Cultural Products

How amazing it is to see so Americans dancing to the Gangnam Style without knowing the meaning of its lyrics. It's probably not surprising to see pop stars like Britney Spears to imitate PSY, her Korean counterpart's; but now every one - politicians, scholars and artists, etc is dancing to the song and sharing the videos online. A few weeks ago, I saw a MTV called "Romney Style", later I found a similar one called "Obama style", and finally Romney did dance to the Gangnam Style in one of his campaigns, which was taken as a strategy to attract young voters. Yesterday I found a video on Youtube about PhDs and professors at MIT, and business students at Stanford dancing to Gangnam Style. It looks like you're out of fashion if you're not dancing to the Gangnam Style. Why? Because every one else is doing that.

I have no idea why this song is so popular, and I'm even more confused at why people enjoy it so much without knowing the meaning of the song. But the popularity of Gangnam Style seems to imply a potential global market for Asian cultural products in spite of the differences in languages, traditions and culture. Hollywood movies and American sitcoms already become popular with young audiences in Asia, thanks to the universal English education and values; and a few Asian movies are shown in the US too. But some ideas are hard to translate. Take a Chinese movie for example. Farewell My Concubine, the Golden Globe Awards winner in 1993, tells a story of Peking Opera actors from early 1920s to the end of Cultural Revolution. The film narrative seems prosaic in lack of climax, and a feeling of melancholy runs through the entire movie, which is in sharp contrast to the turbulent era in China and the dramatic Peking Opera. However for audience without the knowledge of Chinese history or Peking Opera, it's difficult to see this artistic expression.

To make cultural products popular in a different cultural setting, a shortcut is to keep it simple and stupid. Gangnam Style is a song mocking at rick people in Soul, but no one cares about what it says, they only like the few dancing movements and shouting "oppa gangnam style!" when doing them. Many Hollywood movies find the best way of selling their movies in overseas markets is to show fancy pictures like The Lord of the Rings, or glaring CG stunts like Transformers, not trying to explore profound themes in 2 hours. This proves to be a very wise strategy. Why is Avatar such a success? Stories are old, but people went there to enjoy an unprecedented imax 3D movie. Most audiences probably can't recall the story, but they will always remember flying with avatars on the back of that big bird. Because of the big gap in technology, it is always easy for American movies to take Asian markets, not vice verse.

But it may come to the point that people's utility curve from fancy movie technologies flat out, and their demand for something else starts to increase. Then the challenge to cultural products is how to convey ideas instead of pictures, and that will be a real headache.

http://goo.gl/hhfHq

Things That Are Unexpected

Gang and I are browsing the latest news and pictures about Sandy, which turned New York City and its neighborhood into an empty area overnight. Friends on the east coast have been updating their status on Facebook and Weibo, such as "out of power" and "on vacation", etc. We luckily are enjoying sunshine in California and have access to electricity, water and internet, but many people have their normal lives interrupted by the hurricane. They may plan to celebrate their birthday or anniversary tonight, or have already invited friends and relatives over for weddings on Monday, or need to close a big deal with overseas partners as soon as possible. However unexpected natural disasters prevent them from following original plans, and force them to go for alternatives - stay in the dark, read or play board games by candlelight while waiting for Sandy's pass.

I always view myself an organized person with strict agenda of getting things done at different times. Unexpected situations can be very annoying. Small changes to plans are tolerable: such as one more problem set due this week, another party to go tonight, or new paper topics. Some changes, though big, leave enough room for me to react and therefore are easy to accept as well, such as marriage and new jobs.

What can be really troublesome is big sudden changes. Last year I went on a field research with five classmates and a professor from Princeton University. We spent three days in Namibia and then went to South Africa, where my luggage were stolen the night before we were about to leave. Everything seemed to change overnight. For all the past two months, I collected data from all the SARB MPC reports, surveys and other database, recorded information through interviews with local government officials and entrepreneurs during the field trip, and wrote my paper day and night, in hope to finish most of the paper by the end of the month. Suddenly my laptop and interview notes were stolen without a copy of my paper or excel files saved online. In other words, I had to repeat the work that I'd already spent two months on. What's worse, my passport was taken away as well, which meant I did not only need a new passport but also a new US visa to go back. Without a penny in my pocket, I was worried that I would spend weeks here miserably and missed all the courses in the rest of the semester without a laptop to either continue to work on my paper or download online readings and lecture notes for other courses. Luckily, with the help from alumni and friends, I received both my travel document and visa in a week, and finally got back. But I remember when I was told by the US consulate that they couldn't issue visas on a Chinese travel document and my only choice was to go back to China to get a new passport and then a US visa there, I did start to plan how to take the rest courses in China and how long should I postpone my graduation in case I couldn't get enough credits by the end of the year.

Sudden disasters brought challenges, but also made us feel better about our lives when they were over. I was stressed by all the qualifying exam and job search stuff before I left for Africa. But after all these happened, I only felt lucky that I didn't wake up when the guy was lurking into my room and thus protected myself from any physical hurt; and I found it so unworthy to worry about things like jobs and exams when I was facing the danger of deferment. I guess that's the biggest thing I learned about things that are unexpected: they remind us what we should be grateful of.

A Car Accident

My car was hit when a Civic tried to overtake me from the left. The driver drove so fast that her car caught up from the behind soon and forced to change the lane before fully overtaking me, leaving scratches and a dent on the left side of my new Honda.

We've maintained a great driving record since moving to the US, and no accident has ever been reported. The result was that neither Gang nor I knew what to do after the accident happened. I called 911, and was suggested to exchange our insurance information with the driver and report to my insurance company. So we got the insurance information and the driver license number done, and took pictures of scratches on each car. The young lady seemed to be driving her parents' car, whose insurance was under her parents' names and expired three days. I contacted my insurance company and was told that because today is Sunday no one was there to provide service. Reluctantly we let the young driver go. And just before we were about to leave, Gang saw a police car coming. We stopped the car, and asked the policeman for advice to handle issues like this. He said the same thing: let the insurance company handle this.

Things look surprisingly simple. There was no shouting at each other or complaints. Both parties were busy making phone calls, writing down information and taking photos. Thanks to iPhone which makes all these things very easy. But for sure driver license should not be issued to careless young drivers like this. I don't know how the auto insurance company with handle this - since it is difficult to find witnesses for what happened this afternoon, I have no idea about how they could figure things out. But at least we've experienced one more thing in the US.

Hidden Wealth

Gini coefficient is so far the most popular indicator to evaluate inequality in a country. The higher the Gini Coefficient, the less equal the country is. Since the coefficient is respected by most countries, economists always use it to rank the level of inequality in a country. It always looks less decent if a country tops the list of Gini coefficient with a low GDP per capita.

Therefore some countries use their own way of calculating Gini coefficient. For example, India calculates Gini by consumption instead of income to lower its Gini coefficient. How does this work? For example, one family owns $1 million a year, but consumes $100K; while another family owns $1000 a year and consumes all of it. The difference between their consumption is much less than the difference between their income. The trick that the Chinese Statistical Bureau is playing with Gini coefficient is equally cunning. Instead of calculating Gini coefficient for the entire country, they calculate two separate Ginis, one for urban area and the other for the rural area. Because of the big income gap between cities and countrysides, both Ginis are considered not reflecting the true inequality in China.

In addition to these obvious tricks of lowering Gini coefficient, it is widely believed that some assets of rich people's are not reported as government officials trade power for money in the grey area, which make the money unspeakable. Though the central government looks determined in addressing corruption and driving its bureaucrats to publish their salaries and assets, very few are willing to do that. And those who have to put the information online usually choose to understate their wealth. It's not surprising. In almost every corruption case that has been disclosed recently, the asset of each official can be counted in billions - millions of cash and dozens of mansions. Even that is not the whole story. Headlines of NY Times yesterday seemed to reveal that in China large assets can be acquired by seniors in the government and their relatives in a legal way. These assets, no matter taken legitimately or illegally, are usually not included in the calculation of Gini coefficient, and they are seeking global investment opportunities with a significant ratio of them already transferred overseas.

Meanwhile, the Gini coefficient can be overestimated as well because of non-monetary assets in a family. When we look at household income, we usually assume that's what people live on; while actually they may live on things other than monetary income. Farmers grow food in their fields and decide to eat half of them instead of selling all; and tailors make clothes for their family members and relatives. Poor people do not always receive paychecks and live on commodities, and complexity of the market makes Gini coefficient even more confusing. But in comparison to the large hidden wealth, this slight overestimation can be ignored.

Data don't lie, but the people who develop and interpret it can lie. That's the world of “闷声发大财" (make money, not noises).

Gambling

I went to watch the final presidential debate with a binder full of ERGies. Gang's friend Jimmy invited us over to watch the debate on foreign policy at his place. The debate was completely off the topic, but it didn't prevent us from enjoying the debate drinking game.

The biggest gain from last night was not seeing how politicians do Taichi to each other during the debate by avoiding questions, twisting facts and changing topics, but a website mentioned by Chris. Intrade.com provides a market in which people can predict who will win the election, such as who will be elected the next president, who will lead in each swing state, and who will control the Senate/House, and therefore own money from right predictions. The price of each share changes as the campaign goes on. For example, after Obama got drowsy during his first debate, the price of share for "Obama will win" dropped from almost $8 to less than $6. His next two debates reversed the trend and pushed the price above $6 now, but never back to its peak. We found this market very interesting and tried to buy a few shares just for fun. But as we registered and logged in, we found the procedures cumbersome: we needed to scan and send over our ID cards for confirmation, and the money couldn't be paid by either credit card or debit card. Also, Intrade.com requires a monthly transaction fee of around $5.

I learned about futures markets in my financial class, and how agency make money from both sides by taking the risks of insolvency. The business is no longer new, but Intrade.com is much easier: it only focuses on policy issues, and to each question there are only two options, yes or no. For example, there is a bet on whether a cap and trade system for emissions trading to be established before midnight ET on 31 Dec 2013, and another on whether the US and/or Israel are to execute an overt air strike against Iran before midnight ET 31 Dec 2013. About a hundred market is listed on its website, from the change of global temperature, terrorist attack, income tax rates, to the time for World Trade Center's reopening, etc. Where there is uncertainty, there is a market for gambling. In comparison to guessing the change of oil price in the following months and years, it's much easier to guess "Yes" or "No". However the risk is higher: once you lose, you lose everything.

I don't think a similar business model exists in China, and one obstacle I can think of to replicating the model in China is the opaque government policy-making process. Two weeks before the US election, no one knows who will be the next US president (though I think Obama has a better chance); but two years ago we already knew who will be the next Chinese president. However only people close to the core know what happens and have more information to predict the result, but majority remains uninformed - yes we know the result, but we don't know what leads to the result. However it may be interesting to try a bet on something like whether China and Japan will fight over Diaoyu Island or when will be Liaoning Hao's first voyage.

English is Hard

Most Chinese students start learning English in middle school, taking 4-5 English courses per week and dealing with piles of homework and exams. After six hellish years in middle school and high school, some of them decide that they've had enough, and will never read or speak English; and some decide to continue their English studies by taking more English courses and having more assignment and exams. I'm one of the latter: English courses were compulsory for students in my school, and I took at least one English courses per semester. Some English courses were taught by native speakers, and what we did in class was basically watching TV shows or playing games; some were taught by Chinese professors, who showed great interests in tangling with jargon in political science.

My point is I had been learning English successively for ten years before coming to the US, and I still found it difficult to communicate with local people! One day I went to do laundry, and a friend of mine was in the laundry room too. She asked me if she could use my "detergent". I stood still and looked at her in confusion, holding the detergent in my hands. "Sorry, what's deter...?"
She pointed at the bottle in my hand, "Can I use this?"
"Oh of course, help yourself." I finally understood the meaning of "detergent".
Yes, don't laugh, I know what "authoritarianism" is, but I didn't know what "detergent" is.

Some English words are translated into the same Chinese word, but they do have different meanings in English. This story happened during my second year at Princeton, when my roommate Leslie and I were preparing a surprise Birthday party for Vanessa, the other roommate. Our plan was to have her husband come over from NYC and celebrated her birthday with friends at night - after our class on impact evaluation at 9pm. Leslie was running some errand in the afternoon, therefore she left the apt key under mat for Vanessa's husband, who would have access to the apt when Leslie was away. Things do not always go as they are planned. Vanessa went back to apt in the afternoon before her husband arrived, and found the mat was kicked away by someone and the key was left outside. So she asked Leslie, who happened to be with her at that time. Leslie answered calmly:" Oh it's Keqin's key." And she soon called me, saying her key under the "mat" was found by Vanessa, she claimed it to be mine, and she wanted to make sure that I wouldn't give her away. I caught the keyword "mat", but unfortunately the first thing came to my mind was the rug in the living room. I wanted to ask Leslie why she hid her key under the rug in the living room, but she hang up. Later that night, I was assigned the task of walking back to the apartment with Vanessa after the evening class, and slowing her down so that other people would have enough time to set up. I thought for a while, and found a perfect excuse (I thought). So I asked Vanessa: "I left my key in the apartment, can I go back with you?"
Vanessa looked confused: "I thought you left the key for someone under the mat."
"Yes, that's why I don't have it..." Then I realized the true "mat" that Leslie was talking about.
Vanessa looked at me in suspicious. I stood there awkwardly, having no idea of how to explain it. Later she told me she sensed the party a little bit by my mistake. And I learned the difference between mat and rug.

The other day I drove my car for smog check. After the check was done, the mechanic was typing something into his computer. I asked him if I could get a "hard copy" of the smog check report so that I could bring it over to DMV. He looked at me strangely and said: "Well, then I have to make it."
I said to myself, "this guy is so lazy, he doesn't even want to print it!" So I replied, "then can you make it?"
The mechanic paused for a few seconds, and said: "Sure... but it might take a while."
I felt he was reluctant to make the "hard copy", but I couldn't figure out why, and I didn't understand how printing a copy could "take a while". So I explained to him that I knew usually the report was sent to DMV's database directly so it wouldn't be a big problem if I didn't have to hard copy with me, but in case things went wrong, it was always better to obtain a hard copy.
"Oh!" He laughed, "I thought you wanted a 'hot coffee'!"

These are some of my wonderful memories with English. A lovely language!

A Career Fair

Berkeley becomes sunny again when I'm NOT seeing Carol in San Francisco. I went to a career fair in downtown Berkeley hosted by Zhejiang Recruitment Group. As the name suggests, the Group consists of representatives from the government, enterprises and universities in Zhejiang Province to recruit recent graduates from UC Berkeley and surrounding universities. In recent years, Chinese recruitment groups come to the US several times a year to find qualified candidates for their job openings back home. But most recruitment is conducted at the national level, and very few provinces can organize their recruitment teams but Zhejiang is an exception. I met a few CEOs from private companies, professors in universities and governors from the CCP departments. Even though the government is not recruiting for itself, the presence of government officials imply that this is a government-organized activities.

I didn't talk much there, but I must say some salary packages are really tempting. Zhejiang seems to be rich enough to offer international pay in a lot of positions. But concerns still remain regarding to whether these promises will be carried out, and how many additional provisions they may have. Some people also worry about the non-standard and opaque performance evaluation and promotion system back in China, which can turn a high starting point into a dim future. Most people at the career fair were talking - to the recruiter, organizer and other students, but I don't know how many of them are keen on starting a career in China.

With a background in social science, sometimes I do find it difficult to get a job here. After talking to the Zhejiang recruiters, I realize it may be the same in China. It looks like that they don't find the US education has advantages in liberal arts, but believe the science education is much better. (It's funny to think about that Americans believe that Chinese are good at math and science, while Chinese have the same perception on Americans.) They want to recruit people with US science degrees because they believe these degree receivers are sure to bring new technologies and ideas back to China, but they are less interested in recruiting students in social science as they may not find people majoring in social science will make a big difference.

It is fascinating to see how much people value knowledge, and almost for sure overseas degree recipients will help Chinese companies improve their performance in both domestic and international markets. With a less developed legal system and market, Chinese market is more likely to help shrewd businessmen accumulate wealth quickly. And when they are trying to expand to overseas markets, it's important to have someone who knows the world better. Zhejiang has been playing a leading role in encouraging small business and export-oriented industry since 1980s, and it's a smart move to distinguish itself from other similar industries by investing on human resources.

Leadership Reshuffle

2012 is a year for change. People everywhere (literally) are expecting new leaders or another term of old ones. EU talks more about bail-out and possible breakups more than the political show, and Japan is swinging between finding an economic titan or a political hawk. The US takes the incoming election as a possible solution for current economic crisis. Romney attacked Obama furiously on the poor performance in the campaign, taking it as his lethal weapon against the incumbent. Obama kept implying that the economy had already gone bad during Bush's reign, and it could be worse under Romney's government. Presidential candidates debated on policy as well as attacked each other's personalities. Media busily interviewed and commented on the candidates, and updated polls one after the other. Profits were made, jobs were created and everyone was like having a party.

Leadership reshuffle is quite different in China, where things are processed quietly. The central government is trying their best to avoid stiring up the public in prevention of any unexpected situation. Since Bo Xilai was removed from his position and therefore lost the competitiveness for joining the CCP Central Politburo, power competition between other factions seemed even more opaque. Though even taxi drivers in Beijing seem to know the list of the next Central Politburo standing committee members, the public won't be informed of any personnel change or new policiy until Nov 8th, when the eighteenth congress of CCP representatives will be held.

People talk about the disadvantages of democracy - its inefficiency, nepotism with interest groups and the big waste of money on campaigns. I bet most of these critics haven't been to China or other dictatorship, otherwise they must be paid to say so. It turns out that if the money is spent on elections, it will be squandered in other ways - just think of the billions of dollars embezzled by government officials in China. It's too easy to put the public's money into one's own pocket in lack of transparency and responsibility. Also, in China, interests groups have no election to affect, but they find other ways of making policies in favor of them. And what's worse, the public won't even have a say during the process. People today praise China for its efficiency in building infrastructure and taking actions against climate change, etc, but seem to forget how efficient China was in impoverishing its people in 1950s and slaughtering its people in 1960-1970s. Ridiculous things can happen in a country who does not respect its people.

Obviously most of the 1.4 billion Chinese people won't have a say in the coming election, which is fully taken care of by a few old men. In sharp contrast to the media calling on people to vote, the media in China tries to keep the public away from hotspots. I sadly see my country leaders continue consolidating their dictatorship and reinforcing their alliance with economic giants, getting complacent by comparing China to countries like North Korea. The international community cares about China's economic growth slowing down and carbon emissions growing up, but what we should care more is that the true trouble lies much deeper in the bone.

App's App

As iPhones and iPads further consolidate their monopoly in the smartphone and tablet PC market, more Apps are available in App Store as well. I used to check App Store once in a month, and always found the same games ranking in the Top 25. But now the market is much more competitive, with new popular games emerging every week. Especially as the format of App Store changes, more opportunities are offered to new games. But how to direct consumers to "good and cheap" ones? That's the job for App's App. Several App's App serve as categories for the hundreds of thousands of Apps in the store. They rank Apps in the same category by reviews, show the price change of paid Apps and recommend similar or complementary Apps by detecting users' current Apps. They are helpful in choosing Apps, but now people obviously find out that App's App has become a big market itself, thus more and more App's App are developed to cater different customer groups.

I have more than fifty Apps in my iPad, and less than 20% of them are used frequently - as a woman staying with a WiFi-equipped laptop for the most of the day, I don't need to use iPad that much. Every time I came across a new App, I said to myself "this is fancy" or "it must be useful", but it always ended as a disposable App whose function I couldn't even recall after a week, let alone using it any more. Over time, my iPad and iPhone are packed with Apps and I have to clean them periodically. App's App improves my addiction to downloading new Apps thanks to their luring introductions, but also speeds up my cleaning frequency. Sometimes I find myself an idler who are more fond of exploring new App ideas rather than finding really useful Apps.

When I reckon how much iPhone and iPad reshaped my life in the last two years, the change was silent but obvious. Now I can't think of traveling without a "map" App (well Apple's map almost pushes me to use paper maps other than that in iPhone), or waiting in the bus station without checking "Facebook" or "twitter", or failing to take photos when seeing something funny around. Now I'm used to checking emails, taking photos, recording information and playing games everywhere - at home, on bus, in shopping mall, at a coffee shop, etc. I also believe I'm not alone. People used to talk or read on BART, but now they play iPhone. When demands are created, they won't vanish until better replacements are found.

In the presence of booming Apps, people can easily get lost when they have too many options. App's App is hardly the solution - itself is getting into trouble because of the large numbers, and neither is App's App's App. What truly serve the customers' interests is a better categorized App Store, with a review ranking system and detailed introduction of each App - some of them have such fancy names that you can figure out their true functions until downloading them. We are just dumb consumers who pay for anything that looks good in App Store, so please at least make our shopping experiences better.

My Teeth

Two years ago, one of my teeth ached for a few days. I didn't pay much attention at the beginning but it finally came to the point of unbearable. Therefore I went to see my dentist for the first time in the US and had that naughty baby extracted. My dentist is a nice gentleman, he did my first deep teeth cleaning and suggested me to use floss, which helped me maintain the health of both teeth and gum a lot. Also for the first time of my life, I got an X-ray of my teeth, and found out I actually have 32 teeth (well, 31 half an hour later), four of which are wisdom teeth. Later I had other two teeth extracted even though they were not infected for the sake of prevention. The last wisdom tooth was troublesome: it's deeply buried in the bone and then firmly covered by gum. So my dentist explained to me that he was not able to extract that one, but if I'd like he could refer me to a specialist.

I did go to see the specialist, who checked my X-ray and mouth, and told me he could do it. I made the appointment, and finally cancelled it because of the lack of courage to have my bone cut. The fourth wisdom tooth had no idea its life was changed in a minute, and still stayed quietly in the past two years as it did before. Recently I read articles about how hormones might affect oral health and made wisdom teeth brisker than usual. Not surprisingly I thought of getting rid of this last potential trouble. Again, I got a referral from my dentist (a new one), and went to see the specialist this afternoon. This was my best dental experience ever: the doctor explained to me the pros and cons of extracting such a deeply imbedded tooth, how the infection happens and why I didn't need to worry about the tooth which has no opportunity of touching either saliva or air. After so many dentists pushing me to extract this obedient tooth, I finally heard something different. And it looks like Dr. Krey did care a lot about patients rather than charging for another surgery.

I remember when I was a little kid, my mother once brought to a dentist for tooth decay (yes I liked candies). The dentist extracted my decayed tooth and told my mom to buy my an ice-cream to help stop bleeding. I was scared to see the dentist and have the surgery, but was delighted to know that I could be awarded with an ice-cream for my brave behavior. Later that day I got an expensive ice-cream with raisin in it. That ice-cream changed all my impression of dental surgery ever since. After that, my teeth have been growing neatly and healthily, therefore I stopped visiting dentists anymore. In China the oral health care is in general much less developed. Very few use floss or clean teeth regularly, and most people have no X-ray pic of teeth through their whole lives. In recent years, people start to understand more about the importance of oral health, and start to clean teeth or wear braces if needed. These hidden babies are taken better care of.

Presidential Debate

I'm trying to type this blog from iPad, and it's working! Well, it's not convenient at all, but it's funny. I downloaded a few Apps yesterday, one of them is to turn iPad into a screen for laptops, and the other is to turn iPad into a keyboard and mouse. For sure these Apps outstand iPad and smartphones in there peers.

I joined Gang in watching the second presidential debate tonight, when Obama finally realized that he couldn't play the humble card any more but fought back. This is the first time that I watched a presidential debate from the beginning to the end, and it's always a pleasure to see politicians being challenged by each other. Romney seemed unprepared - his only focus was to attack Obama's failure on economic issues, but didn't think through other policies, such as cultural issues, gender, foreign policy, etc. Therefore when he came across questions that he lacked interests, or the ones that the Republicans couldn't stand well with, he tried to switch the topics to the parts that were attractive to conservatives, and could be twisted to against Obama. The current president was obviously more familiar with his job, and therefore was able to address questions more directly. The coordinator tried to push Romney several times to answer questions instead of  mumbo-jumbo. I was thinking, poor guy, he probably thought he already answered the question.

Politicians always lie, and it's interesting to see how they labeled each other as an liar while continuing hiding or making up facts. Romney talked about his big plan which was suspiciously not feasibly due to the lack of details, while blaming Obama for failing to carry out his commitments four years ago; while Obama tried to convince the audience that he has at least partly done his job, and in spite of his poor performance Romney could do worse considering his affiliation with Republics. Though it may not be fair to put all the blames on Obama, the President did fail to reach his original target; and since no new recovery policy had been raised, it is reasonable to remain suspicious of his performance in the next term should he elected. Romney equally lacked credit due to his empty big talks. Regardless who gets elected, the economy may recover in its own way. What we don't know is who can be lucky enough to take the chair when things are getting better.

The most impressive part of the debate tonight is the audience, who asks great tough questions, which can never happen in China as long as the CCP occupies the government; and the coordinator also did a good job, who (at least tried to) control the time and urge both candidates address questions during the entire debate. But we probably should also thank both candidates for the debates, which have brought so many joys to us already. Romney has a slippery tongue as usual and now binders full of women are posted everywhere on internet, almost as popular as the Big Bird last week. These presidential candidates, as well as their media and reporters, provide us tons of jokes because of their self-contradictory speeches and behaviors; and the money that barons throw on the election also create job opportunities for those suffering in the recession.

Sore Body

I went hiking with Gang and several friends yesterday in Mission Peak Reserve. It has been two years since my last visit. I didn't do well last time - I hiked for about one hour, then realized the peak was still far away, so I decided to go back. This time I had no motivation for a better performance, however all my friends seemed determined in reaching the peak. Finally peers' pressure pushed my all the way up. Hours later, I stood on the rocks and looked downhill with my heart beating crazily.

Luckily it took less effort to go down. Tired and exhausted, I had a wonderful sleep after a big dinner last night. All the pain happened this morning. I woke up with a stiff body, every joint was aching and sitting up became extremely challenging. I slowly got off the bed and dressed myself, acting as if I were seventy years old. My legs were particularly out of control: lifting legs and stepping forward was killing me! I did a little stretch in the room, and walked slowly to the school later.

I always know I lack exercises, and the cost of occasional exercise is a sore body. In my high school, PE was compulsory. Therefore no matter how much I hated it, I had to pass it to graduate. In that sense, I did exercise regularly, at least twice a week, and built strong body. College life was far more relaxing. Only 4 credits of PE was required out of more than 136 credits to own a bachelor degree. I learned swimming and dancing there, both of which were not very intense. There was only one semester, in which all the female students were required to pass a 1,800 meter running exam. I did get sweaty in that year. I guess my most strenuous exercise since then was walking - walking from home to work place, or from dormitory to classrooms. Sometimes I went to do yoga with friends, contorting my body as Chinese dough twists (麻花). But that was hardly an exercise either.

I knew I have no luck to be athletic in the future since I was five, when my parents desperately found out I couldn't accomplish some gymnastic movements, such as bending down to press head against thigh, etc, like my peers. I told them that was because I'm an unyielding woman. Anyway, I guess advantages and disadvantages of our genes shaped our lives in early times - I got C in PE and A in math.

All that said, it's not a good idea to give up what you're not good at. Otherwise they will revenge, e.g. with a sore body.

Sunday Streets Berkeley

This Sunday saw the first Open Streets in Berkeley. Shattuck Ave was blocked from autos and reserved for the activities. Gang and I walked there at noon and looked around. It was nice to see so many people hanging out in weekends, and also quite exciting to get a taste of connections in a community.

We arrived there at around 11:30am. Obviously the Sunday Streets in Berkeley followed a Berkeley time - i it was supposed to start at 11:00am, but very few people were wandering around on our arrival. We passed several vendors and campaign stalls before we found a tent to promote local communication. Two lovely volunteers, both around 5 to 6 years old, were distributing cards to pedestrians. They looked at you sincerely, and asked with that special children's tone: “Would you like to take a look?" No one could reject them. Yes they were probably the most successful flyers today.

At the cross of Shattuck Ave and Lincoln Street, a young lady was giving away her oil paintings for free. She showed me the oil paints and palette she was using, and the ideas of her painting. Her paintings had luscious colors and dynamic compositions. It looked like she enjoyed the creative work, as she said, "you can understand my paintings as you like." I didn't pick one on our way to the Cheeseboard, but when we were back, all her works were taken away. Not too far away from her, there was a face painting workshop where children were waiting in queue. A little girl just had her face painted as a cute cougar. Artists are everywhere.

Interesting activities, such as a minivan theater, human-sized chess games on the floor (like the one in Harry Potter), Hula-hooping and Yoga classes, as well as drumming workshops, attracted big crowds, children in particular. But the highlight of the day was a pedal-powered concert. A band was playing music, with about 8 people, most of whom were volunteers riding bikes around to generate electricity for the audio equipment. Both Gang and I tried for a while. It might not be easy for one person to provide enough electricity supply for the entire performance. But since the crowd found this new green performance interesting, people kept joining in, and helped the performance continue.

After a big lunch at Cheeseboard, we headed back. Shattuck became more packed with pedestrians and cyclists. Children were having fun in different craft workshops and games; parents could relax with their fellows by looking at their children; all sorts of organizations seized the opportunity of advocating/opposing certain bills, and very luckily that the bay area is so blue that no one even bothered to campaign for Obama.

Unprofessional Interview

Congrats to Mo Yan, the first Chinese government-recognized Chinese Nobel Prize Winner in Literature. He is not the first Chinese Nobel laureate, but he is for sure the first Chinese Nobel laureate who only speaks Chinese. I guess the committee must haven't expected this new situation, and therefore had difficulties in finding a capable person to inform Mo Yan of the news, which explained the terrible 8-min call that Shang Yan made to Mo Yan to congratulate him on his success.

Shang Yan is from China, and works in an association of local Chinese community in Sweden. But it looks like she has no experience in interviewing people. During the 8-min phone call, whose record was posted Nobel official site later, she failed to say a single complete sentence, but paused again and again after every four to five words. Compared to her dramatic tones and fragmented questions, Mo Yan seemed very calm and eloquent, patiently answering all the stupid questions, but finally hang up when she started to introduce herself - her name and interests. Geez, who cares about that? I don't know how Mo Yan felt when he received such an unprofessional interview, I would doubt if I'd received a fraud call or a prank if I were him.

Unprofessional interviews can undermine interviewee's impression of the interviewer, and more importantly, the group that he/she represents. I once interviewed an entrepreneur when I just started my first job. Though I prepared for a long time, I couldn't help get nervous when seeing him, and got terribly stammers during the interview. The entrepreneur skillfully started to ask me a few questions about myself to help me calm down and we finally finished the interview. In the end, he smiled and shook my hands, saying I've done a good job, but I couldn't help thinking that he must have expected a better interviewer from my organization. Similarly, last year I went on a field trip to Africa for a workshop on regional trade integration. During a meeting with a high-level official in South Africa, I asked a question about their monetary policy. However the governor was so diplomatic that he did not provide any useful information during the interview. I was disappointed, but I did reveal my disappointment as one of my colleagues, who chipped in and answered half of my questions in a different way, including "correcting" the governor. We stayed in silence for a while before another colleague broke the ice and changed the topic.

It's probably difficult to balance courtesy and acuity in interviewing people, and it may requires some experience to stick to the topic and keep the interviewee involved during the entire process. However the Nobel Committee embarrassed itself by hiring a garrulous and unintelligible lady to notify Mo Yan of the big moment of his life and throw dumb interview questions on him.

Getaway to A New Market

There is a challenge for almost every multi-national, regardless how powerful it is, and so far no satisfying solution has been provided: how to adjust itself to an oversea market? It's no longer novel to see foreign companies adopting new corporate culture for their branches in a foreign country. Walmart, Carrefour and their western peers have to establish Communist Party Committees in their Chinese branches to meet requirements of local laws; and Google faced challenges from the government news censorship and security issues when providing search engines to its Chinese customers.

Just as western companies feel unacclimatized to Chinese markets, Chinese companies also come across troubles when trying to enter western markets. Huawei and ZTE were challenged with security concerns when they were applying for US market entry permission. I watched the hearing before the Congress on Youtube, which lasted for more than three hours and raised many interesting questions.

One question that challenged both companies was the role of Party Committee in their companies. The CCP Committee is an interesting organization in the sense that there isn't a clear definition of its role but its impact is everywhere. On the face of it, it does not interfere the operations or decision-making process of companies, but you absolutely don't want to go against it. The existence of Party Committee doesn't imply that the Party has direct control over it - almost every organization has a Party Committee; but it also doesn't mean that the company can be independent of the influence from the Party. The Party Committee system has been firmly established as a legacy from 1989, and is one of the most silly systems in China. Obviously the US Congress found it ridiculous to have a Party Committee in a company while keeping its independence and was very concerned about the components of the Committee. If I were the US Congress, I would not worry that much about this Party Committee thing, but might want to investigate further on their connection with PLA.

Another question also reflects the deep distrust of the US on Chinese companies. Huawei and ZTE were questioned if they would provide information to the Chinese government at the cost of their clients' benefits. Both companies promised not to do so. But the chairman sniffed at it and said, "even if that will put you in jail?" Even I can't buy their answers. Yahoo!, an American company, had to sell its clients' information to Chinese government to legitimize its operations in China, let alone Chinese companies: how can their US branch continue to work when the parent company gets in trouble? Not every company can be Google, and it's simply too costly for Huawei and ZTE to give up their Chinese market share.

This is my first time to watch Chinese companies receiving hearings in the US Congress, and I think this will provide a big lesson for their Chinese fellows. The difference in market and corporate-government relations between the US and China can produce huge barriers for companies on each side. Now the security concerns stopped Huawei and ZTE from expanding into the US market, and next time other issues may be raised against Chinese companies. To overcome the obstacles, fundamental internal reforms will be required to adapt Chinese companies to free markets; and the relationship between government and market in China has to be reformed as well.

Before any big change takes place, there is one thing that Chinese companies can do to assuage the conflicts between different systems: find better spokesmen. Both the hearing looked so miserable partly because of the deep-rooted difference between China and the US, but partly due to the way these two spokesmen handled the questions. Both of them, I believe, are high-level officials in the company, and they are too familiar with dealing with Chinese officials, and are very good at empty talks. However it doesn't work in the US: the Congress kept urging them to answer questions, providing details instead of talking "principles". Also, they may want to improve their English and know more about the US culture, which will help them better answer the questions as well.

Anyway, I'm proud to see Chinese companies making progress in exploring international markets. Learning by doing, and the growing pains will be beneficial in the future. This hearing will be historical.

Columbus Day

I accidently found on my calendar that today is Columbus Day. The US has so many holidays that it's very easy to miss a few every year. And yes this is my first time to notice the Columbus Day, in memory of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the America in 1492. Columbus actually arrived on Oct 12, but Columbus Day is set at the second Monday in October, and its date varies by years. Native Americans may not want to thank him for his "discovery", but all the immigrants here should be grateful to him - for bringing a  virgin land to civilization, a rich land to modernization, and a big land for residence. Some states have parades to celebrate the Columbus Day but some don't even acknowledge it. Anyway I checked on internet but didn't find any typical food for this holiday, and obviously neither companies nor schools allow their employees or students to take a day off. So the conclusion is: it's not a popular holiday in the US.

Many holidays in the US sound very young: the Veteran's Day, Martin Luther King's Day, Memorial Day, etc. But they do remind people of milestones in the American history and respectable people in the country. So are holidays in China, though they are now a weird mixture of nostalgic traditional holidays, imported Western festivals and Communist ones. Interestingly, Chinese people tend to memorize and celebrate holidays with profound historical implications rather than the modern ones. For example, we are willing to travel thousands of miles to get back to our families during Spring Festival in spite of the expensive tickets, terribly crowded carriages and poor public security; or staying in the long line in grocery stores to buy Zongzi (a Chinese rice dumpling) for Duanwu and mooncake for Zhongqiu. We say "happy holidays" to each other on these days, and call family members even they are not around. When I was a kid, I enjoyed getting together in my big family, meeting cousins that I hadn't seen for a long time and competed with them on reciting poetry related to the holiday. By contrast, very few people take modern holidays, like National Day or Labor Day seriously. The government does hold ceremonies to celebrate modern ones like the Army's Day or Party's Day, but ordinary people seldom feel culturally connected to them. We travel in National Day holidays because we're given a 7-day vacation for it, but we celebrate traditional ones because they are true holidays. In recent days, young generation start to embrace Western holidays in China more than ever before. Valentine's Day and Christmas are the two most popular ones. Actually it's funny to think of their popularity in China, an atheistic country. But they're never listed as official holidays, but more like means to stimulate consumption and encourage businesses.

My connection to these Chinese traditional holidays was more or less cut off as we relocated to the US. I still celebrate the Spring Festival, Zhongqiu and other important Chinese holidays with Gang and Chinese fellows here, but it's so different from celebrating them in China, where everyone else is doing the same thing as we do. Meanwhile to me, the US holidays are only vacations when we can take days off and plan another road trip, but can hardly evoke my empathy. I guess it's easy to give up old knowledge and accept some universal values, but difficult to abandon culture and tradition.

Parenting

I've been watching Modern Family these days, which is about three related families - how they deal with each other, and more importantly how parents deal with their children. I must say I don't feel confident about becoming a cool parent in the future after watching it. To be a cool parent, you need to understand your children, be sensitive to their emotional demands, but not too sensitive if they don't want so; you need to acquire some sports skills - football (or soccer in the US), basketball and baseball to cope with their constantly changing interests; and you probably even need to be strong enough to take crazy rides at Disneyland with them. To put in short, you have to be omnipotent as they demand, and disappear when you're not in need. What's worse, you pay for your own work.

Gang and I have been talking about pregnancy for a while, and I start to read related books. There seems to be enough problems when you're pregnant, but now I'm reminded that the worse is afterwards. After the short joyful moment of bringing a new life to the world, you start to make all sorts of efforts to raise him/her up in a healthy and happy way. I can hardly picture myself a capable mother, who can understand what infants are trying to express through their waving hands and babbles, teach them a language which is not even my mother tongue, start a conversation on sensitive topics or teach them how to dance in proms. There are simply too many skills to learn to help them grow up, which is almost like having a new growth experience for myself. I've never taken any course on how to bring up an Asian baby in the US, and I have 0-year experience in this field, I can't say I can do it.

Parents never stop worrying. When children are still infants, you worry about whether they will grow up healthily, and watch your words and behaviors to immune them from inappropriate impacts; when they're kids, you worry about whether they can do at least average in schools; when they grow up, you worry about how they deal with their peers, and if they're too close to some of them; and even when they finally get a job and start a family, your pains are not ending - it's time for them to remind you of all the peccadillo you've made during their growths. Sometimes I get frustrated because of the problems out of my control, and I can see how this kind of frustration become more frequently in the future when dealing with an infant, a kid and a teenager.

At the end of the blog, to clarify, first I'm not a control freak, second I'm not pregnant yet. I guess I'm just  a little bit worried about my future baby who's gonna to be raised by two nerdy parents, both of which knowing more about Confucius than "row row row your boat."

Modern Family

Price Hike

Gang and I went to Costco today, and got surprised at the gas price. About two months ago, a fire at a refinery in Richmond pushed the gas price to above $4 per gallon, which was bad enough but we gradually got used to. Recently it seems to get worse - now it's around $4.8 per gallon. Even Costco Gasoline, which has a reputation for offering lower-than-neighbor gas prices charges at $4.4 today. We checked on Google later, and it seems that the gas price has been increasing by 10c per day since Oct 1st due to a blackout of a refinery in Torrance. California is not the only state which suffers from high gas price, but it tops the list by an average price of $4.61 per gallon. If all these changes in price happened two months ago, I'm not sure if we'd still go for the current Honda Accord, or choose a compact with higher MPG at the cost of convenience.

I probably shouldn't be worried since gas price fluctuates all the time, since we may be just not lucky enough to see several accidents hitting the fragile energy system in California. By contrast, the price hike in living goods is more stable and continuous. The price of items at Costco has increased substantially since my first visit. I remember I once bought great cherries at around $1.2 per pound, but this summer the cheapest package asked for $3 per pound. Other daily necessities have increased by a few bucks as well, vegetables and fruits in particular. The straw that breaks the camel's back is Kirkland's caramel almond vanilla ice-cream, which totally changes my consumption preferences for ice-cream. Luckily the cheesecake and tiramisu are still good.

So, high inflation and high unemployment - this is not what Phillip curve told us. (Btw, I don't really buy the idea of the adjusted Phillip curve: you never know where the π* and u* are in the real world!) Maybe the economy is recovering, in an unobservable way; or it's a good idea to have Bernanke to adopt an inflation-targeting policy and get prices fixed first. Whatever it is, things do look good right now. If cities are equipped with good public transportation system, I'm always happy to go by bus pass; but if the government can't have enough buses running, I do not see why people should be happy with paying $4.8 for a gallon.

They Are Back

By "they", I mean The Big Bang Theory, 30 Rock, How I Met Your Mother and 2 Broke Girl. After a long summer break, all these comedies finally came back with the latest season. I've been trying to catch up with the first few episodes these days.

I started to watch American comedies in college, starting with the 10-season Friends. Actually I've watched it for so many times that I'd still remember many dialogues and scenes from the show. Later I watched Growing Pains, a family comedy from 1980s. When I ran out of American comedies and looked for replacement, I found that BBC had produced great (actually even better than its American counterparts) comedies, including the Black Adder, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister. After exhausting comedies, I switched to detective ones, CSI, the Monk, etc. Farah introduced Hulu.com to me weeks after I started school, which provides me with tons of latest episodes ever since: The Simpsons, South Park, The Family Guy, Two and A Half Men, and all the other 20- to 30-min TV shows that bring great joy to me.

Most of my friends joined me in watching these American TV shows when I was in Beijing, hoping to practice English while having some fun. Well, it didn't really work. But I did find them revealing a taste of how lives on the other side of the earth could be like. Feelings became more real after my arrival in the US: I'd tell some scenes in the show (actually it's ironic to talk about "scenes" since most of them are sitcoms). When I was watching the Monk, though I knew it wasn't a top detective TV show, I never missed a episode because I loved the rolling streets in San Francisco and intensive meters. Years after I first watched the Friends, I wandered around the Central Park, and couldn't help thinking lovely young people like Chandler were living in this lively city. Most American TV shows, though not helpful in improving my language skills, familiarized myself with a different culture.

But most American comedies are not comparable to their peers in Britain. I'd rank Black Adder, Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister has occupied my top three comedies for a long time. BBC seems to be better at sarcasm while Americans seem to enjoy humor of everyday life. Thank god I learned some English, therefore I still get things to watch when Chinese TV shows have been sucking for decades.

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Seven

At the end of our trip,  we had a relaxing breakfast, took a quick view of the University of Hawaii and headed for the airport. We learned from the last flight from San Francisco to Kona, ate a big lunch before boarding and brought a large amount of food with us. While waiting at the gate, Gang and I watched the latest episode of "Voice of China."

Gang spent three hours on the flight watching "Pearl Harbor", a movie produced in 2001 in memory of the deaths 60 years ago. I wasn't able to join him because of my eyesight, but I watched it later at home. Better technologies and affluent funding made the battle scenes vivid and thrilling, but the love story only distracted audiences attention from the war and ensnared them in the confusion of the gist of the movie. I decided to watch Tora!Tora!Tora! after it, and Gang joined me in reviewing the Midway later. Wars are a combined result of commanders' intelligence, combat effectiveness and luck. If Japan was too lucky to have the US ignore all the clues and attacked the Pearl Harbor, then the US was also lucky enough to have Japan send out a broken reconnaissance and sunk three carriers in five minutes by the Midway. But no matter which side wins, thousands of lives were killed and millions of tax payers' money were burned in bombs.

It was late when we landed in San Francisco. Gang's flatmate happened to be around and picked us from the airport. I got my new pair of glasses.YES! San Francisco at night looks so clear and beautiful.

When I look back to my one-week trip to Hawaii. It's like a dream - partly because I couldn't see things clearly as if I were dreaming, partly because the view was simply too good to be true. I'd give Hanauma Bay my No.1 experience in Hawaii, and the Volcanoes Park No.2. These two make Hawaii quite worthy of it. On our way to Hawaii, we met a guy on the plane who used to live in Monterey but moved to Big Island a few years ago. He obviously enjoys living by the sea and leads a vacation-like lifestyle. I'm not sure if I'm that into nature - I may complain about the inconvenience of living on a island as well as the high price there; but still, I do envy him.

At Volcanoes Park

At Sandy Beach

At Lapakahi State Historical Park

At USS Missouri

At Waikiki Beach

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Six

The last full day in Hawaii. After a intense day of seeing the east side of Oahu, today we decided to travel around Honolulu - Pearl Harbor in the morning and China town in the afternoon.

After breakfast, we drove north to the Pearl Harbor. Most people know the Pearl Harbor from the Japanese attack in 1941 which started the Pacific War. So do we. Therefore we set "Pearl Harbor" as the destination in GPS, which we thought would be the location of the memorial and museum. We followed the GPS and drove all the way down until we reached a sentry, where a soldier stopped all the cars and checked something from each driver. We waited in the line, seeing every driver showing him a card before moving on. "The security check is strict," I said to myself, "the museum must have some really good stuff." Gang asked me: "Do you know what they are showing to the soldier?" "I'm not sure," I said, "but I think it's an ID card."

Then soon it was our turn. Gang stopped by the soldier and handed over his California driver license. The soldier stared at his driver license for a while, and asked: "Are you visiting the Arizona Memorial?" We said yes. "OK, then you should U-turn and drive back, it's the last exit." Gang took his driver license back and followed the instruction. Almost in a minute we both realized that "Pearl Harbor" was actually the location of a US navy base, and probably only military workers could have access to it. The soldier must have found it very amusing when a Chinese man handed over his driver license for entrance.

We soon arrived at the Arizona Memorial, where we first took a shuttle to USS Missouri, on the deck of which the Japan surrendered in 1945 and brought the WW2 to an end. The battleship was one of the most advanced of its kind, and had well-equipped facilities for its soldiers. But the most exciting finding was the Japanese copy of the 2-page Instrument of Surrender, which because the Canadian representative signed in the wrong place moved down all the rest signatures, and therefore differs from the US copy - the one known to the public.

After the 2-hour visit to the USS Missouri, we went back to the Arizona Memorial, where we first watched a very touching movie, explaining why Japan launched the attack and what happened that day. Three of eight most advanced battleships were sunk and rest were severely damaged; more than two thousands of soldiers died that day. The USS Arizona was hit in its ammunition cabin and exploded soon after, killing more than 1,100 soldiers. The US Pacific fleet suffered great loss, but luckily US carriers hadn't arrived in the Pearl Harbor that day which helped them to revenge in the Mid-way islands years later. The white memorial was constructed above the USS Arizona remains. Even today we could still see gas leaking from the tank, as if it is weeping for its soldiers. I asked Gang if EPA is cool with this, and Gang said it's probably fine.

We left Pear Harbor at noon, sighing at the disaster brought by wars, and drove to China town for lunch. China town used to be very prosperous because it was only a few blocks from the port. But after air transportation developed, the China town started to decline. To us, the China town in Honolulu is specially important because in 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded Society for the Revival of China, which evolved into KMT later. I got an amazing avocado bubble tea, and then we started to look for statue of Sun Yat-sen. We finally found it at a corner, with Sun Yat-sen holding a book facing the sea. Gang happily took photos of him when we both heard a big bang. I looked around but couldn't see anything, then I heard Gang saying, "I need to call 911." It turned out a guy was painting outer walls of his house on a scaffolding but accidently fell down. He was unconscious and a woman cried over him loudly. Gang immediately reported to 911 about the accident and I helped him locate the place. His relatives and friends seemed panic, but luckily the 911 emergency care arrived in about 5 min. The guy remained in coma even then, but I hope he's getting better now.

Later that day, we tried to see sunset at Diamond Head, but it was closed by 6pm. As an alternative, we took apples to the beach and enjoyed the last sun glow with them.

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Five

I thought that we'd be tired after half of the trip, therefore my initial plan was to stay in bed late and went to Polynesia Cultural Center at noon. I'm very glad that we didn't follow my plan. Gang picked a guide book on our way to Waikiki beach yesterday, and decided to stop by Hanauma Bay in the morning. This turned out to be the best decision in our Hawaiian trip.

To see sunrise on the way, we got up at 5:30am and drove to Hanauma Bay right after. Dawn was just breaking, and the rosy clouds started to spread across the sky. Oahu was still quiet and very few autos were running on highway. We reached Hanauma Bay at around 6:30am. The rumor is that Hanauma Bay is so popular that cars may fail to find space in the parking lot if arriving too late - by too late it means after 9am. But that day, we were so early that when we arrived, the parking lot was almost empty! Not only that, no one worked at the ticket entrance, therefore we enjoyed a free visit to Hanauma Bay.

The beach was empty and chilly. We walked around the beach for a while, looking at the skyline and rosy clouds, and waiting for the sun to rise. Gentle lights penetrated through clouds and the sky became more and more bright. However we waited and waited, nothing happened. We double checked the sunrise time, and realized it has already passed, and the only reason for missing the sun was because of the weather - it was cloudy that day. Whoops! Gang and I soon accepted the fact and found a place by a palm, and spread out our towels. I opened a package of cookie and planned to have a quick breakfast, when some uninvited guests - flocks of pigeons traced the smell of food and besieged me. Later I tried chips and macadamia nuts, but it looked like pigeons preferred chocolate cookies. I had a hilarious breakfast with pigeons looking for food scraps around me. Finally Gang rescued me from the encirclement, sealed the food and moved the towel to ten meters away - it didn't really help: when Gang started to eat, pigeons quickly caught the new source of food and flew over to our place again.

When snorkel stalls came to the beach, Gang rented two sets and we started our second snorkeling experience. This one was so much better than the last one. I saw vast coral reefs all over the sands, tons of colorful fishes and turtles swimming around me. Sometimes waves pushed me around, and I relaxed in the tide, diving into schools of fish. Though I couldn't see them very clearly, but I quickly identified the humuhumunukunukuapua'a, a small bright yellow tropical fish in Hawaii. Other fishes whose names remained unknown to me were equally impressive: I once passed a fish with beautiful black and green strips across its body, and a big flat fish with silver scales brightly shining underwater. I had never imagined that I could see such wonderful underwater world in shoals. They all seemed to be within touch, but they also looked so unreal. I took several breaks during snorkeling, either relaxing in the water or going back to the beach. But no matter how many times I went to the beach, I still wanted to go back, just for a while; I never felt I'd seen enough.

But we had to move on. When visitors started to crowd the beach and sun blazed down, we drove north to the Polynesian Cultural Center. On our way there, we made several stops at Sandy Beach Park, a great place for surfing where I was caught in a wave again and got wet; Waimanalo Bay, where we got an amazing view of the ocean and Kailua Bay, which was implied as the best beach in Oahu in one of our guide book. Sometimes I had the illusion of driving along Route 1 in California, except that it was hotter and the sea was more azure.

At around 1pm, we arrived at Polynesian Cultural Center, a man-made cultural village to present different cultures around the Pacific to tourists. Students from a nearby university are actors, showing typical lives of islanders, including Hawaii, Fiji, Samoa, Aotearoa, Tonga and Tahiti. We went to a few shows, where students showed us things like drilling wood to make fires, cooking coconuts, climbing trees, wedding ceremony, etc. It's a shame of them to claim itself as a non-profit organization while charging visitors so high, but it's a good way for students to earn some money for their tuition. Later we had a traditional ali'i Luau (royal feast) accompanied by traditional songs and dances. The food was just average, poor kings! There was also an evening show about the origin of Hawaii. But since I couldn't see anything on the stage, Gang decided to leave early.

An extremely long day, but a fantastic one.

(Leave Hanauma Bay when most people just arrive here)

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Four

Our flight to Oahu was at 12:33pm, which left us a whole morning for sightseeing in the Big Island. Again we got up early in the morning, checked out and drove to a parking lot in Kona. Gang and I took bananas to a pier and ate them up by the sea (we left apples in the car). We saw flocks of silver and black fishes swimming around; and as a bonus to those with glasses, Gang also saw a turtle floating nearby. The pier was quiet in the morning, a few people were driving motorboat, riding wake-boards and parachuting around. By the pier there was a tiny but crowded beach, which is a better choice for families with small children.

When it started to get hot, Gang and I left the unshady pier and wandered along the sea. It was interesting to see glorious sea with its powerful waves and wind on the right, and a busy Kona downtown on the left side. A 15-min walk brought us to a mansion which used to be the residence of a princess. The two-floor house was built by the sea, with big windows in each room so that owners could have a great view anywhere in the house. I wasn't able to capture details of the house, but the scenery out of the window was charming enough to attract all my attention. There I also had my first cup of dark roast Kona coffee.

What did we do after that? Oh yes we returned our car to Alamo in three minutes and took its shuttle to the airport soon after that. I taught Gang a way to tip the driver which I learned from Friends: hide the money in your palm and shake hands with the driver, who shall take the money away when touching it. Gang tried it later in Oahu, and found it an interesting way of saying thank you but avoiding the awkwardness of “paying". The Kona Airport is small with few facilities: there is even no waiting hall in the airport. We waited outside and finished apples there (yes!). An hour later, we boarded a small plane whose seats were not even assigned, and sat far in the back. I think I slept during the whole flight.

After landing in Honolulu, we had a terrible car rental experience with Advantage: an extremely slow shuttle, equally slow check-in process, uninformed deposit and additional articles. We drove to our hotel by Waikiki beach through the traffic in Honolulu, Gang kept introducing things like "financial center", "China town", "luxury", etc. I stared wide eyed around, everything was blurry, but I could vaguely tell sky-crappers, Chinese architectures and bustling pedestrians.

We checked in the hotel, and  took towels to the Waikiki beach two blocks away. The Waikiki beach was separated into four parts by the lengths of breakwaters. The one on the north end has no breakwater and therefore the strongest waves, with crowds surfing; the one on the south end has a long breakwater which almost closes the beach, and many kids are practicing swimming with life buoys there. I learned my lesson, left my glasses (actually Gang's glasses) on the beach and ran to a half-closed beach, where Gang taught me doggy paddling. Waikiki beach wasn't good as I had expected, mainly because of the crowds there; but it's still one of the best beaches I've been to - great facilities, clean and soft sands, and different levels of waves for different kinds of water sports. After sunset, people sat around a big banyan tree, under which a concert was about to take place. We joined them, but unfortunately it soon started to rain, and the concert was cancelled. We again witnessed the capricious weather in Hawaii.

The fourth day was a long day, but we had the best dinner of our journey that night. We walked along the road, looking for restaurants while checking their ratings on Yelp. There was a Japanese buffet one block away and the price looked reasonable. However the rating was terribly low. One of the reviews says, as I quote, "I give it one star because it's clean." We ended up with a seafood restaurant, where I ordered steamed clams and Gang ordered sauteed shrimp. Yummy! Btw I want to apologize at the end of this blog that I talk so much about food - it shouldn't be the focus of our trip; however I have good reasons to write so much about food: it was the only thing that I could see clearly in Hawaii...

Impressionist Hawaii - Day Three

The third day was relaxing. Our original plan was to see some historic sites, however the natural landscape again attracted most of our attention and we ended spending more time sitting by the sea, hardly remembering anything about the history of the Big Island.

We drove north to Puukohola Heiau National Historic Site early in the morning. It was a temple built to the war god when the king planned to unite Hawaii in late 1700s. (He actually conquered other islands four years after the completion of the temple.) The temple was very simple and crude, similar but much smaller and shorter than the Great Wall built in 200BC. Therefore it wasn't impressive at all. But by the temple there was a bay where people used to worship the god of shark. Usually sharks don't appear in shallow bays, but this one is an exception. We were told by the ranger that sometimes they could still see sharks in the bay in early morning. Though unfortunately we didn't see anything similar to a triangle on the water after waiting for quite a while. Another historic site, Lapakahi State Historical Park is only a few miles away. It used to be a fishing village in the 14th century. Now the stone houses are still well preserved. We sat by the sea and saw many fish in flocks by the seashore. It probably was not a bad job to live as a fisherman in Hawaii before.

The highlight of the day was actually our lunch. A travel guide suggested us to eat at either Bamboo which was closed on that day, or Rainbow Cafe which we failed to locate on GPS. (It turned out that Rainbow Cafe was renamed to King's Cafe five years ago. What an old book I was reading!) So Gang checked with Kohala Visitor Center and went to a family restaurant called Minnie's which serves good local food. I ordered Mahi-Mahi, but Gang couldn't decide which dish he would like. Then the owner suggested him to try a combo, by which she meant "I will give you a little bit of everything." Both Gang and I were surprised when the lunch was served: she gave Gang a big piece of fried pork chop, a bowl of roasted beef and three big pieces of Ono. Actually the food was so much that she couldn't even put them in one plate but to offer two extra bowls. I got mine soon: a plate with four big overlaying pieces of Mahi-Mahi, one piece of which was big enough to make a single meal. Anyway, Gang and I laughed at her generous definition of "a little bit" for a long time.

To digest the big lunch, we went to Pololu Valley in the afternoon, where we did the toughest hike of our trip. Well it wasn't really that bad. We hiked to the valley from the cliff, walked through the moist forest and rested by the sea. The sun was shining hard on our way down to the valley, but the rain started when we went back. We ran to the car and tried to wipe the water away. A few minutes later, the rain went away, leaving us in the car, wet like drowned cats. The weather here is so capricious, a cloud can change a sunny day to a stormy one in a few seconds. But in the patter of rains, we finally enjoyed a flavor of coolness on this tropical island. Sweaty and tired, we drove back to the hotel before sunset, and decided to stay in the air-conditioned room for the rest of the day - a very good decision.

The volcanoes park and historic sites were basically what I "saw" in the Big Island. The splendid black lava, roaring sea and rugged rocks are one of the most spectacular views that I've ever seen.

(a little bit of beef)