Filed under: posts | Tags: china, mario kart, relationships, school, sights & sounds, youtube
First and foremost. This thing just plays in my head over and over when I’m biking in the morning.
The blue shell is coming
so I’ll go ahead
If you hang behind
it’ll hit me instead
but never look back
cause I’m down but not dead
I’ll catch up to you
Nerdy, yes. Awesome? YES. (and also yesterday’s news, but who the hell cares?)
I’ve come to realize starting a new relationship is very different each time. This one is so natural and strangely free of those awkward moments, at least for me. My life is so uncertain right now in so many different aspects, but spending time with her grounds and calms me. A good start.
In other news, the next week is my last week of classes with a day of finals coming in two weeks. School is almost over! I think some people are already heading home so I’ll try plan some kind of get together when I have some time. I will have a good window of time between the 18th and the 24th. Who needs to pack for China?
If anyone wants anything from the cheap labor pool that is China, give me a ring or a comment or some signal.
‘Tis all.
Filed under: posts | Tags: Cal, china, consulting, CSR, family, job, marriage, music, X-Files
Damn, I am writing for no good reason now. I’m just a tad bored. Crank up that music on shuffle, type away. I guess that’s a pretty nice way to write.
It’s weird – I think it has taken me four years to really get settled into Cal. I don’t think I’ve felt this kind of familiarity with a certain place for a while. I realized then when I was biking to class today. The world was just so known to me, I felt absolutely fearless. I know those little spots to sit and listen to the creek between classes. (Behind the Pelican, if you know what I’m talking about). I know to dodge those flyering people on Sproul and the quickest way to Evans.
But it’s almost time to say goodbye to the blue and gold – to my golden bears. I think I’ve settled upon recruiting for the smaller strategy firms for a start. I eventually want to move into the CSR realm, but I do believe setting a base should be accomplished first. I suppose I should take my CSR consulting class a bit more seriously. There just so many kids in there that don’t know anything about it other than the fact that it’s an opportunity to network with some firms. I shouldn’t complain. Whatever spreads the good word of CSR.
In other class news, I’m taking Finance, International Monetary Finance and American Economic History on top of the CSR class. I’m also going to be heading up a consulting team for BEACN. It’s quite a full plate, but as always, it’ll be fun. (hah).
The thing I am probably most interested in, other than jumpkicking my career, is this year’s BLAST program. It’s many of the leadership staff’s last year and I really, really want to make it a good one. We have an unappealing website, a very sad banner on sproul, a tiny budget, but DAMN do we do some great work for some good kids. Last year was memorable but I hope this year can top even that.
Everything else is ho-hum. I’m looking forward to going back to Shanghai this winter. Two of my cousins are getting married. One is from Tokyo and the closest blood relative I have to a big brother. The other is having a small, no-frills event on Bei Hai Dao. I have only met one of the wives-to-be. I was actually a bit sick in Tokyo and she took care of me. She’s very bubbly.
Otherwise life is life. Often, it takes the form of dinner watching the X-Files with my roomies. I was always too scared to watch that show as a kid, but now, it’s pretty good – if not just unsettling at moments. I wish the weather would cool down though. Biking uphill is not a fun event in 90 degree heat. I get to class looking like I’ve been playing world-class tennis in Tanzania.
Music pieces of interest:
Oh damn, I’ve resorted to putting irrelavant pieces of music on my posts. Uck.
Tis All.
Filed under: posts | Tags: society, self, food, Communist Revolution, Mao, love, parents, life, china, Communism
[poster via Stefan Landsberger]
This weekend was an interesting one. Along with finally finding a trustworthy and knowledgeable mechanic for my car, I visited one of our family friends who happened to own a Japanese restaurant in Antioch. I am a sashimi fiend and when my Dad asked me to go over and take some pictures of the finished architecture and design project, I was quick to ditch my economics homework and head on over.
It think I will withhold his name and just call him Mr. L. I knew he was a talker, I’ve heard him go on and on about his son (Berkeley physics grad) and his hopes and dreams for him. I am not here to discuss his parenting – which I do find a bit unsettling in its mercilessness.
This particular time I went over we sat down and he started talking about something that he never really discussed with me before. He told me about how love was viewed under the Communist regime. In his youth, during the revolutions of the 70s, there was no time for petty things like love. There was only China to love. And oh did the youth love China.
My generation’s parents, those born in China during the mid-to-late 50s all have experienced a certain prescribed form of love. Love, as universal and human as it may seem, was something controllable by the government. They simply had to encumber the youth with so much nationalism and so many duties associated with such nationalism that they thought love to be a waste of time – hours and hours that could be used towards revolution.
So love was simple, quick and utilitarian. Oh, she’s a hard worker, not terribly ugly and gets along with my family. Done. Run down to the marriage office, get a license (which in that time was a fairly new thing) and then you’re done. There was no concept of dating or choices. When the opportunity arose, you just simply tied the knot then got back to pushing Mao’s goals forward.
To say that Mr. L. was a revolutionary is an understatement. He was a party leader. A man who cried real, angry tears during Mao’s fear-induced purges. The Tienanmen square incident still bubbling in his veins. He was a passionate comrade of the old guard. He believed fiercely in the social values that Mao tauted but became disillusioned after those promises fell short. Needless to say, he put his love of China over love over any woman.
Now, he tells me this is the single greatest regret of his entire life.
[Click pic for product page]
From post-jdm.com. These are the people that made the “白人看不懂” (literally: white people can’t read this) shirt as seen on “Yellow Fever” by WongFu Productions. It has been a rallying point for Chinese kids in high school, yes – the phrase.
Apparently, they have … expanded their line-up of catchy Chinese phrase related merchandise. For $14.99 you can one this shirt which says “那个” (literally: that one), with a plz (please) at the end. Honestly, I’d have to say it is in bad taste, but I’m sure high schoolers are going to go ape-shit over this one too.
“That one” in mandarin is pronounced like “nay-guh.” Say that four times fast and you’ll get it. This is their “disclaimer” on their website:
Haha ha, yeah… Post-JDM does not condone racism. For those who don’t get it, this shirt is meant to be a play off words. Please excuse any hilarious offensiveness.
Play on words or not, people will get offended. Chinese is a popular language these days. Careful what you print before you start some unneeded tension beyond what you can control.
‘Tis all.
Today I spoke to one of you. Not my parents, but another father of an Asian American kid growing up. I understand that as a parent, you are concerned for your child’s education and future. I also understand that the American system is faulty at points and does not provide a clear path to success.
Even so, the path that you have placed your daughters in – one of endless rote memorization and asceticism is not the right one. I guess in the end, I really have no right to tell you how to parent your child, but if we are to take this as an objective evaluation of what works, I say you are wrong.
Both ideas are possible, but both are so against the current path that they might as well be impossible. Unless I get a lobotomy from a blind, rabid ape, its not going to happen, just as China can not commit to these changes unless there is tremendous social upheaval.
Here’s China’s priority list:
- 1. “Mao’s generation” government’s legitimacy
- 2. Economic development (see above)
- 3. Deny that China invented fortune cookies
- 4. Scare Taiwan with random missile tests over their island.
- 5. Finally, they would also like economic development. Oh, my bad.
More nationalist propaganda after the jump. (Source)
WWII is history’s history now. The 1940’s must seem as ancient to today’s younger children as the “gilded-age” to me. We beat the Axis powers (No, not the Axis of Evil) and effectively assumed world-wide dominance.. blah blah blah.
Japan and China/Korea have had a long-standing grudge over the Japanese tactics used during their invasions and occupations. Generations have passed and it seems that this hatred and denial is now genetically passed down, or something. Perhaps this is perpetrated by the incredibly graphic memories of the cruelty exhibited at the time by the invading forces. My grandmother, who has Alzheimer’s, still has a vivid memory of fleeing Shanghai with her family one night. She will remember that night long after she forgets my name and even the names of her children. It is that deeply ingrained. As her grandson, I can only listen and wonder what in God’s name can the Japanese possibly say to defend these actions?
Now, let me be really CLEAR. I have no animosity towards the Japanese people or culture. In fact, I would cut off my left pinky for a life-time supply of toro-sushi. (I will probably post about food soon.) Anyhow, the bitterness comes from the history and the Japanese government’s denial of the situation. They change textbooks, pray to war criminals and overall apologize like a little boy being forced to by his mother.
Enter Shinzo Abe.
(Anger-filled) Full story after the jump. (Source)
孝顺. (xiao shun). The best western translation would be “filial piety” which is not really that great of a translation as it loses the more important aspects of the Confucian model. Chinese people talk about it with a reciprocal attribute; this is not just blind loyalty to one’s parents, but rather a virtuous relationship filled with respect. We understand that the parent’s role is not easy nor automatic. Parents understand that the respect they receive is without question out of love.
Take the jump – it’s worth it this time.
