Georgia Pok Guy

I almost forgot, even though I was making a point to remember, that twenty years ago today the “People’s Liberation” Army descended upon Tiananmen Square, violently putting the kibosh on a movement that began as a way to mourn the death of Hu Yaobang, but ended as something much, much more.  The episode is decidedly a blight on the Communist Party of China, but what saddens me more is that Deng Xiaoping was so thoroughly able to co-opt the Chinese public with his grand bargain: forgo democracy and I’ll make you rich.  At least he kept his end of the bargain, but what the CPC has to realize is that at some point the ghosts of Tiananmen will return.  Lest they forget, no matter how much they want to, the world must remember this day, when a band of university students and proletariats, given the choice to return home, stayed and dared to stand up against tyranny.

So, I was originally going to write a post about how I was somewhat miffed that the creators of Avatar decided to name a character literally after the word for the sleeve of a Han dynasty style dress, and while using the Mandarin pronunciation for that word to say the name, wrote the character’s name using the Cantonese transliteration.  This is how “Mai” (pronounced like “My”) ends up being pronounced “Mei” (or “May”, if you please).  Then I decided that while such venting may be therapeutic in the short run, it would be far more entertaining to turn my investigative process into the plot of a murder mystery.  I figure it will be set in Victorian England, a roller coaster of a page turner, crammed with sizzling Gypsies (Editor’s note: to anyone who has seen Black Adder, that was what’s called an homage, not plagiarism).

Microsoft’s MSN division in China recently announced the completion of a new robot to field customer service related questions (as if the automated customer service phone systems weren’t bad enough).  All I can say is, you’d think that a nation with over a billion people wouldn’t be suffering from the kind of labor shortage that would justify building robots to answer mundane questions.  I mean, sure, who doesn’t love a cute little robot with cute little pigtails dressed in a cute little cheongsam that responds to the moniker “Xiao Mei” (which I’m assuming is written as 小美)?  My guess is you could find some country girl from Gansu, train her in the subtle art of customer service, and still be paying less money.  But I suppose helping to lift her family out of poverty isn’t as glitzy as a bunch of robots running around downtown Beijing during the Olympics…

When I was living in Tokyo as a youth, I had the opportunity to travel to Hong Kong a number of times, it being a popular shopping destination for expats.  At the time Kai Tak was Hong Kong’s airport, a concrete strip jutting out from the middle of the hyper-crowded Kowloon into the fragrant harbor.  It was always an exciting experience since the planes had to fly really low over the tops of the neighboring buildings (at least, exciting for a young teenaged boy obsessed with airplanes).  To give you an idea of how low, I direct your attention to the attached video (and, yes, some of those are 747s):

Chinese New Year’s festivities last for 15 days, which is a way to say this post is still timely.  Beyond eating noodles and dumplings on the first day of the new year, I decided to take part in another tradition, which is writing poetry on banners and hanging them along the entrance to your house.  Now, not knowing any Chinese aside from a few choice phrases, I decided to forgo the poetry and instead paint new year greetings, which I could at least easily look up (wikipedia is my friend).  So, after a quick trip to the crafts store, I had all I needed to write some Chinese.  The fruits of my labor are below:

The inside of my apartment, since I’m not sure how it would be received if I hung them on the outside

Gung hei fat choi!

As a post script, my brother in San Francisco got last Thursday and Friday off from teaching at a local college.  So awesome!

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! It is the year of the Rat, which means that my younger brother turns some multiple of 12. (can you guess which multiple?) I hope you have a prosperous and wonderful year!

You win some and you lose some, apparently.  First for the losses (so you feel better with the wins!):

• Betting against Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party would have been like betting against the Harlem Globetrotters.  Free and fair elections?  It’s just around the corner, comrade…
• According to a tidbit in the November 24th edition of the Economist, 20% of polled NYU students would sell their vote in the next election for an iPod (hopefully one of the high end ones, at least); 2/3 would do so for a year’s college tuition.  Half, it was found, would give up their vote for the rest of their life for $1 million.  So much for our civics classes…

Now, for the wins (unless you happen to lurve autocracies):

• Chavez’s power grab was defeated in a referendum!  He may have mastered the art of socialist populism, but he might want to take a page from Putin next time he wants to ride roughshod over the Venezuelan constitution.
• The pro-democracy candidate, Anson Chan, won in Hong Kong.  Hong Kongeese everywhere should feel relieved.  Her main opponent, Regina Ip, did try to pass an anti-subversion law that brought 500,000 to the streets.  Let’s just hope Beijing is big enough to honor the set back.

So, elections all about.  Can’t wait until 2008 when I get to participate in the noble sport.  And, no, I won’t be selling my vote for an iPod…

Can anyone spot below the potential error in the wikipedia article on Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty?

Now, I know that most of the cast was Chinese, but this is ridiculous…

And, yes, I do have an entire recommendation category for my Amazon account devoted to books on China.  Gotta love that Tang Dynasty culture…

恭喜發財!  Today marks the beginning of the year of the Boar.  In particular, this is the year of the Golden Boar, which is seen as being particularly auspicious.  Is it wrong, however, for me to see “Golden Boar” and think 叉燒?  :D  I wish everyone the best in this year of the boar!  Hopefully you are celebrating today by eating something other than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Eh, Quailster?