Russia and China: Comparing Beets and [Mandarin] Oranges Adam of Brainy Smurf responds to an article by Nick Kristof of the NY Times who wonders why China appears to be so successful compared with Russia. Kristof ends up swallowing the PRC explanation hook, line and sinker---that China succeeded because it implemented economic reforms while maintaining strict political control. That is certainly how the PRC government perceives it and it is what they would like everyone to believe; but that rationale is overly simplistic, and frankly, inaccurate. I would argue China and Russia are two completely different cases and simply cannot be compared. While the autocratic nature of the PRC regime certainly played a role in the achievements of the economic reforms, it wasn't the only reason, and I don't believe it is the main reason. The road for Russia would have been much harder and uncertain no matter what course it chose. China, on the other hand, had five peculiarly inherent advantages that many analysts neglect. I'll briefly explain them as I see things and then open the mike for further discussion. Feel free to agree or disagree to your hearts content in the comments section. And please add other factors I may have overlooked. Factor One: Cultural Homogeneity This is probably the most straightforward factor of all. Why did the USSR collapse? Mainly because it consisted of several ethnic minority republics that the USSR absorbed through military force. They had nothing in common historically or culturally with the European Russians and deeply resented rule by what they considered an occupying army/culture. The latter point also applies to the European states the USSR consumed in the final stages of WWII. The USSR exploited them for natural resources, used their lands for toxic dumping sites and nuclear tests among other things. No wonder they broke away at the first opportunity. With the exception of Tibet and Xinjiang, China is now basically homogeneous, both ethnically and culturally. Its present borders have been established since the Qing dynasty, and largely well before that. I always get a chuckle when I read certain Western doomsday prognosticators who warn that China could possibly implode and split into several regions. This is somewhat bizarre reasoning. Even if by some miracle Tibet and Xinjiang were able to break away, the Han have such an ingrained sense of cultural identity that China proper would remain largely intact. What about Tibet and Xinjiang? That's a topic for another day, but of the two, only Xinjiang (or parts of it) ever has a realistic hope of secession. Tibet? Not a chance. Factor Two: Cold War Geopolitics The USSR went bankrupt because it lost the Cold War arms race. The PRC was never a part of that, especially in the 1970-80s. In fact, Nixon and Kissinger went out of their way to reassure the Chinese that the US did not consider them part of the Soviet hegemony, words we backed up by supplying the Chinese with significant military intelligence concerning USSR troop movements and positions along the Chinese border. So China was spared having to devote an inordinate amount of GNP to its defense budget unlike the Soviets. The US has always held a rather odd, patronizing view of the Chinese that dates from the missionary period of the late 19th century. The US was the only Western nation that returned all its Boxer Rebellion indemnities back to China in the form of funds to establish universities, hospitals and scholarships for Chinese to study in the US. Even during the revolution there was a genuine reluctance to consider the CCP as truly communist---hence FDR's description of the 1930s CCP as mere 'agrarian reformers'. Even Reagan referred to the PRC in the 1980s as the 'so-called communists'. This explains much of the US negative reaction of disbelief after Tiananmen---it was merely an extension of an overly romantic view of China and especially of Deng Xiaoping---we seemed shocked to discover China is an actually an authoritarian state. Factor Three: Foreign Investment The old CCP adage 'without the communist party there would be no new China' is in sore need of revision. I suggest they update it to 'without foreign investment there would be no new China'. This is by far the single most important factor in China's transformation. Without the boom of foreign investment from the West (including Japan, Taiwan and South Korea) that began in the 1980s China simply would not be anywhere close to where it is now, full stop. China was uniquely situated to take advantage of foreign investment for a number of reasons. It enjoys an abundance of optimal coastal ports, the Yangtze (Changjiang), Shanghai, and of course its proximity to Hong Kong. Once China opened up it could count on the foreigners to come in droves and that is precisely what happened. The Chinese are expert at manipulating long-held Western fantasies of the China market, ever since the days of Lord MacCartney. The old saying used to be 'if I could only sell one can opener to every Chinaman' is now a bit more sensitively rephrased as 'if I could only sell one can of coke to every Chinese'. The words may have changed, but the dream hasn't died and the Chinese know it. That's how they effectively broke the will of the US when we attempted to lead a global effort to punish the Chinese through economic means after Tiananmen. By 1992, after Deng's "Journey to the South" (nanxun) it was back to business as usual. Factor Four: Role of the United States The US held concrete foreign policy objectives that dovetailed quite nicely with its economic policy. These all worked to China's benefit. The US has consistently favored China ever since the reforms by maintaining largely open markets for Chinese goods. In this sense the US followed the same policy it did first for Japan then later Taiwan and South Korea---all part of its general Cold War strategy to establish superiority of the capitalist market-driven US system. At peak years I think US market has accounted for about 40% of China's exports. In the 1980s PRC conservatives came up with a criticism of the US policy they called 'peaceful evolution'. The theory held that the US was trying to undermine the regime through econ/cultural contacts. In a sense that is true: the econ reforms and contact with the West have definitely transformed Chinese society and this is exactly what the US hopes will happen. It is an ingenious and largely defense-proof approach. In fact, in my opinion China is now pursuing the same strategy with regards to Taiwan. Factor Five: Overseas Chinese This factor can't be overstated. Chinese are renowned for the cultural characteristic that no matter where they go in the world they maintain close ties to their native place. The PRC has obtained invaluable assistance from overseas Chinese who have transmitted untold sums of money to relatives back home, returned to work in China for foreign companies, or started their own businesses that tap the China market. This continues even today, as the hundreds of thousand of Chinese students who have received advanced educations and remained in the West since 1978 establish their careers and make their marks, all while playing an active role in China's emergence as a modern nation. Not to mention the inestimable number of Chinese laborers around the world, legal and not, doing the same. China has reaped the benefit of emigres' know-how, which has eased its transition into a globally dominant market economy. So I believe a combination of all these factors offer a more straightforward and rational explanation of why China 'made it' and Russia has not (yet). Indeed, it might be a bit premature to write off the Russians as failures, and it may well be they are building viable institutions that will pay off down the road. In any case, like the title implies, we're talking apples (well, Russians are better known for beets) and oranges here. This all leads to the inevitable question of what the future holds for China---something on the minds of every China watcher. The CCP is aiming for a Singaporean model that allows for a one-party monopoly on power while permitting significant economic freedoms in exchange for superficial obedience. But I think that approach is doomed to failure; in short, I believe the PRC is more likely to follow a variant of the Taiwan model, and I hope to post more of my thoughts on this later. But today is the opening day of college football, and so it's time to get on with more important matters! GO DUCKS!!!
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/31/2003 03:50:00 AM| |

 
The Korean peninsula is grabbing all the headlines in the past couple of days because of the talks going on in Beijing, but how many of you are aware that July 27th marked the 50th anniversary since the 'end' of the Korean War? It was a savagely bloody conflict which in just three years of fighting saw the US sustain more than 37,000 fatalities. The Koreas, both North and South, suffered several million dead (civilian and military) and the PRC 'volunteer' army endured close to one million casualties by some estimates. By the end of the war most Americans couldn't wait to get out of there and return home, especially POWs, but one of the most bizarre moments of the Cold War occurred when 21 US POWs refused to be repatriated. They wanted to live in Maoist China. I've always been intrigued by these men and what possessed them to do it. At the time, the US media reported that the "Chicoms" must have brainwashed these 'turncoats', but is the answer really such a simplistic one? Almost all returned to the US within a few years and unfortunately most of them are deceased now. Apparently only one, James Veneris, is still in China. One of you guys there should look him up; he must have some amazing stories. Recently the Seattle Times published a report detailing the fates of the 21, and while the link has expired I was able to locate a cached 'snapshot'. Here it is: Where are they now? New lives, old secrets By The Associated Press Twenty-one American soldiers captured during the Korean War shocked the nation by defecting to communist China. Here's what happened to some of them in the intervening years: --Clarence Adams of Memphis, Tenn., who was black, said he chose China because he was fed up with discrimination in the United States. He studied at Wuhan University in China, where he met his future wife, Lin, a Russian-language instructor. The couple returned quietly to the United States in 1966 and opened a chop-suey house in 1970. Adams died in 1999. --Howard Gayle Adams, originally of Corsicana, Texas, worked in a factory in China. According to fellow defector Morris Wills, he was jailed for a time early on for trying to leave. He has repeatedly refused interview requests. --Otho Bell worked on a collective farm in China and returned to the United States in 1955. He was jailed for three months. He reportedly suffered from a drinking problem after returning home and had several brushes with the law. He died last July. --Richard Corden returned in 1958, proclaiming he still favored communism and expected it would eventually overtake the United States. He stayed for a time in California, then made his way back across the country toward his home state of Rhode Island. He relied partly on handouts from friends to pay his way. His mother had lost track of him by 1965. --Rufus Elbert Douglas, originally of Texon, Texas, died a few months after entering China. Reports about the cause of death varied, but all pointed to illness. --John Roedel Dunn was from Baltimore and attended college there. While living in China, he married a Czechoslovakian woman, and they later moved to that communist country. AP could not locate him. --Andrew Fortuna quit school after the eighth grade. He was a World War II veteran and married to a Japanese woman. He earned two Bronze stars in Korea before being captured in 1950. He returned from China in 1957. His last known residence was in Inkster, Mich. He died in 1984. --Lewis Griggs was sent to work on a collective farm in China and returned to the United States in 1955 with Bell and William Cowart. The three were jailed for three months. In 1959, he was a senior at Stephen Austin College, majoring in sociology. He died in 1984. --Samuel Hawkins returned to the United States and studied to become a physician's assistant. Originally from Oklahoma, he married and had children. --Arlie Pate worked in a paper factory in China and returned to the States in 1956 with fellow defector Aaron Wilson. He died in 1999. --Scott Rush returned to the United States with his Chinese wife and young child. He is now retired in the Midwest. Rush said he is doing well but declined to be interviewed at length because of concern about his friends and neighbors learning of his past. He said he didn't want to be called a traitor again. --Lowell Skinner was from Akron, Ohio, and helped raise his five siblings. He left China in the 1960s and eventually lived in San Bernardino, Calif. He died in 1995. --Larance Sullivan grew up in Nebraska. He left China in 1958 and was hospitalized several times after returning to the United States. He died last November. --Richard Tenneson left China in December of 1955. He settled for a time in Minneapolis, where he volunteered with the junior Chamber of Commerce. His last residence was in Utah. He died last August. --James Veneris still lives in China and travels abroad. Known by the Chinese name Lao Wen, he was accused by Red Guards of counterrevolution in the 1960s and for a time he was forced into hard labor. He has said life improved after President Nixon visited China in 1972. He has spent time in the United States, but finds himself something of a misfit here. --Harold Webb married a Polish woman while in China, and they moved to Poland in 1960. He returned to the United States on a temporary visa in the 1980s and petitioned the State Department to stay. Initially, federal authorities declined his request but reversed the decision in 1988. Webb is believed to be living in the southern United States. --William White studied Chinese and earned a bachelor's degree in international law in Beijing. He returned to the U.S. in 1965 with his Chinese wife and two children. He later worked at a farm in upstate New York. The AP could not locate him. Copyright 2003 The Seattle Times Company The first time I heard of these guys was back in the late 1980s, right when I first began to have an interest in the Korean War. I thought the stories of these men would make a great subject for a book, as that period of Chinese history is particularly absorbing and it would offer a fascinating angle to examine it from their perspectives. It's too late for that now, but Virginia Pasley wrote a contemporary account entitled: 21 Stayed: The Story of the American GI's Who Chose Communist China--Who They Were and Why They Stayed (1955). And one of the POWs, Morris Wills, wrote an autobiography after he returned to the US: Turncoat: An American's 12 Years in Communist China (1966). I haven't read either of these books, but the UCLA library appears to have copies and I'll try to pick them up next week.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/29/2003 03:20:00 PM| |

 

How many of you got to see Mars tonight? The last time it was this close, about 60,000 years ago, we were probably all enjoying (or not) our previous incarnations as Neanderthals! Too bad for you if you missed it---the next time it'll be this neighborly is in 2287. We just got done taking a look from the top of the same parking structure where we saw the July Fourth fireworks. At first I wasn't sure if we would be able to see much---LA must have the world's worst light pollution. You can see LA way out at sea from Catalina Island (about 25 miles away) as this huge amorphous blob of light on the horizon. But there Mars was, hanging up in the sky just like a bright orange thumb tack. If the Martians are smart they'll launch their invasion armada tonight. It's the perfect time to take over the Earth. I don't see the US putting up much of a fight---we are a tad overextended and our human opponents are giving us more than enough trouble. But you have to figure it'll take the Martians at least three months to get here, which would be late November. And that's when SARS will most likely reappear. So 'bring 'em on', says I. Anyway, be sure to check out the Hubble Space Telescope site for some great pictures, including the one I stole (not---"Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government" according to Section 105 of the Copyright Act).
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/28/2003 01:00:00 PM| |

 
I've got a dilemma and it's making me quite uncomfortable. In an apartment down from ours lives a Chinese couple with at least two children. I've never met them, but I've heard them plenty. This is because the woman has an extreme temper and she often berates her children in a very loud voice. It has been loud enough to wake me up in the past. This morning, for example, I could hear her screaming lividly at her child even though our door was closed and we live on the other side of the hall. I passed by their door to see what was up because I was on my way out. The door was shut but she was screeching at the top of her lungs---northern Mandarin, very shrill, very horrible words. I had to go catch the bus for class and when I went downstairs I noticed a little girl huddling at the bottom, looking up in consternation and fear. She had on her little elementary school backpack. I'm guessing this is one of the children and she was waiting for her mom to finish venting her rage against her sibling and take her to school. I felt horrible but I didn't know what else to do---other than the yelling there were no sounds of violence so I don't think this woman is physically abusive. The girl outside had no obvious marks, though I'm aware that is not a reliable indicator. I'm going to keep an eye on the situation, but can severe verbal scolding cross the line to child abuse? I didn't take family law during law school so I don't have a clue. I'm also wondering about the cultural context---there are different norms of parenting although I'm not suggesting this is a Chinese norm. At what point, if any, should I intervene? Please respond if you have any experience in these matters. We all read the horror stories in the papers about intrusive do-gooder citizens who 'interfere' with parents disciplining their children, or how bureaucratic and dictatorial Children's Services can be, but isn't the main issue the health and welfare of the child? And even if the kid is an absolute brat, is this mother's method the right way to go about modifying the child's behaviour?
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/27/2003 03:12:00 AM| |

 
Cry Me A River, Liu Xiaoqing

The woman on the left is in the news again. Recognize her? If you are a Chinese film buff you should. Her name is Liu Xiaoqing (刘晓庆). She is from Fuling 涪陵 in Sichuan province, a town just east of Chongqing (actually I think it's now part of Chongqing Municipality). She used to be one of China's most famous actresses before she left the entertainment world to create a business empire. She had many great roles, but my personal favorite was her portrayal of the doufu vendor in the 1986 classic Furong Zhen 芙蓉镇. Truly one of the greatest Chinese films of all time. Jiang Wen played the male lead. In the early 1990s she quit the movies and decided to 'go to sea' 下海 xiahai [refers to people leaving their professions to go into business] along with about 200 million other people. She started her own fashion and cosmetic lines among other ventures. Apparently she was a tad more successful than most, because she climbed as high as #46 on the 1999 Forbes Most Wealthy Chinese list. But she forgot one minor detail---her tax bill. Arrested in July of 2002, she allegedly evaded more than $US 1.2 million in taxes. The government ended up auctioning eighteen of her homes and apartments in January 2003, raising $US798,600. Anyway, she's just gotten paroled after stewing in jail for more than a year. Today's print edition of the Zhong Guo Daily News carried a report in which her lawyer related that she plans to write a book about her experience called "My Time in Prison" 我在狱中 Wo zai yu zhong. You have to admire her moxie---I'm sure she'll earn enough from this book to replace her 18 homes and then some. Liu says she held up pretty well, suffering only a minor case of gastritis. She kept in shape by jogging 40 minutes a day. She also plans to reveal her side of her legal difficulties. To hear Liu tell it, she had nothing whatsoever to do with not paying her income taxes: "I was rarely at the company, most of the time I was on location shooting films. I had no idea we had tax problems. In order to cheat on your taxes you have to consciously cheat, but I didn't do that. I had no idea at all. If the tax authorities had told me what I owed I would have paid it, whatever the amount." You get the idea. She'd have us believe that she's an innocent victim, an artist completely unwise to the ways of business. There's only one small problem with that story. In 1995 she wrote a book called 我的自白路:从电影明星到仡万富姐儿 Wode zibai lu: cong dianying mingxing dao yiwan fu jie'er [My confession: From movie star to woman of immense fortune]. I bought this book a few years ago in China and the whole thing is 540 pages of Liu Xiaoqing telling us how great and lihai 利害 she is. The world of film was simply too limiting for a woman of her incredible ability. Only in business could she fully develop her potential and so she dove right in, kicked ass and took names. She spares no amount of pages to let us know how involved she was in every aspect of her company's success. Quite a different picture than the unsophisticated figurehead she's trying to paint herself as now. In a way she's lucky she's in China because I seriously doubt she could pull her hard luck stunt here. But then again, in the US all she'd need is a good tax lawyer. Doesn't the saying go: "Only the poor pay taxes"? UPDATE: an alert reader emailed me to say I may have confused the characters for the Chinese term lihai 利害 in this post. He suggests the correct characters may in fact be 厉害. He raises a really good point and in fact I've always found the usage somewhat confusing. Both terms have the exact same pronounciation. The one I used means 'shrewd' or 'sharp'. I chose this because in her book Liu Xiaoqing engages in shameless chuiniu 吹牛 [literally: blow the cow; figuratively: blow one's own horn] for several hundred pages about her business acumen and all-around self-promotion. The other phrase means more like 'fierce', 'formidable'. All this according to my dictionary printed in Taiwan. But then when I looked in my most trusted Mainland reference, the New Age Chinese-English Dictionary (新时代汉英大词典) for the characters in my version of lihai it said to see the other 'lihai'. The upshot is that now I am thoroughly confused and have no idea what in the world I am trying to say.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/24/2003 04:10:00 PM| |

 
Are Eco-Activists 'Terrorists'? So LA had a terrorist attack of its very own! Early this morning the Earth Liberation Front torched a SUV/Humvee dealership in the suburb of West Covina about 35 minutes from my house. Read AP's account here. Can you believe they have their own website? At first when I heard the news report refer to them as domestic 'terrorists' I was a bit skeptical. It seems like the media calls every fringe group terrorist; even normal citizens protesting the government, like in the initial stages of the Iraq war, run the risk of being labeled 'terrorists' nowadays. Next I went and looked up the legal definition of domestic terrorism. You'll find it in the US Code, Title 18, Chapter 113B, Section 2331 (bold hilights mine): (5) the term ''domestic terrorism'' means activities that - (A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State; (B) appear to be intended - (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States. According to the letter of the law this group definitely meets the definition of 'terrorist', although I believe there is an important distinction with regards to attacks directed towards property as opposed to those on innocent human life. It's harder for me to consider 'terrorist' an organization that in the middle of the night vandalizes/destroys SUVS or burns a condo construction site than a group that blows up a metro bus during rush hour, even though the former could certainly be an act 'dangerous to human life'. Obviously I don't condone such methods by the Earth Liberation Front or any other group. Wanton destruction of property is a criminal act and there are many laws proscribing it. I'm just not convinced it is necessarily 'terrorist'. But this sticky problem may resolve itself once and for all if you live in the Pacific Northwest: back in March an Oregon state senator introduced SB 742, a bill that created an Oregon state crime of terrorism and would punish by life imprisonment: "a person who knowingly plans, participates in or carries out any act that is intended, by at least one of its participants, to disrupt (emphasis mine) (a) The free and orderly assembly of the inhabitants of the State of Oregon; (b) Commerce or the transportation systems of the State of Oregon; or (c) The educational or governmental institutions of the State of Oregon or its inhabitants." In other words, under this bill, exercising your First Amendment rights means you are a terrorist in Oregon. The bill is still laboring through committee. Should this monstrosity ever pass and become law I expect the courthouse will receive the filing papers for a lawsuit no later than about five seconds after the governor's signature dries.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/23/2003 02:42:00 PM| |

 
The Belittling of the Chinese Consumer My brother-in-law got married not too long ago and they will hold the wedding banquet in November. My wife will return to Chengdu for the festivities at that time. The couple's meipo ý�� (matchmaker; go-between) has asked her to bring back a digital video camera and she'll give us the money for it there. This brings up an interesting observation: I've known many Mainlanders who've visited the US and they always seem to go back with armloads of electronics. My wife says this is because Japanese/US//European companies dump their crappiest merchandise on the Chinese consumers and so those Chinese lucky enough to get a visa to the US or other western country do their shopping here to get the latest models. In fact, many Chinese are fond of saying that there are four grades of product quality. Japan and the US get the highest quality items, next is Europe, then Southeast Asia and last are the Chinese, who get the dregs. I don't know if this is true or not, but that is what many Chinese believe. It certainly was the case up to the mid 1990s. My question for those of you in China: Is this phenomenon really still going on? If so it doesn't make much sense. Maybe people with an econ background can take a stab at this. In the first place China is crawling with people who have serious money to burn. People there have more disposable income than ever before and the amount seems to be increasing exponentially. So why don't the electronics companies sell the highest quality gadgets? Secondly, I would think that even if the companies are worried about sales volume they could more than make up for it due to the fact that the Chinese nouveau riche have practically redefined the meaning of 'ostentatious consumerism'. Many of these guys wear the ridiculously high prices of what they buy as a badge of honor, even bragging about it. So unlike the US and other countries, where producers are forced to steeply discount, in China couldn't they sell at a premium? Is there something I'm overlooking or are the marketing strategies of these companies slow to catch up to China's changing realities?
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/21/2003 01:00:00 PM| |

 
EMPLOYMENT UPDATE: The lunch date I had with that Pasadena attorney the other day went pretty well---he called the next day wanting to gainfully employ Prince Roy. I start tomorrow. Imagine that. He's an '89 alum from my law school and we know a bunch of the same attorneys in Beijing. It's kind of a bizarre, piecemeal freelance arrangement, but hey I'll take what I can get. Anything that keeps me from attaching flyers to car windshields in supermarket parking lots. He's guaranteed me at least two days this week (actually, I only have two days available this week or I could've gotten more) and he's got some other major clients in the works, including a possible co-op deal with my old firm in Beijing. My current situation is so FUBAR that I'm amazed anyone would hire me. I was quite moved in fact when the partner in charge of me in Beijing got wind of my plight and emailed offering me my old job back at the Beijing office until my present crisis is resolved. Man was I ever tempted to take him up on it, but I don't think it would be a wise idea at this point. Word could come at any moment and I don't want to be halfway around the world when it does. But that was incredibly nice of him all the same.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/18/2003 12:55:00 PM| |

 
Awhile back I wrote a post about how I thought that the early 1970s TV series Kung Fu represented an advance because it portrayed Asian culture in a non-derogatory light. It marked a departure from the blatantly racist representation of Asians in US entertainment media up to that time. I really thought that perhaps we had turned a corner as a society, but I guess I spoke too soon. In mid-July Fox (who else) began airing a new 'game show' in its Sunday night summer lineup that is supposed to satirize Japanese game shows, but is nothing more than a throwback to the Amos n' Andy style of racial caricature. The show is called "Banzai" and you can visit the website here. Read the message boards; plenty of people are extremely pissed, and rightly so. Banzai is another import from England, not exactly the most enlightened country when it comes to racial sensitivity. The show sensationalizes all the worst stereotypes about Asians, complete with cheap suits, bowl haircuts for the guys, and exaggerated accents. The first time I tuned in, totally by accident because I was looking for the Simpsons, I could not believe what I was seeing. It's hard to imagine that here we are in the year 2003, and this kind of crap can still make it out on the airwaves. What I find even more inconceivable is that it lasted past the first week. This confirms my long-held suspicion that we are in a race to the bottom, and is another example of why I declared a unilateral "War on Popular Culture" back in 1999.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/17/2003 01:40:00 PM| |

 
I just saw a commercial for the Little League World Series on ESPN. I used to play in little league when I was a kid and when I was 12 years old our team won the Tuscaloosa, Alabama city championship. I played first base and pitcher---in fact I pitched a complete game shutout in the championship game. I made our city's all-star team and we entered the Little League World Series tournament, but we lost in our first game. I did ok though, getting two singles. Out of curiosity I looked up the history of the title game and I am blown away at how much foreign teams have dominated since 1967. From that year, foreign teams have won 27 titles compared to only 9 for the US. Here's the breakdown by country:

• 17 Taiwan
• 9 US
• 6 Japan
• 2 South Korea
• 2 Venezuela
• 1 Mexico

At first glance it doesn't look like the US is doing so bad---but that's only until you realize the tourney is rigged so that the US is guaranteed to reach the final game every year. This is because the champion of the US bracket plays the champion of the international bracket. Now I don't know about any of you, but this seems very unsporting of the US. Shouldn't each country have to play on an equal footing? If they did it is highly unlikely the US would've won as many times as it has. As it is we've only prevailed 9 out of 36, or 25% of the time. I guess one could argue that since the US sponsors the tournament as well as having also invented baseball it is justified in according itself special treatment, but that excuse rings hollow---downright un-American even. UPDATE August 24: Make that 9 out of the last 37 (24.3%). Japan won today by a score of 10-1, for their third championship in the last five years. I've updated the column above to reflect today's result.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/16/2003 03:10:00 PM| |

 
Take Your Own Advice, Prince Roy, and Dial 1-800-WAA-AHHH!!! These are rather trying times in the Realm. Your Prince may soon find himself dethroned, or at least de-realmed, and out on the street. You see, we live in university housing. The only problem is I graduated in May and theoretically we can only stay here through the date of the first bar exam after graduation---July 31 in my case. I am on the verge of landing my dream job but the catch is I won't have definite news until at least late September at the earliest. I don't want to let the cat out of the bag just yet---don't want to jinx it don't ya know, but you can rest assured that you will know when the day comes. The job would begin in January 2004 and my employer will pay for all relocation expenses. So my dilemma is that I am loathe to have to move now and bear that great expense when in four months it won't cost me one red cent. Added to that, it is quite difficult to find a lease of anything less than one year in Los Angeles for any decent dwelling. If we have to go month-to-month we will have to pay as much as 50% above normal and we are already barely getting by as it is. The uniqueness of my situation drastically limits the kind of employment I can hope to obtain in the interim. After all, it would be unethical of me to misrepresent my intentions to a legal employer and I really doubt any law firm would hire me knowing that in four months I am practically out the door. Nevertheless, starting this week I sent my resume to several San Gabriel Valley law firms that specialize in immigration. I can't work as an attorney, but I could certainly handle client depositions, interviews, brief writing, etc. In other words I'd be a glorified paralegal. Several of my classmates have told me I should just keep mum about my future plans, but I can't bring myself to do it. I was totally upfront about my situation, but I still think I would be a worthwhile temp hire as I have had coursework in several areas concerning Chinese immigration, particularly political asylum/refugee law, and I became quite familiar with the process of bringing an alien spouse to the US through my own personal experiences. I already have a lunch date tomorrow with an attorney who responded---at the very least I can stave off starvation yet another day! There's also a chance I can get some part-time translation work. I hope this isn't starting to sound like The Big Whinge. That's the last thing I wish to subject my readers to and so this topic ends here, but if I don't seem my usual carefree self for a while, there's your answer. Moving on, from our Maybe Eugenics Wasn't Such a Bad Idea, After All department, there is a little girl about 4-5 years of age in the building across the way who got a brand new pair of bright yellow shoes the other day. For some inexplicable reason the manufacturer designed these shoes to emit extremely irritating loud high-pitched squeaks. They resonate throughout the entire complex and you can hear this child coming from three football fields away. She walked by today with two men who appeared to be her father and grandfather, and these doofuses wore the proudest expressions as if their having purchased this piercing ear-splitting footwear confirmed their status as world's greatest progenitors. Every law student in America is familiar with the 1927 case of Buck v. Bell, 274 U.S. 200. This case concerned the forced sterilization of a 'retarded' woman by the state of Virginia. In his majority opinion upholding the state's action, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote an infamous line that came to be seen as among the most insensitive remarks ever made by a US public official: "Three generations of imbeciles are enough". I shared in the general condemnation of these words, at least until this afternoon. Now I think I finally understand what Justice Holmes may have been getting at. I only hope this new fad never takes off, and that the rest of you will never have the misfortune to know what in the world this rant is about.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/14/2003 12:20:00 PM| |

 
Hey did it even register with anyone that Annette Lu ����k just visited the US in her official capacity as Taiwan veep? Why hasn't the Mainland gone ballistic? After all, the Mainland press has referred to her as 'the scum of a thousand years'. I just saw the report on the Taiwan news but haven't seen this story anywhere else. Is it because she says so much outrageous shite she has totally marginalized herself into obscurity? Well it's too late now---she just left for Panama. Sometimes I overestimate the PRC. Usually they're all over the 'splittists' and I've come to depend on the Mainland commentators' singular brand of state-sanctioned apoplectic invective that you just don't find anywhere else. They've spoiled me, I guess.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/12/2003 10:15:00 AM| |

 
If the Chinese didn't invent the meritocracy they almost certainly perfected it. As early as 135 B.C. the Han Dynasty established China's renowned imperial examination system, by which theoretically at least, anyone could aspire to positions of power and prestige, no matter how lowly his origin. Whether or not that was actually the case is a matter for debate, but this was undoubtedly the genesis of the extreme importance the Chinese place on exams. Examinees who perform superbly receive media coverage that in the US is normally reserved for athletes---a reflection of our own skewed and misplaced values perhaps? For instance, at the end of her freshman year my wife achieved a perfect score on the nation-wide Band Four English test given annually to first-year university students in the PRC. She received write-ups not only in the provincial media where her university is located, but even the papers in her home province of Sichuan reported the story. And my Taiwanese friend's brother garnered the third-highest score that year in the exam required of Chinese traditional medicine graduates in Taiwan. He appeared on national television and his family promptly opened up a herbal medicine store/doctor's office; they prominently displayed his achievement on a wall scroll that is the first thing customers see when they walk in the shop. Today this exam obsession largely manifests in the series of exams schoolchildren have to endure. It reaches its peak at the annual university entrance examinations, or gao kao �߿�. This year's results came out recently, and the Taiwan papers are filled with special interest stories---the fifteen-year old female high school sophomore who tested into Kaohsiung Medical University; or the kid named Xu who received the second-highest score in all of Taiwan and who has chosen to attend lower-ranked Taiwan Tsing Hua rather than Taiwan's premier National Taiwan University (Taida), apparently the first time in over 30 years anyone has turned down Taida for Taiwan Tsing Hua. The Taiwan press even publishes the most common names of examinees---if you're curious the most popular given name for girls this year was Yating ���� with 304 and for boys it was Zonghan �ں� with 126. But the most interesting story I saw concerned prison test takers---it seems even convicts are eligible to sit for the university examinations. For instance, an inmate in Taipei Prison surnamed Zhang tested into Tamkang University. Sentenced to 15 years for theft, he's served over 7 years and is a model prisoner. And get this---his jailhouse tutor was a guy named Yang, who is serving time for hua gang zhi lang ��??֮�� [note: for whatever reason the gang character is failing to display properly---it is first tone and literally means 'the ridge of a hill or mountain']. I had guessed this meant some kind of sex crime, and a former colleague at VOA, a Taiwanese, has confirmed that it means something like 'serial rapist', but I'm curious as to the etymology of this phrase. Can anyone help me out with this term? Thanks in advance! Zhang will get his wish to attend university as the authorities have awarded him parole. In another interesting case, two inmates in the Tainan Prison, 37 year-old Li and 36 year-old Zhang also succeeded in the exams and both have also obtained parole. Li tested into National Sun Yat-sen University's drama department, and Zhang will major in Korean at Chinese Culture University. Both of these blokes were serving life for drug violations so I hope someone's keeping an eye on them to make sure they don't switch their majors to chemistry!
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/12/2003 02:11:00 AM| |

 
Unsolved Mysteries

above: the enigmatic Pink Flamingo fountain at Hsi Lai University in Rosemead, CA

I'd like to present for your edification what is perhaps the last remaining great mystery of our Age. Situated on the bucolic campus of Hsi Lai University lies one of the most mystifying and inexplicable objets d'art known to mankind: a fountain sculpture with a centerpiece containing three water-spitting pink flamingos. What makes its appearance here so incredibly mind boggling is that far from being the backyard of a kindly Italian granny in 1950s-1960s New Orleans or a gay connoisseur of American suburban camp, this is the courtyard of a Taiwanese Buddhist university. I've racked my memory for any and all Chinese literary allusions and metaphors to pink flamingos, but I've come up empty-handed. If anyone can enlighten me on this please do so in a comment, and by all means include your mailing address: my master's in Chinese literature is yours. I must admit, the work does exert an unsettling, powerful influence. Some unexplained magnetism emanating from the object draws the Hsi Lai community to its comforting brick benches. Without ever quite knowing why, James and I have gathered here for numerous involved conversations all summer, and in fact it was here where he hatched his most brilliant scheme yet---a daring midnight commando raid in the style of John Belushi/Animal House. With a supply of white, black and red paint we could easily transform the flamingos into cranes, thus creating a legitimate Chinese cultural artifact where none now exists. My contribution is to stock the fountain pool with koi carp and maybe a couple of turtles. Though the faculty and employees we've asked are just as clueless as we are about the fountain's purpose, university administration evidently has important plans for the structure as the flamingos are a prominent feature in all school literature. The institution has also raised the Fall tuition by a whopping 100%, thereby pricing me out of any future continuing ed. Something big is in the works, folks. And after we get to the bottom of this we can move on to the next unsolved mystery, namely WEHT Preston Whip?
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/08/2003 03:05:00 PM| |

 

left to right: Prince Roy, KJ, Brother Carpetbagger

Long-time readers of the Realm will recognize the two characters pictured with me above from my entry concerning the most spectacular day in the history of American legal education, which you will find here. They were two of my best mates in law school, and are probably the only ones with whom I'll stay in touch, so I'd like to introduce them here. This photo is from last Friday, August 1, 2003 when we met at the Westwood Brew Co. in celebration of them having completed the three-day California Bar Exam on the previous day. The California and New York bars are probably the most difficult in the United States. I did not take the bar, for reasons which I hope to make clear in the coming weeks. Wondering about Prince Roy's brew of choice? As you can tell, I tend to prefer a darker pint, and what I have there is a very nice honey porter they brew right on premises. Normally I'd go with a stout, but in the two plus years I've patronized this brewpub, they have never had the stout in stock, even though it is prominently featured on the menu. This was exactly the same story at Capital City Brewing Company, where I went every NFL Sunday afternoon during my one and a half years in Washington, DC to watch the Redskins game. They never once had the stout available, and when I brought up this fact to the waitress she looked at me like I was from Mars. KJ, whose brother happens to be a rock star, is one of the funniest guys I've ever known. His razor sharp wit was priceless in law school, as the place was/is packed to the gills with jackasses who take themselves far too seriously. He just found out he's going to be a Poopdeck pappy, and that baby must have some major strong karma. Not only are the parents extremely bright, well-educated (both have JDs) and upwardly mobile, but is there anything that could possibly top having a rock star uncle? The answer is 'no'. KJ also has a strong China background---he's completing a PhD in political science and his dissertation concerns China's telecom sector. His Chinese language skills are far better than he likes to let on---he has a very highly developed, albeit specialized, vocabulary. He split his legal internship last summer between Hong Kong and Beijing and so we got to hook up often after he arrived in Beijing. His firm got him an apartment in the Landmark Towers Apartments, an atrocious eyesore next to an even greater monstrosity, the Great Wall Sheraton. These buildings, along with Shanghai's Oriental Pearl TV Tower and practically every other post-1949 structure in China, offer unimpeachable evidence that Chinese architects should swing from every lamp post from Harbin to Shenzhen. KJ's place was only a couple of blocks from my semi-legal apartment in the Nong zhanguan complex. We often ate at a wonderful nearby dumpling joint staffed by beautiful immortal fairy maidens. I have pictures that I will attempt to scan at some point. KJ has landed a sweet position with the San Diego office of a multinational law firm starting at about $125K. As we are always letting him know, this is the first real job he's had in his 36 years. But I think his dream is to one day replace/imitate Randall Peerenboom as the China law guy either at UCLA or some other top law school. Brother Carpetbagger (BC) is an active duty military officer and graduate of a US service academy who got an extended three-year vacation from military life courtesy of the US taxpayer. He's going into JAG and plans to make the military a career. He and his wife had their first child last February, and our class presented them with a $500 savings bond as a gift. He's a person of the highest character and I sleep better at night knowing there are soldiers like him serving the nation. Unfortunately, if my four years active duty were any indication, there aren't nearly enough of his caliber. I still remember the time in Spring of our 1L year when I got great tickets to a Dodgers v. Braves game that were in row 7 right behind home plate. It was a dream pitching match-up---Kevin Brown v. Greg Maddux. Knowing that BC is a huge baseball fan I invited him to the game. He turned me down because it was during the middle of finals and he felt that he had a responsibility to the taxpayers footing his law school bill to put all his efforts into preparing for the exams. I did not necessarily agree with his position; after all, it was only a three-hour baseball game, but he earned my deepest respect all the same. What I really appreciate about BC though is beneath his dutiful, squared away exterior exists a definite subversive element that harmlessly manifests into a playful merry prankster. I would characterize this side of him as 'chaotic-neutral'. You never knew if an alliance with him would hold up and he always kept you on your toes. UPDATE: I hope people don't get the mistaken idea that I'm ragging on PRC architects only. I believe in nothing if not 'fair and balanced reporting'. I hate Taiwan architects too. In fact I hold Taiwan personally responsible for its extremely tacky suqi ���� contribution to world architecture of decorating and encasing the outsides of buildings in those little bathroom tiles. This 'design don't' has since unfortunately spread to the Mainland as well.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/06/2003 03:05:00 PM| |

 
I've had all I can stands, and I can't stands no more!!! Enetation, you're fired. Welcome aboard Haloscan. Unfortunately this means all previous comments are history, but second chances don't come often in life, so make the best of it. Yeah, this means you Brainy Smurf. No more excuses!!!
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/06/2003 02:23:00 PM| |

 
Today's Recipe Sichuan Sliced Cucumbers and Pork two cucumbers 3-5 ounces of pork (chop, loin, shoulder, etc. do not use ground pork) 3-4 cloves garlic (minced) 1 heaping teaspoon of douban jiang (Sichuan chili bean sauce) 1/2 teaspoon of veg/chicken bouillon powder salt to taste cayenne to taste 2-3 tablespoons canola oil INSTRUCTIONS: Peel cucumbers and cut in half lengthwise. Slice cucumbers diagonally and very thin. Set aside. Slice pork into razor-thin strips. Add oil to wok and bring to high heat. When oil begins smoking add the douban jiang, garlic, and pork. Mix well. When pork browns add the cucumber. Stir well. Add bouillon, salt and cayenne. Cook on high heat for 5-7 minutes then serve with rice. COMMENTS: I've found this to be a great dish for summer when you can always find cucumbers on sale. Actually, we started eating this one all the time when I was in grad school in Boulder, CO. We had a little garden plot and the cucumbers were the only thing that came in that summer---magpies xique ϲȵ got all the rest! This dish is so easy no one has an excuse not to try it. You might want to try leaving the cucumber peel on---I haven't done so because I'm worried it might impart a bitter taste. You don't need to add water---the cucumbers reduce and a really nice sauce forms from the douban, garlic, cooking oil and water from the cucumbers. The longer you cook this the more the cukes reduce, so let how much sauce you want be your judge as to when the dish is done. If you are vegetarian you can also make this without the pork---you can add a pork substitute or just go with the cucumbers. This dish is great with steamed rice, but it also matches very well with rice porridge zhou ��. Hope you like it...Bon Appetit!!!
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/05/2003 12:50:00 AM| |

 
It's always kind of slow here on the weekends and since I'm stuck in the house without the car I thought I'd share a burgeoning hobby of mine. Remember a while back when I said I was going to start making myself study more chengyu 成语? Well, I decided that what I'd really rather learn are folksy sayings. So I've scratched my chengyu cram school and now I'm collecting aphorisms. Here's one of my all-time favorites; I learned it in Sichuan dialect and I'm not sure there is a Mandarin equivalent:

老鸦笑猪黑;自己不觉得 Laowa xiao zhu hei; ziji bu juede. [The crow mocks the blackness of the pig, unaware it too is black] i.e., "the pot calling the kettle black". Get a Sichuanese to read this to you in dialect; not only does it sound hilarious, it even rhymes!

Here's one in Mandarin I culled from a book I'm reading. I thought it was quite colorful so it went down in my notebook:

有钱使得鬼推磨you qian shide gui tui mo [For money even a ghost will turn the millstone], or "Money makes the world go round".

I'll post more as I run across them; hopefully it'll become a regular feature. I invite anyone to contribute their favorites as well, particularly the more uncommon examples. Dialects especially welcome.
- posted by Prince Roy @ 8/03/2003 06:33:00 AM| |