu hopped all the way to the last hurdle and kissed it. He left London Bowl in a wheelchair. Chinese commentators cried over the recurrence of his old wound, and journalists retrospected all his achievement as a hurdler later. Liu prompted even more speculations in London than the last time.

It seems rather obvious that Liu is aware of his injury and the risk he is taking to sprint again. But why he is running again?
- Maybe he just wanted to try his best. London could be his last Olympics, thus he wanted to say goodbye in a decent way but failed to do so;
- Maybe he didn't want to go but the blames after his last withdrawal scared him, so he forced himself to run  to avoid the same reprimands despite the problem with his tendon;
- Maybe it was an awkward show under pressure from government and advertising sponsors, as he had to bear a loss of millions if he stayed away from the court;
- It is also rumored that Liu was a victims of conspiracy. The distance between the starting line and the first hurdle was increased by 0.13 meters. However the likelihood of this adjustment should be below 1%.

Almost every athlete aspires victory, therefore it shouldn't be surprising if Liu wanted to bet his luck in spite of potential disastrous results. But it still looks weird after his mysterious withdrawal in Beijing: how likely is an athlete to win a champions four years later when he starts to reach the age limit of a sprint with even worse injuries on tendon.

If the disgrace four years ago has been so painful to him that he'd exhaust every resort to save his reputation, he knew the best way was to finish the 110m regardless of how he reached the end. Since audiences only wanted him to show respects for the game and have some "Olympics Spirit", it is better to show them a strong-minded and sports-loving Liu Xiang instead of a can't-get-the-champion one. And more importantly, external pressures left him no choice. Chinese government needed Liu to disguise its weaknesses in field events, whose appearance is a demonstration of its old glories. Liu's advertising sponsors had to bear huge losses if he ended with infamy. Thus whether he could run or not, he had to do something to save his reputation.

After his transient victory in Athens, Liu reaped huge profits from his gold medal, but enormous pressures as well. As an unprecedented flier, Liu epitomizes China's achievement in the field, and he simply can't retire until a successor is found. In a country where athletes are paid by tax payers to win medals, athletes are committed to not only winning games, but also fitting a cost-benefit analysis by the government. It is sad to see an athlete distracted by concerns other than sports, but it's the price to pay for every athlete's own choice.