MAXMIND

I can't believe another year passed!

2006-07-20T09:44:00.000-07:00

It is amazing how time flies! It has been almost a year since I last posted here. So much has changed. I moved to a different city, and I began my new job as a state government worker.

I revaluated my life and my goals. There is still so much I want to do, and there is still so much I dream to achieve. But I know, that there is one key that would unlock everything. And I need gather myself to find that one key, and use it to open all the doors.

I don't know what to say now.

English Learning: My Journey

2005-09-27T21:29:00.000-07:00

Max

II. Learning it by Teaching it

I always preached that one of the most powerful secrets of learning English is “learning it by using it.” You do not have to wait till you have a good command of the language to use it. You can start using English from day one by saying “hello” to anyone you meet, asking them “how are you,” and telling them “it is nice to meet you” or “It is so nice to see you again.” Doing these exercises relentlessly is not so much about showing or testing whether you know or do not know how to use these simple expressions. It is more about developing your feel for and awareness of the language. When you try to put to practical use of English all the time, you subject yourself to thinking like a native speaker, which proves to the most effective way to master a foreign language.

Well, now I admit that “learning it by using it” is only half of the story. I left out another powerful secret that helped me tremendously on my journey of English learning. Yes, you have guessed it! It is “learning it by teaching it.” You might say that it is an extension of “learning it by using it,” and I give you some credit for that. Teaching could be viewed as another form of using, but it itself has merits on its own. Teaching something requires more than simply using it. It requires that you, as an instructor, have a much clearer idea and broader view of the things you are teaching. It also requires that you have a well-structured cognitive system of the subject so that you know how to teach to students at various stages of the learning process and with different levels of learning capability. Besides developing a relational knowledge system of the subject that allows you to relate and compare different components of the subject contents, you the instructor also need to come up with simple ways to explain to your students and persuade them how everything is interconnected within that system. I think anyone who has done some teaching could tell you right away that it is not easy to do so.

Actually, it is not even so much about how good a teacher you can be while you yourself are still learning it. We all know that all teachers are not good ones. More importantly, the philosophy of “learning it by teaching it” is more about developing your consciousness to learn things from the perspectives of teaching. What exactly do I mean by that? I mean you should always ask yourself these questions: what if I want to teach it to someone else? How can I explain it to anyone in an easily understandable way? What are the most important things of this subject that must be understood? If you constantly push yourself to think like this, you will find that English learning suddenly becomes easier and more enjoyable, and your mind becomes more focused, and you have a better chance of understanding things in greater depth and remembering them longer.

Is it really this magic, by just exchanging your role from a student to a teacher? Yes, it is. I can tell you that, from my personal experiences, it is working like a miracle. After all, viewing things from a different perspective is not a trivial change. A perspective is a window through which we observe the world. I think we all agree that the world is out there as an objective being, but how we interpret and understand it depends on our subjective perspectives. The world itself does not change regardless of how we observe and study it. What changes is our perception of the world when we apply alternative perspectives to it. You may say that I am being too philosophical here, but actually I think it is a very practical matter. The lesson for us to take away with is that once it becomes natural for us to always think how to teach the things we are still learning, we are going to grasp them faster, better, and more deeply.

***To be continued***

English Learning: My Journey

2005-09-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

MAX

I. The Beginning of Everything

I was born and raised in a rural village in Southern China, where there is still no running water, and electricity is often being cut off to guarantee supply to neighboring cities. To be fair, over the years, I never really complained about the less-than-ideal living conditions in the early years of my life, although I vividly remember growing up longing for all the opportunities available to kids of my age in the cities and painfully realizing that I was not going get any of those unless I could earn them on my own. In fact, I have very fond memories of my childhood. My family was by no means rich, but relatively speaking, we were doing fine: we did have enough to eat, and I could occasionally get new clothes as gifts for birthdays or other holidays. Most important of all, I had loving and supporting parents, the kindest and most caring grandma, the cutest little sister, and very nice cousins with whom I was getting along very well, like brothers and sisters. I guess I can say that when growing up I was a happy, nice kid, worry-free, and trouble-free.

Somehow from a very early age on, I knew that there was a bigger, more exciting world that awaits me. I also knew, very clearly, that the only way to get there is through hard work, studying, studying harder, and studying to be the best I can be. Yes, of course, comparing to working in the rural fields, hard work at school is something I thoroughly enjoyed and excelled. And I knew, as each day passed by, I was one step closer to the bigger world I envisioned.

I still remember what my first English teacher, a former Russian teacher in my school who never went to college, told us in our first English class. He was holding the English textbook, waving excitedly, and almost shouted these words to us: kids, open your eyes, and take a good look at this! This is your key to the world! The Key! He then turned around, and wrote down the three big letters: K-E-Y, and asked us to repeat after him. And thus began my English learning. Instead of A-B-C, I learned K-E-Y first.

He was good teacher. To this day, I still put to use some of his teachings, especially the rules of pronunciation in open or closed syllables. I always wondered why in the whole world he wanted to teach those things to 7th grade students who just began their study of English. Later, I asked many of my friends who majored in English in college, and they told me they were not even quite sure what these rules are. Looking back, I think these rules were quite useful, and his teachings were totally accurate and effective.

One thing about his teaching that was less than perfect though was that he had a very heavy accent. After all, he was never formally trained in English teaching. I shared my concern with my father, who never studied English, and he decided to buy me a stereo and some English tapes, hoping that I could learn to speak English in a correct way. Oh my God, I do not know how to say this properly, even after this many years! As many may remember, a stereo in the 80s was so expensive, and it was almost equivalent to what my father could earn in one and a half months. My family was not rich at all, but my father thought that was an important and right thing to do.

And he was right. With the help of the stereo, from the very beginning, I discovered a powerful secret of learning English, or any other language, for that matter. That is, to imitate. Learning to pronounce a foreign word or phrase in the native way is like learning to sing a song. You have to hear it spoken or sung many times, and then try to imitate, paying attention to every single syllable. If you do this long enough, you will get it right. The more you practice, the more it becomes natural to you. Gradually, you are changing your way of speaking a foreign language, and you will sound like a native speaker. I remember I tried so many times to speak exactly like what was on the tapes of New Concept English 2, Lesson 1, “A Private Conversation”. After so many years, I can still speak like the tapes, without even thinking about it: “Last week, I went to the theater… …It’s none of your business! This is a private conversation! ”

**To Be Continued**

American Idol: Chinese Style

2005-07-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Internet, people who are thousands of miles away from China can now watch Chinese TV Programs on the Internet. The quality of sound and image of these programs is nothing compared to that of the high definition TV, they nevertheless provide for us a unique opportunity to watch China in real time.

This morning I happened to select the channel for the Hunan Satellite TV, which in recent years produced several popular TV programs that were widely watched in China. It was broadcasting a reality show, called “Super Female Singers,” which is very similar in format and style to the popular American show, “American Idol.” The Chinese version of the American Idol also has three judges, but with two women and one man, who, like their American counterparts, would not hesitate to use harsh languages to ridicule those lacking the talents but somehow harboring big dreams of being a star. Like the American Idol judges (such as Simon), these harsh and often sarcastic comments drew huge applauses and laughter from the studio audiences.

What impressed me the most was not these three mean, sometimes funny and witty, judges. It was the participants that amazed me, in a big way. Most of these young girls are in their late teens and early 20s, who are amazingly beautiful, graceful, energetic, and assertive and confident. They are not yet stars, nor famous or wealthy, but just a plain girl from next door. They talents to sing well are incredibly impressive, as well as their demeanor, how fashionable they are dressed, and how much they have been influenced by pop cultures in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, and the West in general. One of the contestants, Zhang Liang Yin, a 20-year old college student majoring in foreign languages (likely English) sang a song by Maria Carey, “Remember me.” If you close your eyes, first, you would not know she is actually not a native English speaker, and second, you would think it is Maria Carey herself. I kept wondering what would happen if she somehow could perform on the American Idol, and I bet she could go very far.

People observing or studying China often tend to magnify the implications of changes in China, be it increased use of Internet and cell phones, or grass root democratic elections in rural villages, and try to interpret the significance of these events and make predictions which directions China may take, most of which failed to materialize. But, well, it wouldn’t hurt to try again here. What can we interpret or imply from this Chinese reality show?

According to some news reports about the show, its most important feature is that everyone is welcome to participate, as long as being female, regardless of age, look, wealth, height, weight, education level, birth place, or anything like that, which currently in China may still serve as a discriminating factor. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first of anything in China that does not discriminate people on those bases (of course, in this case, it still discriminates, yes, you guess it right, by gender. But we can forgive the show for this, or we can punish them by demanding an all-male version of the show). The news reports also said that the show was so well received by participants and audiences alike, because it provides an equal opportunity for everyone.

Since we are on our way to extract significance out of small events, let’s do it now. I would argue that this show could give us a taste of the promise and potential for democracy in China, and better yet, in the next generation or so. Why?

First, the show provides invaluable first-hand democratic experiences for millions of young Chinese and teaches them important lessons, in the best and entertaining way, about the essentials of democracy: equality, openness, and fairness. In a society that traditionally values connection and nepotism, this show offers everyone an equal opportunity to participate, and every winner is selected in a open way, by voting at different levels: the judges, 35 jurors, and the TV audiences who have cell phones, whose users are close to 400 million. The voting process seems to be fair: it does not matter who you know and who you are connected with, it is your talents and how you have presented yourself that really counts.

Second, this show is different from most other Chinese TV shows because it stays far away from the ideological dogma of communism and other propaganda, and I know there are more and more TV programs like this now in China. Having spent the first 22 years in China, I cannot say enough how significant this is. Like millions of youth of my age, I used to get painfully bored by Chinese TV shows, most of which always tirelessly strived to serve as government propaganda, glorifying the greatness of the country, history, the Party, the ideology, and the happiness of the people thanks to the policies of the Party. But on this show, there was nothing like that, not even a shred of reference to politics or ideology. Nothing. Period. It was purely entertainment, which was pretty entertaining. Just imagine how much influence these entertaining non-propaganda TV shows will have on the mentality and attitude of the younger generation in China.

Third, from the show we can also see evidently the beaming confidence and assertive demeanor of the youth in China, which makes one think this generation is different. The American youth may think everything involved in American Idol is a way of life for young people in a democratic society, and that they are entitled to participate in an equal-opportunity program like this, as if this is one of their born inalienable rights. While watching the Chinese Idol, I cannot help but feeling that these young people in China also think that they are born for and entitled to opportunity like this, and they are really enjoying it, on or off stage. They may feel this is so natural to them that they would wonder why people like me are so amazed by what they saw. To the Chinese youth, it seems that this has become a way of life and this is how their life should be.

Finally, I can’t help but keeping comparing my generation to this one. I am only about 10 years older than them, which in China, probably different than anywhere else, qualifies a different generation, because everything is changing so fast. I can see how much difference there already is. My generation was growing up taught to embrace collectivism and criticize individualism, while it seems to me that this generation have embraced individualism in an unprecedented way: fully, without any hindrance; and they are taking their best shot to present themselves to the whole world. Understanding the difference between collectivism and individualism and choosing which to embrace is crucial for democracy. Democracy is a collective decision making process, but the basis of the resulted collective action is individualism, which celebrates individual differences and the idea that individuals count. Individuals make their decisions out of their free will and then accept the result of majority rule. On the other hand, collectivism demands individual sacrifices for greater collective good. Individual difference is not celebrated but stifled. Individual free will does not prevail but succumbs to externally imposed conformity. The fact is, on this show, the young people in China showed that they have embraced the idea of individualism unabashedly, which will prove to be crucial for democracy in China.

Yes, it is only a reality TV show in China, which many may brand as junk like most of the American reality shows. However, as I argued earlier, this Chinese reality show and what it represents leads us to higher hopes for democracy in China.

Dakota Fanning, Parenting, and Our Society

2005-07-12T23:49:00.000-07:00

I feel sorry for this poor little 11-year-old girl.

At her age, she should be an innocent sweetie. She is a sweetie all right, but unfortunately, she has lost her innocence at such an early age. I felt sickened and creepy when I was watching her on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show, wondering what (a bitch) she might become when she grows up. She was there talking with Leno like a 21-year-old woman, not even like the kind of classy ones such as Judie Foster or Scarlet Johansson, but the bitchy ones like Paris Hilton etc. There are many young actors/actresses in Hollywood, but rarely could we see someone like her, at such an early age while being so mature. The way she laughs, talks, waves her hands, and uses her body gestures and facial expressions, is just showing what kind of upbringings she has had from her parents.

Don’t get me wrong. I think she is really smart, and knows the world way much more than kids of her age or even those several years older. For God’s sake, she even knows who Fidel Castro is and what his name and image stand for in the United States. She is highly intelligent, and we have to admit that. But still, she is just an 11-year-old kid. She should talk and act as a kid, not like an adult, and even worse, a bitchy one.

I did not watch any of her movies before War of the Worlds. But I heard about her a lot. I just thought that she is one of the young actresses who are good. When I was watching War of the Worlds, a crappy Steven Spielberg movie and a big disappointment on all counts, I got the feeling that she looked and acted too mature for her age and was actually overacting. But later I forgave her because I thought that fits her character well, who was growing up in a broken family, living with her remarried mother for the week but visiting her irresponsible father for the weekend. As a kid growing up in that kind of family, her character might become mature before her age. So, I said, all right, maybe her character needs her to be mature and she is a good actress to act that out well. But, there is something that tells me that it is not that simple. I got the gut feeling that there is part of her true self in that character. She may well be that kind of girl, whom I have no better words to describe but bitchy.

And I was right. Watching her in real life (her public side) on Leno’s show, not in the movies, confirmed my gut feelings. She is indeed shallow and superficial, and bitchy. Not only that, her 7-year-old sister is becoming like that as well. According to Fanning, her little sister is obsessed with Marilyn Monroe and even wants to decorate her room exactly like Monroe’s. She heard there was going to be some auction of Marilyn Monroe’s personal items so she looked through the auction website and compiled a long list of things she wanted to buy, which are basically everything put on there for auction. Incredibly, her parents, and her grandma too, fully supported her. Her grandma spent almost 8 hours at the auction to bid on things for her 7-year-old granddaughter. Eventually she successfully won the bid of Monroe’s facial powder and cream, which cost her $600.

What kind of family is that? What kind of parents and grandparents would spoil their kids like this? I know that they are rich and all, but I seriously doubt all rich people would spoil their 7-year-old kids like that. From the fact that she compiled a long list of items she wanted to buy we can easily infer that she obviously thinks she is entitled to anything in the whole world, even though she may have not earned a penny yet. Maybe we should not blame a 7-year-old girl for that. What does she know? Apparently, her parents did not try to let the little girl know that you cannot simply just want anything in the world and you will then get it. You have to earn it. Unfortunately for both little girls, their parents failed their responsibility miserably. In fact, they only bought $600 worth of items because they lost other bids to someone else, not because they did not want their 7-year-old to have them.

But what do I know? Maybe the whole Fanning family is living off Dakota Fanning’s money, which she earned with her intelligence, labor, and good luck. I don’t fault the poor little Dakota per se, but her parents and their obviously failure to raise their kids in the right way. Oh well, you do not have to agree with me. You may say that her parents actually did a good job raising her because she is so successful in many people’s eyes. Actually, there are probably so many parents out there who wish they had a daughter like Dakota Fanning. The majority of the audiences at Leno’s studio cheered on as Fanning told her story about her little sister. Who knows how many more at home watching her are envying her parents? But again, who can really blame them for having that wish? The whole society we live in craves for that kind of success: fame, money, and vanity. No one can really escape.

It is not funny, nor admirable, people. It is sad, profoundly sad. And, it is wrong. Any mechanism or force that turns a 7-year-old or 11-year-old innocent kid into a 21-year-old talking head is fundamentally wrong.

我的眼泪你看见了吗

2005-07-10T22:31:00.000-07:00

我以为我知道
所有
关于爱情的事
我以为
我深深爱着
我还以为
我拥有爱情
拥有一切

可是
我突然发现
我很迷茫
我已经完全
失去了方向

我不知道
我原来并不知道
什么是爱
什么时候
陷入爱网
又是什么时候
爱情已不再

不是都说
爱情是
伟大的
纯洁的
神圣的
强烈的
吗

你也不是说
要
永结同心
百年合好
海角天涯
天皇地老
吗

可是为什么
为什么
相爱容易
相处却那么难

爱着
难道不应该是
美丽的吗
爱你
难道不是因为
你我触动了彼此
赤裸裸地见到了灵魂
从此
两颗寂寞的心
不再孤单

可是为什么
为什么
爱
会这么的脆弱
说没有了
熊熊燃烧的爱情之火
刹那间
就会变成
点点萤光
在黑夜里
消失得
无影无踪

曾经以为
我的世界不能没有你
可是现在
我已不相信爱情

没有
永恒的爱
没有
不变的心
不存在 “THE ONE”
你我都不是
彼此的
唯一

我也不再在乎
我的心意已绝
只是余情未了
一切都会过去
我们的爱情
也不会被传唱

我的眼泪你看见了吗
它在为你飞
它在为爱飞

To Go Back or Stay, That is the Question

2005-07-09T22:29:00.000-07:00

It has been almost 8 years since I first got here in the United States. I did not realize how long that was until I found out that one of the Chinese graduate students we admitted this year was born in 1984, which for me is recent memory. Eight years! Has it been that long? Unbelievable yet true. It really has been that long, especially when I think about how much China, the Chinese people, and myself have changed over the years.

Looking back at the time I spent in the United States, I have to say that I enjoyed it a great deal. During the 8 years, I went through most of the usual phases in life as any Chinese student here would: experiencing the cultural and language shock when first landed, getting used to the studies and lives in the United States, transferring schools or graduating and moving on, finding jobs and settling down, plus or minus a few things, like dating or breaking up, marriage or divorce, and having babies (and thus becoming parent of an American citizen) etc. Of course, there were times I wish I had done something that I did not vigorously pursue, or I wish I had not done the things that changed my life in a fundamental way, and forever.

During all those years, only three times had I visited China where all my family and friends are, winter of 1999, summer of 2001, and winter of 2004. I wish I had visited them more often. Each time I was back in China, I felt like I was traveling in a time-capsule and came back where I left: I had been away from China to some place where I did not have much memory of. In many ways, I had not changed much, but China and the things and people there changed so much that I could barely recognize them anymore. It was such a weird feeling. I remember I kept asking myself: had I really been in the United States? Did I really know how to drive a car? Had I really been in graduate school? Sometimes I felt all the time I had been in the United States was like a dream, which could disappear anytime without a trace.

The last time I visited China really came as a shock to me. I suddenly realized that I missed so much of the changes that occurred there. Suddenly I felt in my own country I was behaving like a stranger. It was a shock to me because I thought I knew China well all along: I read about China everyday, in Chinese or English, and I talked with my family and friends regularly. How could I have missed all these changes? The landscape, the traffic, the mentality of the people, and their way of life etc, all changed so dramatically, right in front of my eyes, yet I missed all. I felt happy for my mother country and the people there because mostly they changed for the better. But at the same time, I felt sad and confused, because I was not part of these dramatic and exciting changes, but an outsider, and I am not sure if I could ever become part of it again. But I know one thing for sure: If I ever want to become one of “them” again (so I can refer to “them” as “us”), I cannot stay here in the United States anymore watching as an outsider. Instead, I must go back and live there and really become part of everything that is happening there.

Sometimes, I wonder why I want to go back or if it is wise for me to permanently go back after so many years. The life in China is exciting, yes. There could be much more I can do and possible achieve, yes. All my family is there, and my friends too, yes. And the things I learned here in the USA have a market there and I can be of some greater use, yes. So on and so forth, and there are many more questions like these I can say yes to.

All these prospects are very appealing to me. But at the same time, I am not so sure about them because I think I could get most of these things as well, if not all, while staying in the United States. I could visit my family and friends more often, or work in the summer in China. And I could serve as a cultural bridge between China and the United States by going back and forth. However, there are things in the United States that I am comfortable with but are not easy to say goodbye to. I am used to the life and culture here. I love my job. More important, I have big American dreams here, besides enriching myself and elevating my own social and economic status, which could make my life exciting as well. In the past year or so, I began to think of staying and running for public office, possibly ten years from now in my 40s. I think with my knowledge, passion, devotion to the people, and love of public affairs, there is a real chance for me to get elected as State Representative, or even to the Congress. Who knows? It could happen. And I believe if I do this, I am not just doing it for myself, but for so many more people who could not do it for themselves. It is not an easy path, I know it, but that could keep me focused, and make my life thrilling and fun.

I know almost all Chinese who came here to study have faced or are facing such a dilemma: to go back home or stay. It is a real question that really has torn many of us apart. Maybe there is not a clear answer for it. It all depends. But I know in my own case, it is a decision that has be to be made soon. Whatever I decide, I wish I could be something greater than myself. And I believe, that, is why I am here on this earth.

So, Going back or staying? That is not really a question, at least for me.

The Clash of Civilizations and the War on Terror

2005-07-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, writes in his column today that the jihadist attack on the West is a Muslim problem, and therefore it calls for a Muslim solution. He argues that a suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and a jihadist attack in the heart of London is different because the former is a Muslim-Muslim problem while the latter is a civilizational problem. The West may have to respond by suspecting all Muslims in its midst terrorists and guilty until proven innocent. This could be deeply troubling, however, Friedman argues, because it would further alienate the Muslim youth in the West and around the world and the gulf between the Muslim world and the globalizing West could be enlarged, which is exactly what Bin Laden and his supporters wanted.

Friedman argues that given the fact that the Al-Qaeda networks around the globe are now widely distributed, horizontal, but highly organized, it is extremely difficult for the West to fight the war on terror without falling into the trap of Bin Laden of inciting the clash of two civilizations: the West against the Muslim world, which is not in the interest of either civilization. Therefore, the Muslim world and its leaders must shoulder the responsibility “to really restrain, inhibit and denounce its own extremists”, and recognize the fact that it has a jihadist death cult in its midst. Friedman argues that this is possible because some Muslim leaders have made some efforts on this path. For example, Palestine leaders have condemned terrorist bombing of Israel, and King Abdullah II of Jordan recently hosted a conference discussing taking back the Muslim faith from those who have tried to hijack it. But this has to go further and wider, Friedman points out, because for instance, “to this day, no major Muslim cleric or religious body has ever issued a fatwa condemning Osama bin Laden”.

The idea that there is a clash of civilization between the Muslim world and the West is not new. The war on terror is just a manifestation of it and further intensifies it. In Summer 1993, Samuel Huntington, a Harvard political science professor, published a widely circulated and extensively debated article in Foreign Affairs, The Clash of Civilizations, in which he advanced the hypothesis that the clash of civilizations, more specifically, the clash between the West and Muslim civilizations (along with its possible ally, Confucius, which is China) will become a dominant global political phenomenon in the post cold war era. The article drew praises and criticisms from all over the world.

Looking back, 12 years since its publication, it is eerie to observe that many of its predications seem to have materialized. The war on terror is widely viewed by many outside the West as a war against Muslim, even though Bush and others in the West insist it is not. In his column today, Friedman warns the Muslim world if they do not deal with the problem internally, “the West is going to do it for them. And the West will do it in a rough, crude way - by simply shutting them out, denying them visas and making every Muslim in its midst guilty until proven innocent.” Even though Friedman notes that this would be a disaster, which he prefers not to see happening, his warning is stern and serious and I think reflects the mood of the many people in the West, especially those who appeared on evening news programs tonight. A woman interviewed claimed that she is not a racist, but still she feels uneasy when she sits next to a man or woman of Mideast looks. And this, we have heard over and over again in the United States after 9/11.

Let’s see what Friedman does not say but implies in his column. Even though he praises the efforts of some Muslim leaders to take on the challenge of rooting out the problem within the Muslim world, he does not seem to have high hopes for them to succeed. Neither could the readers of his column seriously believe the Muslim leaders could unit and solve the problem internally, since as we all know, the Muslim leaders differ widely amongst themselves on even recognizing the existence of the problem and its causes, let alone dealing with it. That leaves a rather depressing, but realistic picture: the Muslim would not and could not deal with the problem on the own, and that is where Friedman’s warning kicks in: the West will do it for them, and will do it in a rough, crude way. This is exactly what is happening, the war on terror, both outside and inside the West. And Friedman is right: this is a disaster and very disturbing. As a result, the Muslim youth dislikes and hates the west even more, especially America, and the people in the West also become more and more weary of living in fear and uncertainty, which means the Muslims in the west will have a hard time, even though not likely as bad as the fates of the Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor.

There is another approach to this issue not discussed by Friedman. That is, even if in the case where the Muslim world could not deal with the problem on their own, the West could do it for them in a gentle, rather than the rough/crude, way. They could take actions to soften/win the hearts of the Muslim youth. What? I hear you are laughing. Yeah, you are right. It is naïve. Given the West’s interests around the globe, which many people in the non-west world deem as greedy and resent so much, the clash of civilization and the war on terror will likely continue in the foreseeable future.

This is rather depressing. Shoot!

P.S. On second thought, naïve as it may seem to be, the gentle approach of softening/winning the hearts and minds of Muslim youth has a better chance of success than the West’s rough and crude approach to the clash of civilization. I do not see the war on terror as a real or traditional “war” where you have milestones (battles, cease-fire etc). Therefore, on one hand it is very unlikely for either side to declare final/absolute victory, while on the other people fighting the war always feel the sense of frustration and failure. So, the war on terror is a war that has no end in sight and there are no exit plans on the part of the Bush and Blair coalition, either.

Again, it is very depressing!

A Special Day to Remember

2005-07-07T17:18:00.000-07:00

July 7, a special day to remember.

1. Blasts in London

July 7, 2005, London. Less than one day after London succeeded the bid for the 2012 Olympic Games, it was attacked. About 40 people died and hundreds injured. Condolences to the victims and their families.

Bush and Blair started the war on terror. When is it going to end? How many more lives will have to be lost? You can't even see where the attackers are and where they might attack next. As the Chinese saying goes: it is not as terrible that a thief steals from you than he always has you on his mind.

I guess that is what really scares people: you do not know where, when and how the next attack will be carried out.

2. The Start of Sino-Japanese All-out War

July 7, 1937, the Japanese lauched the all-out invasion of China, and thus officially began the Sino-Japanese war, which was fought over the next 8 years, and tens of millions of lives were lost. The Japanese committed unspeakable war crimes and atrocities against the Chinese people, including the Rape of Nanking (300,000 slaughtered), the 731 Battalion that used live human beings for experiements of making virus weapons, and numerous other murders and slaughterings (including one that happened in my hometown, a remote area deep in middle-central China, where more than 10,000 innocent civilians were slaughtered).

It is unbelievable that even to this day, July 7, 2005, the Japanese never apologized for the war crimes they committed against the Chinese people, and peoples of other Asian countries. It is also unbelievable that in the West, especially in the United States, there were so many people who criticized the Chinese people's protests back in April 2005 demanding for apologies and compensations from the Japanese. They say it is a thing of the past and China should look forward and forget about the whole thing. Well, tell that to the Jews if the German government officially enshrined Hitler and never apologized. Talk about double standard!

3. The Dreadful "Black July"

July 7, of course, until very recently, is also a day of fear for millions of Chinese high school seniors. It is the start of the three-day National Exams for College Admissions. Two recent developments may have made the day not as dreadful as before. A couple of years ago, the Ministry of Education changed the starting date of the exams to June 7 because the weather is not as hot as on July 7. Also, Chinese colleges and universities admitted far more students than before. Back in the days when Max took the exams, only about 700,000 out of 7 million students would be admitted. Max is not exactly sure how many are admitted these days, but it must be in millions. Of course, this created another problem: many millions more college graduates are on the job markets than before.

It is a spectacular view at the job market, which is more a like supermarket.

For Max, of course, July 7 1993 was the day that everything got started. Because of the fairness and competitiveness of National Exams, Max, son of a couple of Chinese farmers, got a chance to attend the best college in China, basically for free. We paid about $100 a year for tuition and room & board, and received all of that back in the form of stipend (about $8 a month). The four years in college was the best of Max's memories.

4. And, an Important Day in Personal History

Of course, July 7 also has another special meaning for Max personally. Although now it seems to have only historical significance, it will still always be a special day to remember in Max's life.

The Second Post: A Half Year Later

2005-07-07T15:19:00.000-07:00

It has been more than a half year since my last post. So much has happened in my life. So much has changed.

I almost forget that I have a blog space here. It has been too long. I tried hard to remember my user name and passwword. Fortunately, I did successfully retrieve all the information I needed to come back here.

Online existence is a way of life these days. Everyone is trying to share with the world what they think and observe, like anyone really cares. But, what the hell, I still want to share. Maybe, just maybe, there will be someone who bumps into this place, and resonates with what I think, and that will be a wonderful thing.

Also, by blogging here, I hope I can form the habit of writing down my thoughts everyday, many of which were unfortunately lost forever.

All right, enough said. Let's go!

First Post

2004-11-09T08:28:00.000-08:00

I have been studying and working in the United States for more than 7 years. With everything that is going on in this country and around the world, I more and more feel an urge to speak out what I think and observe.
Happy Blogging!
Max