Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Category: China

  • Beijing Olympics Goodwill Goes Poof

    I think all the goodwill generated by the Beijing Olympics has just disappeared.

  • Melamine Contamination in Infant Milk Powder

    Last year, Caroline Smith Dewaal of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, appeared on Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees and stated, “We see the pet food recall as a warning sign for the government that they need to do more to protect the food supply. It could easily happen to an ingredient used in human food as well.” Now, 17 months later, the warning sounds more like a prediction.

    One incidence of melamine contamination may be an “isolated incident. However, we now have two data points. A trend, perhaps? This time, we don’t have to search for melamine on Google to figure out what it is.

    In a prior post on melamine contamination, a reader suggested that I look at Zhou Qing’s What Kind of God: A Survey of the Current Safety of China’s Food. The translated excerpts made my stomach turn. I will never view Chinese food the same way again, and neither will you.

  • Emperor Pu-Yi Severance Agreement

    I love Google’s news archive search. I just discovered a New York Times article from February 13, 1912 announcing that Emperor Pu-Yi had abdicated from the throne. The interesting part, at least for me, was the terms of the abdication. Specifically, the Republicans pledged that “[t]he Emperor shall receive an annual grant of 4,000,000 taels until the currency is reformed, after which he shall receive $4,000,000 Mexican.” Of course, the Republicans referred to in the article are those supporters of the Republic of China, and not the McCain/Palin crowd. Now, almost a 100 years later, pegging a severance payment to the Mexican dollar seems a bit quaint. Just shows how powers ebb and flow over time. A century from now, I wonder of our current US dollar denominated contracts will appear equally quaint to those who are yet to be born.

  • Beijing China Olympics 2008 Souvenirs

    The Beijing Olympics have begun. Or, as the Beijing 2008 website notes: “-4 days to go.” Humorous if you know computer programmers, I guess. Once an event has started, turn off the countdown clock.

    I found the opening ceremony to be absolutely breathtaking in scope, precision and theatrics. More than once, I stared at the performance—gloriously broadcasted in HD— and wondered aloud how exactly they did “that.” Arthur C. Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. That opening ceremony definitely included a healthy dose of magic. Uh, except for the flying guy. The special effects works in movies because the “magicians” can digitally erase the harness and wires. However, in real life, it just looks like a guy in a harness and there’s no magic in that.

    Now that the opening ceremony has aroused the Olympic spirit in me, I’m in the mood to pick up some Olympic souvenirs. However, I was not spirited enough to go to Beijing and witness the spectacle live. Some of the official licensed products on the Beijing 2008 website look appealing, but the website has no shopping cart or 1-click buttons. Just a hotline to phone in an order. A China phone number at that. Some how, I don’t think they’ll be shipping to the United States. Anyways, for someone looking for some Olympic t-shirts, pins or other merchandise, I came across the following sites:

  • Asian Art Museum – Ming Dynasty Exhibit

    The Asian Art Museum is hosting a special exhibition entitled Power and Glory: Court Arts of China’s Ming Dynasty from June 27-September 21, 2008. Fortunately, Target sponsors a Free First Sundays program that opens admission to the museum for free on the first Sunday of every month. This past Sunday being a “first Sunday,” I headed to San Francisco to see what Ming treasures the museum had in store. I arrived shortly before 10 a.m., which is opening time, and discovered a line that literally wrapped around the museum. You would think that they were selling the beloved iPhone 3G at the gift store or something.

    Well, San Francisco being San Francisco, the weather was overcast, cold and windy in the middle of summer. As we entered the museum (about an hour later), we were given tickets that indicated our assigned time for viewing the Ming exhibits. After some more waiting inside the museum, we finally entered the first room at around 11:20 a.m. An hour and 20 minute wait! The Ming art is distributed among 3 exhibit halls on the first floor of the museum. As we proceeded from hall to hall, we had to wait in a new line. Some lines were longer than others.

    If you are visiting with a large group, you will save a few bucks by attending the Free Sunday event. However, the experience is sub-optimal from the long lines to the crowded exhibit halls. If you really want to see everything, you need to be patient because each exhibit probably had 10 or so people around it. People packed around the exhibits. More people streaming in. Not quite the quiet and leisurely pace typically found in museums. I don’t know if the museum is less crowded when they charge admission. I should have asked, but was a bit too frazzled from the whole visit.

  • Pain Pain Go Away

    The Los Angeles Times is reporting that China will be increasing retail gas prices on Friday by 16%. The last time China had increased retail fuel prices was in November. A one day 16% price hike sounds steep; however, consider that prices have been stable for the prior seven months. I last saw $3.99 gas just before the Memorial Day weekend. A month later, we’re around $4.60, or a 15% increase. I would like to take my 15% retroactive to last November as well, please.

    I have no idea whether these increases in gas prices are caused by financial speculators, rising global demand or constrained gasoline supplies. Regardless, these price shocks do alter the calculation for determining the break-even point for investing in solar energy and other green technologies.

  • Sichuan Earthquake

    How can one comprehend 40,000 deaths? To really understand the breadth of the destruction, at least if you live in the United States, I turn to Flickr and YouTube. You can search for Sichuan earthquake or 四川地震 photos on Flickr. Although both searches terms are technically the same, the results differ. You can perform the same search on YouTube as well for Sichuan earthquake and 四川地震 videos.

    To assist in the relief efforts, please consider a donation to the Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network’s China Earthquake Relief Fund, the American Red Cross or a charity of your choice.

  • An Unfortunate Choice of Words

    TIME: A Tibetan Intifadeh Against China. Whatever the outcome, though, it seemed to be a turning point in the history of Tibet and perhaps also China. “This is massive,” said one Tibet specialist who was in touch with many Lhasa residents, “it is the intifadeh.”

    Nothing more inaccurate than the Western media plotting turning points in modern Chinese history. Sometimes, China doesn’t turn despite the wishful thinking of the West. Why? Media bias.

    Here’s another statement from the same article:

    Chinese already outnumber ethnic Tibetans in Lhasa, and many Tibetans felt that they might end up as strangers in their own country, a fate suffered by Mongolians in Chinese-administered Inner Mongolia.

    Chinese-administered Inner Mongolia? I’ve never been to Inner Mongolia, so I cannot speak about the environment there, but I suspect that TIME is manufacturing conflicts in this instance. Perhaps, a more appropriate conclusion would be that many Tibetans felt that they might end up as strangers in their own country, a fate suffered by Native Americans in the United States. However, if TIME starts printing stories like that, they’re not going to sell too many magazines…in the United States.

    China should not be so obstinate and follow the American model. In America, Native Americans can achieve economic independence by building and running casinos. Tibetan stud poker, anyone?

  • Yao Ming Suffers Stress Fracture

    Yahoo/AP: Yao Out for Season with Left Foot Injury. All-Star center Yao Ming is out for the season with a stress fracture in his left foot . . . .

    Currently, the Houston Rockets are 3 games behind the Los Angeles Lakers, the Western Conference leader. However, the Rockets are only 3 1/2 games ahead of the ninth place Denver Nuggets. Yes, the NBA Western Conference is extremely competitive this year without a lot of breathing room between the top eight teams. As precarious as Houston’s fortunes appear right now, consider the fate of the Chinese basketball team during the Beijing Olympics without Yao Ming. A lot of Chinese sports fans are probably studying up on stress fractures right now.

  • Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs

    ribs.jpgI finally made the Sweet and Sour Spare Ribs recipe that I had found in Fuchsia Dunlop’s Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook. The flavor was spot on; however, the ribs ended up a bit dry and overcooked. I found the recipe instructions to be a bit vague in terms of cooking time. In her recipe, I boiled, fried, and braised the ribs. Not sure which step caused the problems. Next time, I will omit the optional frying step and see what happens. Coincidentally, I order this same dish from a neighborhood Shanghainese restaurant, and I always think that their ribs are dry and overcooked as well. 🙂