Found myself in the Orange County area the other day, so I thought what the hey, I'd stop by the old Nixon place. Just so happens that was the week of the 31st anniversary of his trip to China. The Library has a special exhibit commemorating the trip that's on display through May 26. Great stuff. What I found most interesting were several declassified top-secret documents on display which showed that the US knew of the severity of the USSR-China split as early as 1963. But the US still refused to change its China policy. Even Nixon thought it was a ruse. So the supposed 'groundbreaking' trip he did nine years later was just confirmation of a completely erroneous US foreign policy with regards to China. The jackball politicians preferred not to listen to their intelligence reports or the China experts. So what else is new? General Joseph Stilwell and old China hands in the US Foreign Service, like John Service and John Davies, had been telling the US pretty much the same thing since the early 1940s. One thing about the Nixon Library--it is COLD!!! There's a reason for that, you know. Once your body temperature reaches a certain point the brain begins to shut down to conserve heat. My theory is the good folks running the library want to numb the visitors' brains so that powers of critical reasoning and analytical ability cannot function properly. By the time you hit the Watergate section you have no more independent thought capacity left. You belong to them. One thing you should know I guess, Gen. Stilwell is one of the persons I most admire. The PRC has even dedicated a museum to him at his old wartime Chongqing residence not too far from where "Peanut" kept his headquarters. I tried to pay homage last summer while I was visiting Chongqing, but damned if the place wasn't closed for a three-month renovation. Chongqing is a huge city in southwest China. It used to be part of Sichuan province, but in 1997 it became a municipality directly adminstered by the central government--think Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, etc. Anyway, the book to read about General Stilwell is the classic "Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945 by Barbara W. Tuchman. A truly great man.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 2/26/2003 06:59:00 AM| |

 
My friend and I did end up meeting for the fight, but we watched it at Hooters. Usually they have some kind of outrageous cover for a fight, like $20, but tonight was free. After the knockout in about the 40th second of the first round I could see why. Etienne was a tomato can. But we had fun anyway.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 2/23/2003 03:42:00 PM| |

 
Saturday is by far the best day of the week. Just kicking back at home watching some college hoops--my beloved Oregon Ducks are clawing their way back in the game against Washington. GO DUCKS!!! I may be watching the Mike Tyson fight later tonight if my friend (met him when we were undergrads at UO) comes through--he supposedly knows someone who may be getting the fight and then we'll go over to watch. People at my law school have earned my undying enmity due to their overall lameness. Like the big Del La Hoya v. Vargas fight last Fall--I tried in vain to round up some guys to split the cost of the pay-per-view. Would've cost $5 each as opposed to $20 apiece at a sports bar. But these apathetic, lead-in-their-asses just couldn't get up the energy to get off their duffs. And it turned out to be a great fight. But that's what law school does to people. It deadens drive and initiative, and most of all spontaneity. Look at the lawyers you know. Chances are they are overweight, self-centered, careful, anal assholes. They probably weren't like that before law school, or at least not that bad. They deserve your pity as much as your disgust. I only hope things work out the way I am planning so I might avoid that fate. More to come. I picked up a book today by one of the speakers I wrote about who visited our campus Friday. His name is Yu Haocheng, and he is a 77 year old scholar-in-residence here. His book is called Renquan yu xianzheng or "On Human Rights and Constitutionalism". Haven't had the chance to start it yet, but he's just another one of those sad cases of Chinese intellectuals in exile. He was almost 70 when the Chinese authorities finally allowed him to leave, and I doubt they'll ever let him return. The pity is that he was really too old after he arrived in this country to master English well enough to teach a class so all that's left for him is the occasional conference. I'm taking a poli-sci class since our law school allows us to take up to two classes outside the legal curriculum. The class is about the foreign relations of China, and has the potential to be extremely interesting. I've found it ok up to know, but it disheartens me to see the lack of enthusiasm of the professor. This guy just finished defending his PhD--he's doing a post-doc here now waiting for something more permanent to come up. Most of the 85 students in this class do not know very much about China. Although I have a rather extensive China background I haven't studied much about its foreign relations, which is why I'm in the class. I think it's important to impart one's passion for one's specialty to students, many of whom are being exposed to the subject for the first time. So I've posted things up to our class discussion board--interesting relevant websites concerning China, the documentary from PBS, etc. And I've asked this professor to mention these things in class for those who might be interested. But he has this resigned attitude that it'd be a waste of time, the students don't care, blah, blah, blah. He didn't even mention the fact that Wang Dan and Wang Juntao were speaking at our school that week, and he had just finished lecturing about them for chrissakes. This type of attitude from a professor new to the profession is unfathomable to me. It's not like he's been teaching all his life and he's burnt out. He's a fairly young guy--I'm pretty sure I'm older than he is. But he acts like my Contract professor. Just going through the motions until he reaches the magic number. Well, he's not quite that bad but it is frustrating. And who knows how many potential future China hands he's turning off. US-China relations will only increase in importance and it's vital we get fresh young blood into the field so we might finally have some people making China policy who actually understand Chinese society rather than these jackballs we have now who view China as a 'strategic competitor' or some kind of 'threat'. Bollocks. Well, halftime's over so back to the game.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 2/23/2003 09:26:00 AM| |

 
We had a special panel today at school concerning "Constitutionalism and China". It was great because two renowned Chinese dissidents attended--Wang Dan and Wang Juntao. It became quite the rage for a while in the West to rag on the June 4 dissidents, and it is apparent that some of them are attempting to distance themselves from the heady idealism of that time, except of course, when exploiting their fame from Tiananmen can help make a buck. For most people this brings Chai Ling and Wu'er Kaixi to mind. If you haven't seen it yet, "The Gates of Heavenly Peace" is Must See TV. It's true Chai Ling doesn't exactly come out smelling like a rose in this, but they did give her plenty of opportunities to tell her side of the story, which she declined to do. And just between you, me and the lamp-post, I have friends who knew her while she was at Princeton who have related certain things which tend to confirm the documentary's portrayal. Wu'er Kaixi comes off somewhat more sympathetically because he evinces true remorse about how the sudden fame and notoriety went to his head. His guilt about his role in the events which lead to so many tragic deaths strikes me as genuine. He's now got a gig as a radio talkshow host in Taiwan. He lives in Taichung, one of my old stomping grounds, and strangely enough is good friends with one of my best Taiwanese buds. I haven't ever heard his show, but he can't be any worse than Rush Lamebrain Limbaugh and his legions of shittoheads. Anyway, Wang Dan and Wang Juntao are the real thing. They did not try to flee the country but remained to face the music, standing up for what they believed in and never backing down. They both did some serious jail time on several occasions and continued to agitate for political reform after the government released them upon completion of their initial sentences. In other words, these cats are worthy of admiration. It was nice to be able to meet them. They've started up a new organization in the US with the aim of promoting the idea of Constitutionalism in China as a way of bringing about a freer, more open society. One undercurrent I got from both Wangs and the other two speakers is that they believe Chinese 'liberal' intellectuals will play a prominent role in acting as the impetus for this change. Personally, I just don't see that happening. The intellectual in China is pretty much an impotent force nowadays. First it was the effects of the Tiananmen repression by the government and later it was just the economic boom that simply left them behind. In the first place, intellectuals are completely almost marginalized in Chinese society these days. The government is not the only culprit. These guys are usually professors, and they receive frighteningly low salaries. They lecture to half-empty classes--the students are all out working at some internet start-up or software company. The youth put political issues fairly low on their list of priorities--they are all about chasing the jack--the almighty renminbi. Second, those intellectuals that do openly agitate for reform at some point inevitably wind up in jail. They then become human bargaining chips in the never-ending soap opera between the US and Chinese governments--the US bitches about China's human rights, threatens some kind of economic sanctions, and so China releases the token dissident--or China needs to sway international public opinion to get something like the Olympics so they let out a few famous activists. You get the picture. So any intellectual that wants to do any meaningful work is pretty much forced into exile where they eventually languish in ever-increasing obscurity at some American university or think-tank. Meanwhile, China chugs along and the intellectuals become ever more irrelevant as Chinese society leaves them behind. This, of course, is exactly what the Chinese government wants.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 2/22/2003 09:09:00 AM| |

 
Ok, I've been trying to become more acquainted with this html stuff, but it ain't going so well. I'm a slow learner. For instance, I want to add a 'comment' tool but right now my attempts are futile and FUBAR (army term--will translate on request). But I have put my email address up in the site description, so feel free to contact me if you have any questions/concerns/comments about what you see here. Now it's off to class--oh joy. It's much later so I'm back. So listen--if you have any interest in China (this is probably my major life-fascination which should become abundantly clear over the course of my realm's blog) or if you have the misfortune to have gotten all your views and/or impressions of China from the god-awful US media, there is finally hope for you. PBS Frontline has produced a marvelous documentary entitled: China in the red. The entire broadcast, plus some other commentary is available online. Finally, a fairly well-balanced picture of that great civilization--yeah, the film-maker has her biases, but she really does a bang-up job of showing the complexities and contradictions tugging at the society. So consider this an order from your prince and move it on over to: China documentary. you'll be glad you did. The show is around 115 minutes.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 2/21/2003 02:47:00 AM| |

 
I am a 3L in my final semester of law school. It is a top 20 school, but I don't think I should reveal which one until after I graduate---not that I'm too paranoid about the administration, but you never know what kind of tricks they might pull. But never fear, I will reveal all once the sheepskin is safely in hand. Some of you may be considering law school yourselves, especially now that the economy has tanked and people are fleeing to the (relative) safe harbors of grad/professional schools. I know the applications at my school have increased some 60%. My one piece of advice to all of you is simply this: go to THE HIGHEST RANKED school that accepts you. I can't emphasize this enough, especially in this job market. I tell you from experience. When I applied to law school in 2000, the economy was sailing along. As long as you got into a decent school you had nothing to worry about. The 3Ls from my first year all had great jobs lined up (well, around 90% of them). Guess what that figure is for my graduating class? I don't know for sure, but I think it is well under 50%. I passed up attending a top-eight school to come here. I did so primarily for personal reasons, and in any event, everyone was getting a job at the time. Big mistake. All it takes is for a recession to hit and then you see the snobbery and elitism creep out of the woodwork. Not that this is a shabby school--it's not. But in times like these firms love that rep appeal. So you damn well better be law review or in the top 20% of your class to have a prayer. As for me, I think this blog will come to show that my interests lie outside of law anyway--I pretty much found that out early in my first year. So enough of my rant. I guess that's not the most optimal way to start this thing off. But if you take away anything from my little speech it should be that you should not fall for the hype or spin that these schools will try to fob on you--don't go for the school claiming it has this or that concentration or externship program. All that matters to the firms are your 1L grades and these are from the same courses in every US law school. The firms are going to look at your school first followed closely by your grades. They don't care if your school has, say, a great international business law curriculum. Yeah, it's nice, but it is not the dealmaker. Your firm will teach you everything it wants you to know anyway. So again, go to the highest-ranked school that accepts you Final note: the previous rant only applies to schools outside of the top five. If you are fortunate enough to get into one of those safehouses you can pretty much write your own ticket as long as you can out-think the average box of rocks.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 2/20/2003 01:31:00 PM| |