Impressionist Hawaii - Day Two

This is our biggest day on the Big Island. We got up early in the morning (yes we were still in California time) and headed for Volcanoes National Park. It's about 100 miles away from Kona, but mountain roads made the driving longer than it sounds. We brought apples (the fruit) and sandwiches with us, and stopped at the South Point after driving along the sea for one and a half hours. It is the south end of the US, pointing at Antarctica 7,500 miles away.

Though the wind was blowing hard, the sea was peace and waves were calm. Gang happily found wind turbines along the route. I almost couldn't hold my hat but I couldn't stay away from the beauty in front of me. People were fishing around us, with professional equipment and entertainment facilities. Gang and I sat by them, eating the two apples we brought. We both found it very pleasant to eat apples by the sea, which soon became a must in the rest of our journey: we look for beaches all around only to eat apples.

About two hours later, we left the South Point before the sun got too strong. It was still hot, but the sea wind cooled us down. The Volcanoes Park was well preserved: there was only a small visitor center with a big parking lot, no commercial facilities to ruin the park. Rangers there explained to us how the Big Island was created by volcanoes, and some big eruptions in history. He mentioned that in 1970s, a volcanic eruption was predicted and lava was believed to head for Hilo, a small city in east Big Island. But residents in Hilo was told by the government that the lava wouldn't reach the city, therefore they shouldn't worry about it. That night, people in Hilo anxiously looked at the volcano. They got panic when they saw flames lighting up the sky and red lava moving slowly but steadily towards them, some even started packing. Luckily the lava stopped four miles away from Hilo, and no one was hurt. In spite of this, some people still lost their properties in the eruption. He mentioned a guy who opened a B&B by the volcano. This hotel keeper escaped in his helicopter, but his house was melted in lava forever. At the end of his introduction, he asked: "So be honest, how many of you will go back and tell your friends and relatives that you actually saw red lava here?" Audience laughed and some did raise their hands. The ranger smiled and took out a small card with "LAVA" printed in red on it, "Now you all see red lava!"

There are several trails by the visitor center, but we decided to skip them because of my poor eyesight. Gang drove to the museum directly, by which there is a big smoggy crater, one of the culprits for the expanding island. We couldn't get closer to the crater for safety concerns, but it was astonishing enough to see such big flows of steams and smoke rising to the sky. Later we saw similar but much smaller natural hot wells in the park. I stood by one of them for a while, and OMG it was hot.

This is absolutely the most impressive crater "lake" I've ever seen. The crater lake in Oregon is splendid for sure, but what makes this one different is that it's filled with lava, not water. Red lava filled the crater but failed to find an outlet. It finally cooled down and became a rocky lake. Some brave travelers took the trail across the lake (the white lane in the middle of the lake), and I'm sure it will be a really impressive experience to walk on the black but still burning lava for hours.

Gang's favorite place is this lava tube, which transmits red lava like a pipeline after eruption. The tube is dark and wet, whose entrance is covered by many tropical plants. I walked very carefully in the tube. The wall is so cold and hard that it's hard to imagine that red lava has been running in it.

The Big Island is young and active. When human beings try to build their cities on this island, the nature always finds its own way of reshaping it. During our trip in the Volcanoes Park, we found several signs along the road indicating in which years the lava was formed, just like an alumni reunion with each camp hosting students from a certain year. The end of road was stopped by the latest eruption, whose lava covered the pavement and stopped our car from going any farther. It is amazing to think of the fact that the land that I was currently standing on was still alive, laughing at people's futile efforts to change the nature, actively creating new lands and expanding to the sea.  We didn't stay in the Park for too long as most visitors who stay late to see red lava at night. But everything I saw here is unprecedented.

Impressionist Hawaii - Day One

You may call this trip miserable, but I'd rather give it a more favorable title - impressionism. After I lost my -8.5 distance glasses three hours after arriving in Big Island, I was doomed to get extremely fuzzy impression of everything I saw there; or to put it politely, whatever I saw, I felt like admiring some masterpieces drawn by French impressionists - I knew what I was looking at, but I wasn't certain about how they looked like. When Gang exclaimed at the sea, waves, lava, etc, I marveled at their colors. Anyway, things were not bad as I had expected; and now when I look back, they are actually pretty interesting.

When the plane approached the Big Island, the first land we saw on the Pacific after 5-hour flight, I could see volcano and black lava running miles from craters to the sea. Then I knew the volcano park would be one of our destinations: it's just too unique to be skipped. I regretted wearing my jeans soon after landing. Hawaii is unbelievably hot! But I also must admit that I was actually very happy to find out that I could wear the shorts and dresses that are too cold for the bay area. After a quick lunch at the airport, which by the way has only ONE restaurant, we took the shuttle to car rental places, and had one of our best experiences of renting cars. I used a self-service machine to check-in, and drove a white Dodge right away. The hotel is located by the beach, and we could see a palm standing by the sea and cruises far away from our balcony.

Our first stop after check-in was to Kahaluu Beach Park, which is said to be the best place for snorkeling on the Big Island. Now I believe people who said that must be making a joke. It's not even average. The beach is small, rough and weirdly crowded. Gang and I had our first snorkeling experience there, which is not comparable to the Hanauma Bay in Honolulu. Anyway we spent about two hours on the beach, getting ourselves used to snorkeling devices and busying applying sun creams. On our way back, we decided that we deserved better beaches than this, and therefore we headed for the White Sand Beach with beautiful and soft white sand and waves, where I was accidently caught in the big wave and lost my glasses. In the end, Gang and I sat on the beach in swimming suits, burying ourselves in the sand when Gang tried to explain to me why my glasses could not wash ashore and how dangerous it would be to salvage them. I didn't understand what he was talking about, but he seemed enjoying explaining his major to layman. In spite of what happened, I'd still recommend this beach, but remember to fasten your glasses before staying too close to the sea.

Hawaii became blurry for me ever since. Gang held my hands and led me to the car, and showed me around the Kailua-Kona downtown at night. We had seafood at an American restaurant which had singers and dancers performing local music during dinner. Of course I didn't see anything, but I was impressed by the joyful mood around me. I guess most people came here for vacations, therefore they were more likely to laugh and relax.

Iphone

I went to Berkeley Eye Center for my first eye exam in the US. It took me two and a half hours to finish and eye exam, chose frame and lenses for my new glasses. I must admit I didn't expect it would take so long before I went there, otherwise I would have eaten some snacks before going. Later the doctor dripped a few eye-drops which helped her better check my eyes, but made myself unable to see things clearly for hours. After a two-year graduation school, my eyes are getting weaker, and my glasses are getting stronger. I finally  ordered a new pair of glasses in an optical store nearby, which is expected to be ready in two weeks. The new glasses are still expensive after insurance, but I guess it's probably the cheapest I can get in the US.

OK, that's just a few nagging. What I really want to say is: "Apple Map, you suck!" I totally lost my way to the eye center following the ios6 map on my iphone: it simply gave me a wrong location! Then I needed to open Google Map through Chrome and located the eye center there. This time, it was right. But I didn't know how to find "route" on Chrome, so I had to memorize the location on Google Map and dropped a pin at a similar location on Apple Map so that I could find the "route from my current location to destination". I finally made my way to the eye center, after walking under the hot Californian sunshine for an hour. Oh iphone, you're embarrassing yourself. I wouldn't even update my ios had I knew how terrible the Apple Map is. Now I only wish Google Map can be found in App Store soon.

When I went back, my flatmate happily showed me his newly arrived iphone5. And he's been talking to siri all night, looking for nearby restaurants and UPS. His friend, who ordered iphone on the same day with him and waited at home for its delivery for the whole day, unfortunately missed the delivery because the mailman knocked at the wrong door. She didn't wait for a second delivery, but rented a car to fetch iphone5 from UPS. Later tonight my flatmate shared some tricks on playing ipad, such as flipping apps with four fingers and closing apps with five. I again found Apple a great company and iphone/ipad epoch-making products. In contrast, its outrageous replacement of Google Map is not that intolerable as well.

Lotus Girl

The only news that can distract furious Chinese protesters from their violent anti-Japanese demonstration is the unconfirmed rumor of the death of Lotus Girl (芙蓉姐姐), an internet celebrity who shot to fame with her bold remarks and strange dance in 2005. The rumor says she committed suicide at home, which chimes with her yesterday's world-weary posting on Weibo, Chinese Twitter. Later her agent responded on Weibo, saying "farewell" to her, which seems to reaffirm her death.

The Lotus Girl became famous in summer 2005 (ironically when the last major anti-Japanese demonstration took place in China). She rented an apt near Tsinghua University, and was applying for graduate schools in Beijing. During her leisure time, she took photos around campus with her chubby body twisted in awkward S-shapes. Later she posted her photos on internet with narcissistic descriptions, which was in sharp contrast to traditional values such as modesty, gentleness and obedience. She was rebellious, boastful, and never hesitant to show off - even though her dancing wasn't even average, she seemed to be very proud of it. People were amused at the photos, and this maverick was soon known as "Lotus Girl", as she compared herself to lotus in one of her blogs. Lotus is an emblem for purity and loftiness in Chinese traditional culture, and people gave her this nickname as a sarcasm for her "unlotus" behaviors.

She seemed to become popular overnight in an unprecedented way, demonstrating how powerful internet could be in creating stars. She was invited to many TV/internet shows, talking about her lives and interests; and posted more S-shape photos with better clothes and makeups. Her photos have hardly any artistic values, but always went viral as people re-posted them just to make fun of her. Anyway, these few photos and blogs changed her life: she became an internet celebrity; she didn't need to go to graduate schools, although her name - Lotus Girl became byword for shameless and over-confident in China.

Things changed a little bit in 2010, when a new series of her "S-shape" photos was released. People were surprised to find now she was much thinner, and more beautiful. Another "Lotus Girl Rush" started, and this time people viewed her more as an inspiring example, who did not stop her quest for beauty in spite of all the difficulties. The shock came partly from the great change in her appearance, but also partly from the fact that many people found a girl that they used to despise achieved something that they could not. Later the name of "Lotus Girl" was found in entertainment shows in which she shared her experiences of losing weight. Some companies even offered her roles in stage plays and soap operas. I saw a cosmetic adverts made by her, saying the cosmetics were so magic that even Lotus Girl could look beautiful.

I think that was the last time that I saw her news on internet, and I had no idea what happened in the last two years: it looks like she was approaching her golden days as she started to rid her awkward impression and begin a real career. I used to be one of those who laughed at her, but now I better understand how weak an individual is when confronting internet and all the powerful interest groups, and I wonder if she has ever regretted posting those photos and blogs on internet seven years ago. If the rumor is true, I want to thank her for all the joy that she's brought to us, and wish her rest in peace; if not, I wish her a better life in the future.

Self-selection

Complaints seem to be working: after I finished my blog on broken mailbox, it got fixed an hour later with all the magazines and letters delivered as well. So I spent almost the entire day reading latest Economist episodes, trying to catch up with what's going on in the world. Since I've missed a few periodicals I decided not to read from cover to cover but to select a few articles that best interested me from each issue.

Hours have passed since I started, and I decided to review what I've read so far. Surprisingly, I found myself read most articles in the sections of US, Asia, China and International, a few from Europe, Africa, Business and Economics, but skipped most debates on America, Middle East and Science. (Actually given what's happening in Libya right now, I shouldn't spend more time on the Middle East part.) I read the Economist to broad my understanding of the world, but it looks like I automatically skip the "less interesting" ones and focus on what I'm already familiar with.

We discussed "self-selection" in the class. We self-select ourselves to the group consisting of people similar to us; and make friends with those sharing similar ideas and interests. Though I understand the importance of hearing different ideas and discussing different topics, but it's so hard to continue a conversation when you find it's impossible to get excited at some chemical solvents or biological evolution. Besides making friends, we also select to read what we agree with and get reaffirmed by reading them. I'm not a leftist, so I always make fun of the Global Times, a radical Chinese newspaper on international relations; I'm sympathetic with Democrats, so I find the Fox News a big liar although it probably doesn't lie all the time. It's true that the same issue can be explained in different ways, but once you take a position, it's really hard to accept counter arguments.

Self-selection can induce biases. People working on randomized control trials will give you a very detailed explanation on this. But to put it simple, self-selection makes these groups different from each other. This is probably why Democrats and Republicans both find their rivalries idiots and liars. Even if you take no position at the beginning, I'm sure you will hate one of them if you stay with members of the other party for too long. Mutual understanding is much easier said than done. When a compromising solution looks unfeasible (e.g. we can't have both Romney and Obama as the next US presidents), things will get even messier. Since there is no common base for both parties to discuss their policies but endless and somehow meaningless attacks and insults, let's just wait and see how much money they can squander and how many media men will become millionaires after November.

I always keep telling myself that I must make my own judgement, and do not follow the mass. But once I feel determined about something, I can't help doubt if I've missed some clues during the decision making. It's funny that once we've developed some ideas through independent thinking, we are about to lose that independent mind by self-selection to people of our own kind.

Broken Mailbox

The mailbox in my apartment has been broken for more than a week. I can't get my journals, cards or letters, and feel cut off from the world somehow. It again proves that even in the internet age, we still can't live without postal service.

An old poem says, "A letter from home is worth ten thousand pieces of gold." (家书抵万金) In old days, mails were delivered by mailmen on horseback. Therefore during wartime, it was extremely difficult to keep the postal service running. When family members were separated by war, the only way to find their whereabouts was to sending letters to hometown in hope of receiving responses. Thousands of years have passed, letters still remained the most important way of long-distance communication until telephone was invented. Telephone makes communication easier and faster, but fail to keep records of messages, and therefore unable to convey important messages. For example, you may write a love letter to woo the girl you've crush on, but you won't call her and say "please be my girlfriend". Telephone is not a good substitute for letters, but internet is much more similar. Emails, as we can tell by the name, are a new form of mails, but faster and cheaper. The rise of internet gives postal service the last fatal strike. Nowadays, most of what we can get from mailbox are commercial ads, government notices and bills. Personal letters largely go by emails.

Now we won't pay gold to receive a mail, and a shabby mailing system won't really undermine information communication any more, but a broken mailbox more or less prevents me from receiving important stuff. Of course I can write another blog about how terrible it is to have the mailing market twisted by the government, and make the postal service one of my worst experiences in the US (better than medical system though). But now I just want to say, I want to read my periodicals!

They Changed the Coding

After a three-week fight against the hospital and my insurance company, they finally agreed to change the code, which hopefully will reduce my $700 medical bill mentioned in older blogs. I think I gained some experiences on getting things done in the United States.

On receiving the bill, mad as I was, I remained polite and patient when explaining why I didn't agree with the bill to my insurance company. The lady seemed to understand and agree with what I said, and promised to review it. I waited for about two weeks but nothing happened - no call, no email, even no new notice. So I called back, and was told that they couldn't do anything about it unless I called the hospital and changed the coding. OK, then I called the hospital. The hospital has several offices - dispute office, billing office, coding office and the doctor's office, but it looks like none of them takes responsibilities of serving customers. What's worse, they don't talk to each other! Anyway, I called the billing office, and was transferred to another, and transferred back again, explaining my case to every office. Finally someone seemed to be able to talk to her colleagues and told me she would file a claim for re-coding.

Another week passed, and I received a phone call from the hospital, saying sorry we can't do anything about the coding. Then I asked her about the feedback from the billing office - why my claim was disproved? The young lady sounded very confused and asked me "what claim"? So again, I repeated everything. A few days later, she called me back, saying they couldn't change the coding; but again she couldn't explain why my claim was disproved. That was when I reached my limit. A month has passed, but these people were not even looking into the case! So I told her that the whole issue is a big disappointment, and I'd prefer to speak to her manager. I hang up the phone without saying goodbye. Today I heard from her again that they changed the coding and sent the new code to my insurance company.

I was taught to be nice as I grew up. Be friendly with other people and they will treat you in the same way. But it is not the case in this society. When I patiently explained to one after the other about my case for hours, no one took it seriously. The insurance company was not interested in reviewing the claim, and the coding office was reluctant to communicate with the doctor office to check the record, both of them simply told me "it's not working" without any explanation. But when I was rude, impolitely shouting at the poor operator, problems got solved very quickly. We shouldn't blame Wall Street for what they did to the country, as it looks like the society applauds bullies but can't stand good men.

Born by Plan, Dead by Random

One Child Policy, or Birth Planning as called in Chinese, came into effect in early 1980s. Since then, the birth of babies in China has been under strict planning. Parents-to-be need to apply for a birth permit from local governments to have their first baby delivered; and those without the permission were forced to accept abortion. Each family only has one quota for baby birth. Sterilization operation was required after mother delivered their first baby; and for those who got pregnant again, they always ended up abortion regardless how big the fetus was. That's why my generation always mock ourselves as the people "born by plan".

In contrast to the strict planning of birth, people seem to die in a much easier way in China. Fragile infrastructure, known as "tofu residue" constructions (豆腐渣工程) due to their poor quality (as weak as tofu) have taken hundreds of thousands of people's lives in China. In the 8.0 earthquake in Wenchuan 2008, a multitude of school buildings collapsed in the earthquake, killing thousands of students; while government buildings stood firmly and most government officials survived. Parents cried over bodies of their young children and urged the government to take responsibilities of squandering millions on these tumbledown school buildings. The government refused to respond, banned related documentaries and arrested several attorneys who tried to help the parents. Years later, the newly constructed high-speed rail system, which proudly claimed to be designed and developed by Chinese engineers, witnessed one of the biggest tragedy in the history of railway in China when two trains collided in July 2011. More than one year has passed, the death toll has never been released by the government, and no remediation of the high-speed rail system has been announced either.

Actually in China, you don't need to experience big earthquakes or take fancy trains to die. People in Beijing find they can die in a rain: in July this year, more than 70 people were drown in a rain in Beijing because of the poor drainage system; if they survive in the rain, they can still die by walking: in Aug, a pedestrian fell into the hot water underneath when the pavement suddenly caved and died out of scald. Similarly, people in Harbin find they can die by passing a bridge: in Aug this year, a less-than-one-year old bridge in Harbin collapsed, killing those on the bridge at the moment. In addition to these man-made accidents, people can also die from offending local government officials, coming across emboldened rich drivers, and recently driving Japanese cars. In short, we die randomly.

Chinese government is always viewed as a remorseless but shrewd businessman who is good at cost-benefit analysis. That explains why it controls the birth rate at all costs, even robbing or murdering. But it still doesn't make economic sense to have citizens die so easily: just think how much less tax you can collect when they die young! They don't even start to pay their pension! Of course local government officials have incentives to provide poor service as they can embezzle the price difference between the fiscal allocations and the real cost, and make the public to take risks of using low-quality infrastructures. But it's not a good deal for the country. So watch out for these harms if you still want to do good business.

Sometimes I ask myself the pros and cons of going back to China in the future. I can see better career opportunities, better food (though much lower quality, the flavor is better) and more familiar culture in China. But there are many concerns as well, one of which is safety. I'm not talking about public security, but the unexpected risks in everyday life. I expect the government to provide public service when I pay taxes, but I can't be credulous of the reliability of these public facilities when our government is notorious of its incapacity and corruption. I was lucky enough to be brought to the world even with the strict planning, and I absolutely don't want to die randomly and leave the world behind.

Patriotic Mobs

The anti-Japanese demonstration in China has evolved into riots in several cities as the Chinese surveillance ships approached Diaoyu Island. Xi'an, once the capital of China in ten dynasties in history, witnessed an organized riot on September 15, when hooligans and ruffians held wrench, hammer, iron rods and other "weapons", destroyed several Japanese restaurants and chain stores (some of them were found out to be Singapore's or Taiwan's) and burned down Japanese cars which are owned by Chinese citizens. One car owner was injured as mobs overturned his Toyota car when he was still sitting inside. The riot should be one of the biggest sarcasm for Xi'an, who always boasts itself as an emblem for Chinese ancient civilization. Later a few riot "leaders" were arrested, and it turned out that most of them are notorious habitual criminals. Therefore we should ask at least two questions:

Why people followed these criminals? I'd assume that when people took to the street, they meant for a peaceful demonstration. However when mobs started to beat people, smash store and set fires, why the crowd didn't stop them? Well a few protesters did stop mobs from beating a young mother and her daughter who were sitting in their Japanese car when the mobs came, but most pictures showed onlookers were just watching numbly.

Why the mainstream media remained silent at the riots? Xi'an was not the only city falling in chaos yesterday, similar riots were found in Guiyang, Beijing and many other cities. The riots were understated as "rational and restrained protests", and more demonstrations were expected to take place in the next few days under the ambiguous attitudes from mainstream media who usually represent intentions from the central government. The entire event became even more intriguing when one of the leading mobs was found to be a local government official.

A comment from Weibo answered the first question very well. It says, as I quote, that the riots are "a brilliant demonstration of the achievement of brainwash by the CCP." After decades of communist propaganda through well-designed history books and strictly censored movies, Chinese anti-Japanese nationalism has been well formed based on stereotypes and misconceptions. People may find it wrong to smash cars made in other countries, but they believe it's patriotic to "fight against Japan" in doing so. Another disastrous result from the brainwash, which is probably much worse than the former, is to deprive people of the capacity of independent thinking. Le Bon may argue that collective irrationality applies to any group in the world, but it has been so perfectly reflected in today's China. Despite the implementation of nine-year compulsory education in the last three decades, people seemed to forget all about laws, justice or morals, but watched atrocities apathetically and sometimes even excitedly.

The answer to the second question is much more puzzling. Rumors say the media couldn't form a unified view due to the power games in the high level; but it could also be an official acquiescence for potential anti-Japanese riots in the future. For whatever reason it is, mainstream medias in China again embarrasses themselves by confounding black and white and abandoning professional ethics. Obviously medias won't claim responsibilities for potential damages produced by their misleading reports, but how much could they benefit by stirring up troubles? We don't know.

Decades ago, a Chinese satirist Lu Xun has vividly pictured some bad habits that are deeply rooted in contemporary countrymen. In one of his books, he created a character called Ah Q who hates but sucks up to the strong and bullies the weak, just like today's "patriotic" mobs who dare not to go to Diaoyu Island or join the army but are very proud to burn down other Chinese citizens' Japanese cars. Lu Xun also described in another fiction about how onlookers indifferently watched an execution of a hero, which is paralleled to the crowd looking at and conniving the outrage. More than half a century has passed since Lu Xun published his books, but his readers are unfortunately repeating their ancestors, at least in yesterday's China.

Funniest Jokes In the World

I was watching Jon Stewart's Daily Show last night about the Democratic convention in Charlotte, where he made fun of almost every one: Democrats, Republicans, politicians, voters, etc. He cited their self-contradictory speeches and comments, laughing at their empty promises and clumsy shows. He made me realize that politics can be the funniest jokes in the world: it actually happens in the real world, it is filled with ironic double standards and stupid claims, and it has been taken seriously by many people.

In China, it's still a felony to joke about political leaders, or "great leaders" as our media always refers to, even though they are making fun of themselves everyday. Our premier has been talking about the same policy every year since he took the office but never carried it out; a local official who was awarded with Honesty was found out to have embezzled millions of dollars in four years; and several official newspapers have used Photoshop to "produce" pictures of government officials' field visits. Awkward speeches and comments can be found everywhere as well. For example, after the collision of the new "Bullet train" in Wenzhou, a spokesman from Ministry of Railways was asked about his comments on finding a survivor in the damaged carriage after the Ministry of Railways ended  rescue and decided to bury the carriage. The spokesman was dumbfounded for a while, and then said:" I can only say it's a miracle." A journalist followed up and asked him whether he found the burying decision reasonable. The same guy answered :" No matter you believe it or not, I believe so." He shook his head after making the comments, seemingly trying to make himself sound more confident.

Weibo opens a door for audience to make mild jokes of politicians. People gave the Chinese Premier a nickname - "Best Actor" for all his show in the public; and another nickname for a local official: "cousin" (Biao Ge表哥), a punchline for "men wearing watches" for his splendid collection of Swiss watches which couldn't be afforded by his salary. But these jokes were never made public in mainstream medias, as they were censored in most websites to "keep social stability".

How I wish that we had a Jon Stewart who can collect these jokes from newspapers and internet, and showed people the messy politics in China. But I would be more thrilled if the environment for the birth of people like Jon and the TV program like the Daily Show becomes available in China. We have been following textbooks and teachers so strictly and so long that sarcasm seems to be a skill unobtainable. Even so, such talents may be provoked once the media censorship is removed.

(To take photos of government officials conducting field visits in the rain as demonstration of their hardworking, the newspaper arranged artificial rainfall.)

Overseas

My first visit to Japan was in summer 2005. I applied for a two-month summer program at Kyushu University in Fukuoka and spent the whole summer there. Known to those studying Sino-Japan relationship, the anti-Japanese demonstration in April that year cast a long shadow on the diplomatic ties between these two countries. I could still sense the tension during my visit. My tutor, a law student in Kyudai is a very lovely girl, and we carefully avoided talking too much about politics; and so was my host family, who greeted me warmly. But several professors did point out that due to the increasingly intense relationship between China and Japan,  it's more and more difficult for Chinese people to lead normal lives in Japan: local people are reluctant to rent apartments to them; companies don't want to recruit them and even bullies prefer to rob Chinese.

When I was back to Beijing at the end of the summer, I met my Japanese friend in Peking University. He had been learning Chinese in PKU for two years, and was traveling all around China in the summer. When I asked him about his traveling, he didn't seem very happy. "People call me 'Japanese devil' when they found out I'm not Chinese," he said, "they thought I didn't understand what they were talking, but I did!" Then I asked him how he responded to the insults, he said: "I have no choice but to tolerate(忍耐)." The I shared my experiences in Fukuoka, and we both deplored the poor relationship and hatred between two countries for quite a while.

For whatever reason, when a country fails to handle its diplomacy well, its citizens overseas are always the first to be affected. Many Chinese people in the US can't help wonder which side they should take if the US and China are at war. I met a gentleman from Taiwan who migrated to the US in 1960s and have been living here ever since. His family members have all become US citizens but he still keeps his original nationality. And when I asked him why, he said he wasn't sure if he'd be loyal to the US if two countries are at war. It occurs to me very unlikely that the US will be fighting against China in the near future; but when two countries - one is your motherland and the other is your living place - have trouble with each other, the overseas will be suffering deeply inside.

The US is a diversified and individualist country, and therefore quite tolerant with immigrants. By "tolerant", I mean respecting different culture and religion, and able to detach individuals from their nationalities. But in a highly-unified nation-state, e.g. those with one ethnicity, one religion and one cultural tradition, people may view migrants very differently. Native people tend to label foreigners with their home countries first, and the migrants' ethnicity and cultural background may become their main characteristics as individuals. Things can get disastrous when migrants' home countries get into trouble with this kind of nations. As the reputation of overseas' home country is destroyed when in conflict with their resident country, the reputation of overseas are destroyed as well. They are not only suffering psychologically, but facing the threats of xenophobia. Think of the massacre of Chinese overseas in Indonesia and Philippine years ago, what did they do wrong? To the mobs, they were "wrong" only because they were Chinese.

When I was in China, surrounded by other Chinese people, I didn't have direct feeling towards how deterioration of foreign relations could affect my everyday life. But now as my family becomes more international than before, I can't be immune to the results of those stupid politicians messing up diplomatic relations. I just want to tell the high-level government  position occupiers: if you can't do good, at least stop doing evil.

Angel and Devil

Ruiwen visited me today (Ruiwen, did you see? I'm writing about you!) from New York during her trip to the bay area. There was a lecture on energy in the afternoon, and Gang called me to invite Ruiwen to the lecture. I told Ruiwen if she went to the lecture, I'd take a nap on the grass when waiting for her. Finally Ruiwen decided to join me in lying on the grass rather than sitting in the hall alone. Later we joked about this, referring it as a dispute between an angel and a devil, with Gang playing the former role and me the later one.

I can't help notice that when Gang and I disagree with each other, I'm always the "devil":

(Scenery One)
"Do you want to take a walk with me?" He asked after dinner.
"No, I'm too full." I answered while touching my full belly.
"Come on, I think you need some exercise."
"I know, but I don't want to take off my pajama."

(Scenery Two)
"I think you should go to talk to alumni to get a job, not play Settlers with computers." He said.
"OK, I'm just lazy." I said when clicking the "trade" button.

(Scenery Three)
"I've had enough pork ribs tonight." Gang said.
"OK, I will have another piece."
"You've already had five."
"OK,OK, this will be the last one." Of course it was not.
...
It's true that Gang has better self-control than me.

It's not that I don't have any self-control, but I always find an angel and a devil fight fiercely deep in my heart. Sometimes I'm tired of playing the role of a good student, or a diligent profession, who has great self-discipline and gets everything organized. Instead sometimes I'd be happily escape from pressures or obligations, and indulge my lazy, weak nature. When I'm facing challenges, I need to energize every cell in my body to overcome them. I love myself at that time, smart and competent; but after that, devil takes my body again and I can be as lazy as a sloth - a cute animal that spends 20 out of 24hrs per day on sleeping and dies mainly because it fails to hold tree branches when sleeping. Sometimes when I look at Gang, I feel like looking into a mirror, but on the reverse side: I simply can't behave that well.

I don't know if it's equally difficult for everyone to fight against desires; at least to me the war is like a mud in which I'm mired down. I need to keep a balance between my "angel" part and "devil" part to avoid driving myself crazy. When the devil is satisfied more or less, it allows me more energy to please the angel; and when the angel is satisfied, it gives me justification to spoil the devil a little bit. But how hard it is to make both of them happy! People talk about indulging their nature while achieving success by doing what they like, and therefore making the angel and the devil agree with each other. But we all know that's rare. Even if you can make a living on something that happens to be your interests, you can't really make achievements until you've acquired relevant skills after all the tough trainings, e.g. no matter how much you like music, you're unlikely to be a great violinist before you've done all the tedious practices for years.

The angel gives you an expected pleasure, while the devil gives the pleasure that can be cashed out right now. Which do you prefer?

Tutoring

I registered in a tutoring website a few months ago, and got an email today from a student saying she needed some help with her micro homework. I almost forgot about the registration, and was happy to make some pocket money when remaining unemployed. I went to see her at 2pm in downtown. This poor girl has been struggling with her microecon for quite a while. I asked her a few questions, and it looked like she had some difficulties in understanding Econ concepts or graphs. She reminded me of a lot of things that had happened in my life.

When I entered primary school, I was small, and not fully intellectually developed compared to my older classmates. I couldn't understand what teachers said in the class, or finish my homework; sometimes I couldn't even sit still in the chair for 30 min. My mother helped me in getting through the first few years, mainly by asking teachers to give me less assignment or doing homework for me when I couldn't finish them. When I went to middle school, I had normal intelligence, and was able to catch up with my classmates. Things started to get better ever since, and I seldom felt stressed by studies. But when I went to Princeton, all the pressures seemed to be back: unable to understand professors, participate class discussions or finish readings. WWS got a tutor for me and some fellows who were struggling with Stats. But anyway it's all gone, and I'm happy to keep a decent distance away from ξ, π, η, σ, etc.

My student has a good business sense but finds econ concepts too confusing. Thus when I transferred questions into real cases, she could get the right answers. But when facing all the graphs and hypothesis, she totally got lost. I told her that all these graphs won't help her succeed in the real world in the future, and she shouldn't be so harsh on herself. But she told me she wouldn't even be able to transfer to a better school if she failed to get a good grade by mastering these graphs. We spent two hours shifting supply/demand curves in the end.

This is not the first time for me to tutor people, but I've never felt so bad for my students. I taught foreign students Chinese in Peking and Princeton University. They were happy to hire me because they needed language skills in their research, and I was happy to find my teaching inspired them somehow. But this time it is different. She doesn't seem to be interested in econ at all, and all she wanted was a higher grade. Sometimes I felt I was a brutal breeder, making her swallow too much food without digesting them.

Confucius said, teach students case by case. I'm not sure if he was just bragging. This legendary educator had 3,000 students, I don't believe he knew all of them or developed different teaching method for each student. But obviously modern education cares more about coverage than individualization. Every year hundreds of students squeeze into the same department, taking the same class and finishing the same homework, no matter they like it or not. If you're not fond of the topic, at least you can switch to other departments; but if you're interested in the subject, while not used to the pedagogy, you're in trouble. As we all know, not every one needs to suffer through all the formula and proof to understand econ or work in business: people drawing downward supply curves (for normal goods) can still be an outstanding entrepreneur. But our education makes it unlikely for them to pass exams or continue with school if they do not prove themselves to be good at all these theoretical stuffs. And so sadly we always find our coursework in college, on which we have spent so much time on, has nothing to do with our future.

(South Park Math Tutor)

Camping with Nerds

I went camping with Gang and his ERG fellows this weekend. It was my first live-in-tent experience, and also the first camping-with-nerds experience.

We lived by a small patch of woods at night. A new ERG student helped Gang and I set up our tent. He held a  fancy LED flashlight, whose light was downy but bright. Then I heard him talking to his classmate about the power and design of his flashlight. I'm sure if there were a blank chart aside, he would be delighted to draw the structure. This was not the end. Gang was obviously inspired by the application of LED that he further explained to me how much energy could be saved by using this LED flashlight to produce the same brightness.

When it got dark, people surrounded  the fired, playing games and chatting. Gang and I looked at the sky, and found stars extremely bright, spreading across the night sky. Then an ERG fellow came and held an Android in his hand.

"You guys should check this out!" He said.

We looked at his cell. He was using an App called "Google Sky" which presents a stellar map based on your location and the direction of the phone screen. Therefore you can find the name of each star high in the sky and figure out how it makes up constellations with its neighbors. We exclaimed at the technology as more people gathered and watched the tiny Android screen instead of appreciating real stars. I remember camping twice with Woody-woos. What did we do at night? We lay our back on the grass and said :" Look at the stars, so beautiful!" And that was it.

Later I met a colleague of Gang's. They work in the same group and share the same office, which locates in a smart building. After him complaining about how the claimed "smartness" was actually stupidness, I got interested in the lighting system there and asked him if the building was open to visitors. My intention was to figure out whether I'd be able to see the control board of lighting system in his office, but he provided a much more comprehensive answer to my questions:

"I think the XX and XX floors are open to visitors, but the XX and XX floors are not, though you may probably access them on weekends. The Y space and Z offices on XX floors are open too, but you can't visit room XX and XX..."

He continued for a few minutes until he made sure that all the details had been clearly provided. I stunned at him, having no idea about how to respond.

"You know a lot!" I said in the end.

The most scaring question was to ask Gang's friends "what's your focus?" Sometimes (if lucky enough) I met master students who just started the program, and all they had were ideas but not knowledge or terminologies. We ended up talking about future plans. But if I asked someone with a few years of relevant research experiences, the conversation could turn into a scientific seminar, in which I did not understand a single word. The conversation always ended with me saying "That sounds awesome!"

Anyway, I like these science nerds, and my husband is one of them.

(Standing by my tent in the chilly morning)

Made by American Bees

We bought a can of honey last month at Costco. It was about twice the price of other honey packed in the same size. We ate it with waffle and bread, but didn't find out what made it more expensive than its peers until a few days ago when Gang and I were having breakfast and found a line on the package, saying "made by American bees."

These four words double the price. The majority applaud globalization and benefit more or less from the international market, there is still much to be proud of by consuming local goods, or "organic" as called in some overpriced supermarkets. Some consumers are willing to pay more because they believe local food produces less carbon footprint, which frees them from the guilt of warming the earth; some are paying more because they hope the extra payment will go to local workers and help retain jobs (even for bees) within the border; and some may just find it more comfortable to consume local food because they "know local better", therefore the quality is more reliable. For whatever reason, it works well to put "made in the US" on merchandises for a better price and sale.

In old days people paid high price for imports due to their scarcity: tea, silk and china from the Far East for example. After months of travelings on the sea, the prices of these luxuries were so high that only aristocrats could afford them and took the consumption of foreign goods as status symbols. Now the situation is reversed. People in China go after Western goods crazily, partly due to the unreliable quality of "made in China"s, partly to boast modern lifestyles characterized foreign products. Local goods seem to be ordinary and non-fancy, provided to mediocre people only.

But in the wave of globalization, as the cost of transportation continues decreasing, products from all over the world compete in a open market on a relatively equal base, with the superior selected and the inferior eliminated. Consumers' choice seem to be the best indicator of the competition: who produces the best and cheapest goods win. Industries start to concentrate in a few countries, who are substantially advantaged in intelligence, R&D, human costs or natural resources. Those who fail to stand out are always driven out of the market in the end. These make perfect sense in economic models, as the invisible hand allocates resources effectively and everyone is supposed to gain, after a fair amount of trade winners' gains go to those who lose both their markets and industry in globalization. But such compensation has never been carried out. Workers in comparative disadvantaged industries lose their jobs in the international competition but very few of them are taken care of by the government, or more specifically, by the extra taxes paid by comparative advantaged industries. For the government, the gains and losses may cancel out, and in most countries they gain much more than losses, which in turn can't produce strong motivations for them to change the status quo.

People do have sympathy for their neighbors, who are diligent and nice, but unfortunately lose jobs in competition. So the more you spend on local/domestic goods, the more you are helping your countrymen (or country bees), and the better you feel. I guess these emotions can't be modeled by economists. And now we have better reasons for eating local food: carbon footprint! Though it will be interesting if someone can calculate the how much can be saved by buying "international goods" and how much carbon emission can be reduced by investing the saving on new techs and researches.

Accents and Dialects

In our "Asian group" at WWS, some of us speak Chinese, but this doesn't guarantee we can understand each other. For example, my roommate Leslie speaks Taiwan Mandarin, and Simona speaks Beijing Mandarin. What they say sound similar to me, but they have difficulties in understanding each other. Similarly I find it hard to understand those who speak English with accents: when I was in South Africa, my colleagues seemed to be fine with the English local people speak, but I was almost driven crazy by their accents.

For native speakers, it's simple to adapt to accents because you don't need to understand each word to get the idea of his/her talk; but for foreigners, it's substantial to catch the meaning of key words to understand the entire sentence. Therefore, if I come across someone from other parts of China, I may fail to understand some phrases or words, but it won't hurt - I still understand him/her, and not only that, I may learn some interesting new words. But when I'm in class discussions in Princeton, I can get very confused if I miss some words in the speech. That's what we call the difference between fluency and native-fluency.

Back to accents in Chinese. China is big, and populous. Thousands of years ago when transportation was undeveloped, most people stayed where they were born for the whole lives; and within these separate villages, people spoke dialects to their families, neighbors and friends. There was barely any demand for communicating with people outside, and dialects evolved separately over the time. One day, when people left their hometown in carts, they found themselves unable to understand outsiders. That's what we call "Five miles (are long enough to make) different tones, and ten miles (are long enough to make) different languages." In the end Chinese people speak thousands of dialects, each very different from the other, and some even sound like foreign languages, e.g. the pronunciation of one, two, three, etc. in some places in Zhejiang is more similar to Japanese than to Chinese. There is a rumor that in Qing Dynasty, emperors always had problems in understanding top candidates in the triennial imperial exams, most of whom were from south of Yangtze River and spoke dialects which were quite different from Mandarin. (Just think of a Mandarin-speaking emperor who tried to understand his chancellor from Guangdong, a Cantonese-speaking area.)

In 1950s, Beijing dialect was selected as the official language in China, known as Mandarin today. People in south China are required to speak Mandarin too ever since. The pronunciation and grammar of mandarin is tested in national college exam, as a benchmark for university recruitment. However, affected by people around, southern students always have a hard time in getting rid of accents derived from dialects when they are speaking Mandarin. For example, people in Fujian always fail to distinguish "Fu" from "Hu" and you may find them claiming to be from "Hujian"; people in Zhejiang always struggle with "z" and "zh", therefore they may tell you that they are from "Zejiang"; and those in Human can hardly pronounce "n" but always replace it with "l", thus you may find they're from "Hulan" instead of "Hunan". Even those in the north cannot confidently claim to speak good Mandarin and their trouble is more about rhyme, not initials. I know a friend from Liaoning who can't tell the difference between "you" and "yu"; local Beijingers tend to add "er" to the nouns in conversation,  Anyway Chinese Mandarin is difficult enough, let alone accents caused by dialects. Poor foreign students in China!

Some people claim Mandarin as a language hegemony in China as it sweeps away all the dialects and made Beijingers dominant the entire China. Old fictions with local tones and accents gradually lost their market share, and local dramas have increasing difficulties in recruiting performers. These may be the cost of honing national unity and breaking down domestic communication barriers, but local languages, as well as other local culture and traditions, may be preserved in better ways.

Starbucks

I'm sitting in a Starbucks when typing this blog. People sitting around me are playing with smartphones, laptops; some are reading newspapers and few and chatting. Tiny tables, accompanied by two chairs each, make enough private space for individual customers and small groups. Office workers hurry to and fro, grabbing a coffee and sometimes a sandwich. Occasionally travelers also stop by, taking an afternoon tea in the sofa with their luggage standing by. Starbucks makes itself a great supporting facility for a busy city, even though the coffee it provides is terrible.

The first time I went to Starbucks was in 2006 in Tokyo. At that time, Starbucks had already become popular in China, emblematizing modern life styles and decent tastes. Think of the fact that most Chinese people only had access to Nestle instant coffee at that time, Starbucks was much better. Accordingly, the price was quite decent too. The coffee price of Starbucks in China, if converted into US dollars, was much higher that its equivalent in the US. Taking into account of the income gap between US and China, Starbucks was luxury, and only rich people could afford it. I was a poor master student at Peking University at that time, and it never came to mind to spend 4 bucks on a cup of coffee while I could get more than 100 packages of Nestle instant coffee at the same price. So when I was in Tokyo, and found the Starbucks there was much cheaper than those in Beijing, I was thrilled. I ordered the first Starbucks in my life in Ikebukuro, sat by the window and watched pedestrians walking around. The coffee wasn't that good as I recalled, but it was absolutely different from any instant coffee I drank before: no sugar or milk inside! (Well I didn't know they should be self-served at that time.)

Then I was back in China. I soon got a coffee machine and made coffee with beans given by friends. The coffee was no less than Starbucks, and the cost was low too. But gradually I started to quit coffee due to the occasional stomachaches caused by caffeine. When I came to the US, I left my coffee machine home, aware that I would get cheap coffee here. And it's true. There is a Starbucks on Nassau Street, which served as an asylum from school during the last two years. As a fan for plain coffee, I spent no more than $2 and spend a whole afternoon reading books or working on problem sets. Later I found campus clubs had equally cozy rooms and free coffee, then it came to the end of my connection with Starbucks.

Two years ago, I was shown to the first Starbucks in the US when traveling in Seattle. The queue was so long that I decided it wouldn't pay off to wait for half an hour for a cup of coffee which is no difference from its kind in any other chain stores. I'd rather take the long queue as customers' own way of paying respect of s to the great chains, who successfully made itself byword for coffee in the world. Peet's Coffee is probably a better choice for those living in north California: the same price, but better coffee. However for some reason it hasn't become as popular as Starbucks. I was trying to find a Peet's this afternoon, but only saw two Starbucks during my 5-min search. Not surprisingly, I gave into the mermaid: it's not about the coffee, but the accessibility and convenience; and for some people, lifestyles and identifications.

Pre-pregnancy

I received my book from Amazon last week, What To Expect When You're Expecting, a so-called Pregnancy Bible written by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel. The book is nearly 600 pages with detailed guidance from preconception preparation to baby delivery, and is likely to be the thickest English book ever that I'm likely to read from cover to cover.

It looks like the industrial society has created extra dangers for fetus. The food we are eating today, most of which is not organic but produced on pipelines, put the embryo development at risk; seasonings and spices, which contain all sorts of stimulating substance, are potentially damaging as well. I'm also surprised to find eye cream, hair sprays, perfumes and sun blocks also contain some chemical substances that may reduce the weight of babies or increase the risks of abortion; let alone cosmetics, most of which contain toxic chemicals to create elegant color and long-lasting make-up on the face. Before I only checked product reviews, but now I need to keep an eye on ingredients of almost everything as well.

It's interesting to think about the fact that we all grow from tiny embryo to mature adults, and develop all sorts of immunity to industrial products while enjoy more tasty food rather than breast milk. We love coffee and chocolates so much that some of us can't even survive without caffeine; we get addicted to sugar and find it hard to say no to desserts despite that sugar not only brings extra weights but also hinders absorption of some nutrition; alcohol, cigarette and drugs also add pleasure as well as risks to us. In some parts of the world (yes, China I'm talking about you), people even develop resistance to insecure food during the lengthy process of growing up, while any of those toxic food additives can easily kill a fetus.

Sometimes I can't help think what will happen to my child (if there will be any) in the future. Our world is far from nature already, and theirs could be even farther. Hopefully he/she will receive better education, which is designed by top psychologists and educationalists, learning more advanced knowledge and longer history; he/she may have better understanding of the world as globalization expands, and the differences between different culture and political regimes; he/she shall be able to breathe cleaner air and eat safer food if born in the US rather than China, and enjoy suffrage as well; he/she may be able to choose what he/she really likes and make a living on that; he/she shall enjoy better technologies, taking road trips in a driverless cars and probably having vacations on Mars. But he/she may also face bigger challenges brought by upgraded mass-destructive weapons and climate change. Yes we are in a world where both benefits and crisis are surging. This is a world glorious but dangerous, I'm not even sure if he/she will be thankful to me for bringing them here.

Years before, I won't even think of having babies, which sounds so much like an adult thing. But now I'm approaching thirty, and I start to realize that I'm supposed to take more responsibilities than what I'm having now. To the relief of mine, I may be producing the best work ever in my life.

One Island or Two?

I was planning our Hawaii trip in late September and had some difficulties in choosing islands. Most travel guides suggest going to one (no matter which) and staying there for the entire week. But for us who are under tight budget and plan to go there more for seeing the elephant rather than having relaxing vacations, it's too luxury to spend all the time on one. In the end, Gang found a week-long package for Oahu and Big Island online and decided to take it, which means we will be spending three days on each of them with two days on flights. I can see we will have another very busy itinerary again this summer.

It's not the first time that we made our trips into races against time. Last summer we traveled intensely in Europe, and stopped by each city for only 1-2 days. Well they are tiny (and to a certain extent similar) cities, but still we were in such a hurry that I was hardly impressed by anything but the scorching sun in Rome and the long queue outside Uffizi. We re-traveled later by looking at photos, and figured out more stories about the places we'd been to, but it's not the same. Due to limitation on time and budgets, it's hard for us to take relaxing vacations and truly enjoy trips.

On the other hand, I don't know how many people do enjoy taking a 5-hour flight to find a beach to lie on for one week while they probably only need to drive an hour to reach a similar one. Traveling, says cynics, is to rush into places where local people are already bored of; and produces unnecessary carbon footprints, says environmentalists. So if you're not up to something special, the time and money spent on the journey may not get paid off. I guess people have different perceptions for traveling: if you just want to find a new place for relaxing, then anything there can be attractions as they will rid you of tiring day-to-day lives; if you are planning the trip as sightseeing and want to see as much as you can, then it's another story. Most of the former travelers choose to travel by themselves, flexibly booking hotels, choosing attractions and changing their itinerary; while the latter always join group sightseeing and asking tour guides to arrange everything for them.

I'm not sure which type of tourists I am, but I do wish in the future I can find a place and rest for a while, instead of hurrying from one scenery spot to another. This probably won't happen until we're settled down, and are relatively freed from life pressures. Anyway, it will be a nice picture to think about.

（Hawaii or California?)

Single Women

I read an interesting piece in the Economist today about the rise of singletons all over the world. Young generation seems to be less committed to the obligations of starting families and carrying the family line. Several reasons were raised to explain this global trend, as to China, the Economist argues that "selection for male babies promise a generation of bachelors with diminished conjugal prospects." This may explain why so many young men are still single, but it doesn't show the full picture.

The urban-rural difference in China is probably bigger than most people can imagine. When high-speed trains roar across Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities, some villagers in Western China still lack stable access to clean water and other sanitation facilities. Similarly, when most peasants firmly preferred boys to girls, urban population already showed a balanced growth of two genders. Therefore in theory heterosexual young men in rural area do have problems in finding a mate because of the imbalanced gender ratio. Studies on marital status of migrant workers in cities may confirm my assumptions. However diminished conjugal prospects are not only presented to rural young men, but to urban young women as well. These people are usually born and brought up in benign family environments, receive good education and have decent careers, which makes them or their families reluctant to accept guys from significantly inferior background or careers. As a result, in the marriage market, the excess supply of rural males does not quite meet the demand of urban females.

The rise in singleton also reflects the progress in gender equality in the last decades. Women are no longer dependent on men: they receive education, find jobs and become financially independent. Though gender discrimination still exists in companies and governments, senior level-positions in particular, women are encouraged to receive education and get involved in social activities. As Mao said, "Women can hold up half the sky." (妇女能顶半边天.) De facto status boost for women has an internal conflict with some traditional custom which still advocates male chauvinism. The situation is worst in rural area and north China: e.g. in some places women are not allowed to dine with their husbands on the same table during big festivals. Stories about city wives unable to bear domestic violence, which is pretty common in countryside and north, have been revealed by media, and provoke hot discussions. Many women end with singleton in their thirties if they are unable to find someone who truly appreciate their talent and respect their dignity.

Marriage has different meanings for my generation compared to older ones. It's still viewed as an obligation and singletons in their thirties/forties do suffer from extra social pressures for having "something wrong." However my peers realize that they have the choice and capacity to choose either marriage or singleton, and can better avoid marrying someone that they do not love out of financial pressures. All this said, due to the reasons that the Economist has listed, e.g. low carbon footprint, etc, I'm still pro-marriage.

(http://goo.gl/JfZpP)

Riddle of Bamboo Annals

Last month Gang and I went to visit our old housemate, David Nivison, Professor of Chinese Studies in Stanford University. We lived in his house for about ten months until Gang ended his term at Stanford. I helped him translate his latest work on the Bamboo Annals (BA), a book written on bamboos thousands of years ago and the research on which provoked huge controversy in Chinese academy, and finished most of the work before I left the bay area. During the last two years, new evidence was found regarding to ancient calenders and military records in Shang and Zhou Dynasty, and induced further revisions to his original draft. David explained to me about his updates in the book, and told me he had difficulties in finding people to translate the updates. I offered temporary help until his assistant is back to work on account of all the joys I've had when translating this book two years ago.

It was the most challenging translation I've ever done. David's book, The Riddle of Bamboo Annals summarized his main discoveries on BA since 1979, when he started to look into the history of BA, recoverd the full picture of BA, explained the differences in stories recorded in BA and other annals, finding out the true date of historical memorabilia, and more importantly, revealed some unknown political systems and culture in ancient China from that. To find out the reasons behind the differences, he studied astronomical records, calendars, sacrifice ceremonies, paleography and even ancient literature, searching for the true meanings of BA's records and historical changes that had happened to it. As a result, I had to understand all these to translate his book. I had new learning experiences everyday. We talked about fantastic legends recorded in oracles on shells or inscriptions on bronze wares, and how different calendars pointed to the same day for sacrifice after magic astronomical phenomenon happened. It was fascinating.

When I started to translate BA, I came to understand why David got obsessed with it. It recorded many stories before Zhou Dynasty which are quite different (sometimes even opposite) from general knowledge. Especially, it has many contradictory records to Shih Chi, the first comprehensive biographical history by chronology written in Han Dynasty, hundreds of years after BA was written if we adopt David's conclusion on the completing time of BA. Most of my knowledge about history is from Shih Chi and other historic records kept after Shih Chi's completion, therefore it was pretty shocking reading BA. For example, there is a less-than-50-word story about Yiyin, a famous chancellor in early Shang Dynasty who was said to change the king from a fatuous ruler to a virtuous one and flourished the country in most historical records. However, BA said Yiyin expelled the king who slunk back seven years later and killed Yiyin. If BA is right, then why later histories ignored its records and made up a different story; and if Shih Chi is right, then why BA lied? Assumptions are raised to address the controversy, but more solid evidence remains to be found in the future. In any case, no one knows what really happened more than three thousand years ago, but it's good to have different records and become suspicious of historical stories we've read.

Our posterity may get better ideas about our lives than us to our ancestors given the rapid development of technologies, but they may lack the joy of uncovering historical myths from a few relics and rotten pieces. Bold imagination and rigorous proof make archaeology so beautiful.

 (Source: http://goo.gl/DfnKp ; Picture unrelated to the text)