Asia Blog: China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam

It’s been one year since the devasting Asian tsunami. People are still cleaning up.

You can read more at Yahoo or Google news.

Mourners from across the world wept, prayed and observed moments of silence along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines on Monday to remember those killed by one of nature’s deadliest episodes. A year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, a huge recovery operation has brought hope to hundreds of thousands of survivors. But the sorrow, pain and trauma remain strong — along with fears that monster waves could come again. [via]

According to this news release, a senior at UMass Dartmouth was visited by federal agents after requesting a copy of Mao’s
“Little Red Book” via interlibrary loan. This turns out to be a complete hoax, a fabrication by the student for unknown purposes.

BoingBoing notes:

[Y]esterday, the student confessed that he had made it up after being confronted by the professor who had repeated the story to a Standard-Times reporter. The professor, Brian Glyn Williams, said he went to his former student’s house and asked about inconsistencies in his story. The 22-year-old student admitted it was a hoax, Williams said.

Why is this important? Because it concerns a foreign nation’s politics and the US anti-terrorism effort. This unknown student’s lies connect Chinese propaganda with an American anti-terrist response. This reinforces a US-Chinese tension that is detrimental to friendliness between both nations.

Take a look at this story about the toxic water of Songhua river. What interests me is in the last paragraph:

Part of the suit asserted claims with respect to the water pollution on behalf of the fish and the environment. […] The suit was simply tossed out. Based on a colleague’s description of the decision, the court simply said that this is “not your concern.”

Call me naive, but isn’t the protection of the environment a universal human concern? I am all for industry and progress, but not at the expense of the earth we live on. Even if retroactive measures are taken against the polluters, they’ll still be effective future deterrents for future industrialists…

So I am currently studying mad amounts of chinese for my final, which means that I am writing all kinds of ?? out to try and learn them all 250+ of them before the final. So, for someone who doesn’t speak any chinese until this semester, that’s pretty hard! Today I was at home studying when my ex girlfriend (???) Kelly, who is from Shanghai (??), and in theory can speak Chinese (??), English (??), and Shanghainese (???), sent me an IM to say hi or whatever:

(17:34:51) KelLy: howz it going
(17:34:54) liten fugl: I am well.
(17:35:12) liten fugl: How about you?
(17:35:41) KelLy: still at work..but i’m tired

Naturally, since I am trying to write Chinese, and actually retain it, I ask her what the top radical of the characters I am currently writing mean. Those being ke ? and ?:

(17:41:24) liten fugl: Do you know what the radical on the top of ke and jia means?
(17:41:30) liten fugl: it’s three strokes…
(17:41:30) KelLy: yea?
(17:41:39) KelLy: huh?
(17:41:46) liten fugl: keren de ke, dajia de jia
(17:41:56) liten fugl: there’s a common radical on the top
(17:41:59) liten fugl: what is it?
(17:42:05) KelLy: uh…baseball hat?
(17:42:11) liten fugl: LOL
(17:42:16) liten fugl: I guess it looks like that.
(17:42:21) liten fugl: What is it, and what does it mean?
(17:42:39) KelLy: redskin?
(17:42:43) liten fugl: ….
(17:42:48) liten fugl: mian, meaning roof
(17:42:57) liten fugl: ok, dictionary > kelly
(17:42:58) KelLy: uh…rain and roof?

So, two lessons to be learned here, mostly about ex-girlfriends. Why on earth can’t they still be at least friendly and helpful if you have the most basic question? Why can’t they respect my desire to learn Chinese? A lot of my friends actually look down on me because I’m taking Chinese, and I get called “egg” or “asian fetisher” or who knows what else. I just want to learn the world’s oldest and most widely spoken language, get in on the next China boom, and enjoy the thrill of the structures themselves. Is that bad? To have academic passion?

It seems to me that the China’s great red wall hasn’t come down entirely. It may no longer be officially closed off from the west of the world, but there are Chinese people who themselves are unwilling to help foreigners learn more about their country, language, or culture. To me, this is a great shame, Kelly!

Did you know that Japanese singer Utada Hikaru goes to Columbia University and has a facebook profile?

It makes sense that she is so young, but it’s odd to imagine a celebrity singer you really like to be going to school in the United States and be on facebook! Don’t celebrities live in higher circles?

Update: Indeed they do. It’s just a random Columbia student…