Chinese Community Forum (CCF#2000-27), July 26, 2000
CCF Editors
===+==+==+== C h i n e s e C o m m u n i t y F o r u m ==+==+==+===
http://www.China-Net.org
http://www.China-Forum.org
Wednesday, July 26, 2000
(Issue No. 2000-27)
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
Chinese Community Forum (CCF) is an e-journal published on China-Net. CCF is
dedicated to the discussion on issues related to the Chinese community. The
opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the
Editorial Board of CCF. Contributions to the discussions and suggestions for
new topics are very much appreciated.
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=
# of
Table of Contents Author | Lines
===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***===========
1. Travelogue of the Third Kind .............................. Harry Wei 586
2. Human Rights vs. Human Rights .......................... Richard Low 108
3. On Corruption -- A Realist's Approach ..................... Ning Luo 121
4. Baseball Idioms ........................................ Roaring Lily 70
5. Deception in News ......................................... Ray Zhang 337
6. For Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Professionals and Students:
.................................................... ..... Harold Kung 71
7. Free Newsletter: China Legal Change ................. Theodore Spaeth 35
===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***===========
-- From The Editor --
Thank you for joining us again at the Chinese Community Forum. This week,
we have a summer journey of exploration narrated ny Harry Wei. He takes a
long look at a little girl's growing up pangs as she questions and
balances loyalties to several worlds. Ultimately she follows her mother's
hopes that she, Phoebe, will "be all you can be." Join in her quest.
Next up is a contribution from Richard Low, who examines the perpetually
controversial field of human rights. It is a growth experience, for he,
too, examines several worlds. Mr. Low contrasts the moralities of the
post-Constantinian West-- presumed to be a Christian perspective--and what
has happened as a result of Western nations ignoring the plight of the
Jews in World War II. He gives examples from other eras, other cultures.
We are left to examine for ourselves, what are human rights, where do they
start, and where do they stop?
>From there, we welcome Ning Luo's realistic appraisal of the "prevailing
moralistic sentiment" about corruption in China. A central inquiry seems
to be: "Should we blame most of the problems in China today on
corruption?" Read on: you, too, will begin questioning your most cherished
assumptions.
This week, Roaring Lily joins us again, not to make us question any
assumptions, but to raise awareness of culturally-embedded idioms in
American English. She herself did not realize how indebted our daily
speech is to words from the world of baseball. Can you give a ballpark
figure? Or hit a home run with your boss? Read on as she guides you
through this linguistic maze of summer word exploration.
Ray Zhang is just as determined to raise your conscience about the
presentation of news by the media. He gets on his high horse and proves
quite clearly how biased news can be when presented with hidden
assumptions and words loaded with connotations.
Finally, we round out this week's issue with two meeting announcements
from The Great Lakes Chinese American Chemistry Society and from Theodore
Spaeth about changing the legal system in China.
Thank you again and happy reading. On to our Humor Therapy.
===========***==========***==========**==========***==========***===========
Weekly Humor Therapy
If a mute swears, does his mother wash his hands with soap?
If someone with multiple personalities threatens to kill themselves, is it
considered a hostage situation?
Instead of talking to your plants, if you yelled at them would they still
grow? Only to become troubled and insecure?
Is there another word for synonym?
Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?
When sign makers go on strike, is anything written on their picket signs?
When you open a bag of cotton balls, is the top one meant to be thrown
away?
Where do forest rangers go to "get away from it all"?
Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
Why do they report power outages on TV?
What do you do when you see an endangered animal that is eating an
endangered plant?
Is it possible to be totally partial?
What's another word for thesaurus?
If a parsley farmer is sued, can they garnish his wages?
Would a fly without wings be called a walk?
Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean
them?
Why do people who know the least know it the loudest?
If the funeral procession is at night, do folks drive with their
headlights off?
If a stealth bomber crashes in a forest, will it make a sound?
If a turtle doesn't have a shell, is he homeless or naked?
When it rains, why don't sheep shrink?
Should vegetarians eat animal crackers?
If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell him he has the right to remain
silent?
Why is the word abbreviation so long?
When companies ship Styrofoam, what do they pack it in?
If you're cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Travelogue of the Third Kind .............................. Harry Wei 586
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Chinese Whale
I. Phoebe
The room was creepy -- Phoebe wouldn't say queer, although she knew the
word where her father could only abuse it. It wasn't straight -
rectilinear, rather -- Phoebe knew that, too, and liked to use it. It was
dark, except where it wasn't. Where it wasn't was a fine blend of the
setting sun and crescent moon and whatever the old dress mirror reflected
to the hardwood floor, sliced by outdoor leaves into a black-and-white map
of ever-changing borders. Occasionally, an ant or unnamable insect crawled
across the boundaries, with subtle gradation of shades telling the kind,
age, and life experience of the leaves. Mysteriously, the bugs would
disappear. There were not crevices on the floor big enough for the insects
to hide, but Phoebe knew where they went; she just wouldn't tell. The room
wasn't humid, for Phoebe felt cool in this windless evening. There were,
however, drops of water condensing on the walls, like pearls enjoying an
out-of-body experience outside an oyster, breathing with furtive pulses.
The most obvious thing in the room was a newly-opened crack, shooting
upward from the side of the window, in a suggestive, even hieroglyphic
way, and reaching the dusty ceiling, where it met the glistening web woven
by the invisible giant spider Phoebe knew had been there since the
apartment was built. She never bothered to tell her parents, and parents'
parents, about her knowledge of the spider, for they were hopeless people,
Muggles. For them, magic was the art of distraction and illusion. Phoebe
knew better; she knew magic as the pigments that gave life colors, or in
her colorful way of thinking, the nothing on which the real world stood.
But this has gone too far. Phoebe was not a geometer or entomologist. She,
supposedly, living in an unmagical world, should be thinking about some
thing else: the hairstyle she was going to sport next week when she would
meet her "merely second" cousin, for example. Or Britaney Spears, for
another. Phoebe did think about those things, when she had trouble
resting comfortably on the plane to Beijing. Now she had been comfortable
for a couple of weeks, all she had been thinking was Harry Potter, that
awesome world of his.
Compared to that world, so far China had been a serious disappointment to
her. Phoebe stepped to the balcony. It was closed off with aluminum frames
and sliding windows, out of the typical Chinese craving for space. The
makeshift solarium was hot, some sort of greenhouse effect, thought
Phoebe. It was a dry kind of greenhouse, as the flowers were folded in the
pots. For a second, she felt herself grow bodily, vegetating, if that's
the word. The room behind her, dark, but not without charm, became darker,
as the candle Phoebe shared with Harry Potter gave out. Sighing, Phoebe
slid open all the windows on the balcony; she liked the mystery of not
knowing which window Harry would choose to sneak out. Outside twilight was
stealing the city away. Refracted by heavy summer air, the light appeared
murky yellow, and people on the street had, to Phoebe, a touch of
impressionism about them, walking with exaggerated rhythm, shadowless, and
wearing clothes merging edgelessly into trees ...
But these were not that was depressing Phoebe. She could have easily told
her father all she was seeing were the things that she disliked the most
about China, when she was merely indifferent to them. Her thought was
difficult to explain, and to be fair, her father's question was too
profound to answer in one sentence: "Just why do you hate China?"
II. B & J
Phoebe didn't hate China. She just didn't want to go on a trip her parents
were looking forward to. She had no patience to answer her mother's
solicitous "whys" or her father's broad-brushed "whynots"; so she said
summarily, and rudely, when she was not in mood to do something, "I just
hate that."
So to her father's "why not see the beauties of China," Phoebe gave her
well-rehearsed pro forma answer, "But I hate China!" throwing her Harry
Potter to cover her face, to show that she wasn't amused.
"Just why do you hate China so much?" asked JoMo, in his rare, serious,
and inquisitive "why" mode. Phoebe was sorry that she probably had
offended 1.2 billion people with just four words. But she hated using
apology to get herself out of a tight spot when she could use humor.
"Because," said Phoebe, "I'm Joe, and I'm Canadian!"
JoMo laughed, nasally with short bursts, that choking way of laugh people
use in order not to laugh out loud. Phoebe's mother, BiGi, never much in
touch with TV, much less beer, was alarmed by her explanation and her
father's easy acceptance of it. "What are you talking about, Phoebe? What
is she talking about, Joe? Heavens, what's with you two!"
Phoebe's parents went to Three Gorges. To arouse her interest, Mother told
Phoebe the story of the Wu Mountain Goddess but didn't finish it. Not that
Phoebe was terribly interested in such fables; yet the way her mother
paused interested Phoebe, because the guilty smile, when she was to
explain the extended meaning of Cloud and Rain, reminded her of a picture
of Mother she was particularly fond of when her mother was in college, a
watercolor-like picture, with blooming cherry flowers and early spring dew
and the full blossom of youthful beauty Phoebe wished she would inherit
and never lose. Often times, Phoebe couldn't convince herself that the
watercolor girl was her mother, perhaps a former girlfriend of JoMo,
because Phoebe had always known her mother as Big Girl -- it was not even
a euphemistic name. Her father, very ironically to her, was Joe Montana.
III. NaiNai
Big Girl and Joe Montana had been gone for two days now. For two days the
TV reported heavy rains in upstream regions. Phoebe began to miss BiGi and
JoMo. In a dream, she saw the boat they were on tip over and sink. She
saw Big Girl ascending out of the waves, in her lost elegance, the Wu
Mountain Goddess as Phoebe imagined her. Joe Montana, however, never
emerged from the water. Phoebe imagined that he had become a fish. A Miami
Dolphin even. But never dead.
For two days Phoebe had tried to have more words with NaiNai, Joe
Montana's mother. NaiNai was different from BiGi because she wasn't openly
solicitous and she didn't like to sleep. She was unlike JoMo, too, because
she didn't like to talk. She had her own worries and joys. Her worry was
about YeYe, who was in hospital with "creepy" pains. NaiNai's joy, Phoebe
fancied, was her, the unspeakable kind, the kind unspoiled by whatever
words or opinions Phoebe might have to shock people and herself. So Phoebe
fancied that she loved NaiNai more than she loved BiGi and JoMo, at least
before B&J came back from Three Gorges. Just to take her mind off the
weather reports.
The next morning, NaiNai took Phoebe to the Farmer's Market. The market
wasn't far; NaiNai said it took her fifteen minutes to walk there. Phoebe
thought she could do it in less than ten, because NaiNai's way of walking
involved a lot of talking with people en route. The last time when Phoebe
accompanied NaiNai to the market, she remembered she was wearing a straw
hat, with dotted light blue (azure? Phoebe wondered) sash. It was BiGi's.
That journey took at least thirty minutes one way. NaiNai made stops more
often than a bus and was more talkative than JoMo. "Aye," she would say to
someone old and kind, "How is this or that?" and lifted, with methodical
adeptness, the front rim of Phoebe's hat. "Oh!" the old, kind person would
say, "who is this beautiful girl? Your granddaughter? My, really is
eighteen changes as a girl grows. Whom does she look like?" At this time,
Phoebe would lower the rim of the hat, waiting for NaiNai to lift it
again. "Come, let YeYe and NaiNai see."
"Like father," said one.
"Like mother," said another.
"Like grandma," said the third, who knew how to make NaiNai happy.
After a while, this became undramatic, or dramatic in the scripted way.
But Phoebe still enjoyed it. She was a little vain. In a healthy way,
Phoebe thought. But she was also curious whom people thought she looked
like the most, because she had a hard time believing that she had
inherited anything outward from either BiGi or JoMo, the way they looked
now. She fancied that she was adopted, and her real mother was a goddess.
Or a beautiful witch.
This time NaiNai waved to stop a cab.
"Do you legs hurt, NaiNai?" asked Phoebe.
"No. It's too hot," answered NaiNai.
Phoebe didn't say that the cab was even hotter, despite its air
conditioner turned to the maximum. Although Phoebe didn't hate China in
general, she did hate Chinese cabs. They were crammed, and smelt of
cigarettes. The cabbies cursed at almost everything, in very graphic ways.
Phoebe hated JoMo the most when they were together in a cab, because he
would always sit beside the cabby, sharing a smoke and maybe a coarse joke
uttered in the croak-like overtone of his native dialect.
NaiNai went into the market to return a watermelon that had turned sour.
Phoebe said she would wait outside in the shade of a tree the Chinese call
French parasol. NaiNai asked the cabby to wait; so he, too, parked his red
subcompact Citroen, what JoMo called French garbage, under the parasol.
The cabby was very polite to Phoebe, and asked her if she could speak
Chinese.
"A little," said Phoebe.
"Do you understand my accent?" asked the cabby.
"A little."
"Do you like China?"
"A little."
"Do you want a ice cream?"
"No. Thank you."
NaiNai came back and said she would take Phoebe to the biggest shopping
center in the city. It was called Asia Commerce Square. It wasn't really a
square, less so than Times Square was a square. It was a 12-storied
building surrounded by bare red earth, heavy machinery, and circles of
street hawkers, beggars and entrepreneurs peddling Chinese cosmology.
Phoebe saw a very old and decrepit man reading the palm of a boy about her
age. Lord Voldemort, Phoebe laughed at her finding.
Phoebe didn't buy much from Asia Commerce Square. She liked the golden
necklace with a spinning diamond pendant, but thought NaiNai wouldn't
carry 4000 yuan around and wouldn't ask her to spend such a sum to satisfy
an unhealthy vanity anyway. So she bought herself a hair net sprayed with
fake gold, the kind ballerinas wore to round their hair into a bun. She
bought BiGi a bracelet made of a sort of embroidered china. Phoebe spent
the most time on JoMo, eventually picking a decorative fishing hook big
enough to catch a whale.
On the way back, NaiNai looked tired. The day before she spent had many
hours in the hospital with Yeye and his doctors and creepy pains.
"How is Yeye?" asked Phoebe.
"He is okay," said NaiNai, "except he is getting old."
"Am I not getting older all the time?" said Phoebe. "Older is older than
old, isn't it?"
"Little sophist," smiled NaiNai. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"
"My father want me to be a lawyer."
"How about your mother?"
"She wanted me to join the Army."
"You are joking, BeiBei," said NaiNai. "She wouldn't."
"Yes, she does," said Phoebe, blinking smartly, "she said 'be all that you
can be.'"
"So? I don't get it."
"It's a long story."
"Let's hear the short one then. What's your idea?"
"I want to be a concert pianist."
"But your mother said you hated piano."
"That's exactly the point."
Phoebe heard NaiNai gave a little sigh, and was sorry for her moodiness,
for she didn't want NaiNai to think that she was unhappy with BiGi and
JoMo, when she was merely unhappy with herself.
"What did you want when you were little, NaiNai?" asked Phoebe.
"New cloth. For Chinese New Year."
"Did you get it?"
"Sometimes."
"Were you happy when you got it?"
"Yes. Very much."
"Were you sad when you didn't?"
"Yes, very sad," slowly said NaiNai, "but not for very long."
"What things would keep you sad for very long, NaiNai?"
NaiNai paused for a minute and said, "I don't know."
"I'm sad," said Phoebe.
NaiNai looked sleepy and kept her silence.
"I wish I were blind," sighed Phoebe.
NaiNai turned her sight to the outside. The cab was crawling slowly in the
tacky traffic. The flow of things had a serpentine way about it, as
pedestrians and cars interwove into knots. It took fair bits of honking,
cursing, near-misses, and impromptu acrobatic for the knots to untie
themselves, so that a worse ensnarlment could develop. The sky was
overcast with featureless smog. The buildings, even the new ones, looked
sickly gray and had a streetward lean. The boulevard, as NaiNai remembered
it, used to be broad, clean, sparse, and walked on by people incapable of
sadness. It was supposed to be the worst of time, when people were dying
of starvation and other cataclysms. Yet it was also a time of thrill, of
foolish ways, of the jerky pace her children seemed to grow. She knew the
answer to Phoebe's question. She was fearful that Phoebe was sensing the
long-lasting sadness when people became obsessed with their mortality.
"Don't be silly, BeiBei," said NaiNai. "Children can't be really sad."
IV. A Pig
Phoebe was really sad. Her sadness had to do with a truck that was moving
besides the cab, sometimes ahead, sometimes dropping back, as if to draw
Phoebe's attention. It was an old, military-style truck retrofit with a
cage. The cage was subdivided into several compartments for the
transportation of its cargo. The truck would have easily escaped Phoebe's
attention and spared her a new round of sadness, if not for that pair of
eyes. If Phoebe focused on the eyes, they looked human. As the cab and
truck jostled, this pair of eyes didn't blink or change their thoughtful
way of gazing at a distance, as if remembering the idyllic country life
their owner until recently enjoyed with all that was dear to him.
"Shoo!" Phoebe rolled down her window and waved her finger to draw the
eyes.
The young thing continued the gaze. "Hey!" Phoebe tapped on the panel of
the cab. The pig stirred and looked at Phoebe between the bars. Having
succeeded in drawing the attention, Phoebe was speechless. She could only
move her finger on the panel in wavy lines and cycloid figures. In her
heart she had said many times "How are you" to the pig, but couldn't utter
it. Not because she was mindful of how silly this would appear to NaiNai,
but because of the many pork chops she had eaten. It would be more than
disingenuous.
The pig half-rolled to lie on his side, its eyes fixed on that part of the
sky not blocked by the cage, looking at a dissolving cloud.
"What are you doing, BeiBei?" asked NaiNai.
"Look at the pigs."
"Have you ever seen pigs before?"
"Only on TV. I think they are cute."
"NaiNai."
"Um."
"Are they sending the pigs to the slaughterhouse?"
"Not really. They are still young."
"How do they kill pigs?"
"Knifes, I suppose."
"Have you seen a pig being killed?"
"Sort of. Maybe no. I ran away."
"Did the pig squeal?"
NaiNai looked at Phoebe with alarm. Phoebe looked back with insistence.
"No," slowly answered NaiNai. "It didn't."
"Why would it not squeal?"
Neither Phoebe nor NaiNai said anything in the cab afterwards.
V. The Chinese Whale
After she got home, Phoebe had her siesta. She fell asleep quickly and
didn't have any nightmare as she feared. While she slept, cicadas sang in
the trees, which were swaying in gentle breezes. There was a short, light
drizzle, just enough to wet the road so that the zipping sound of cars
passing would wake up Phoebe. Phoebe lay on the bed and felt like she had
to sneeze. She thought it was because of the dust falling down from the
spider web on the ceiling. She missed BiGi, because BiGi liked to sleep
and Phoebe liked to crawl into her blanket and let BiGi make and unmake
her hair.
Phoebe heard the sound of keys turning in the lock. And then a series of
sounds, corresponding roughly to the folding of an umbrella, dropping of
keys on the coffee table, turning on of the TV in the living room, opening
of the tap water into perhaps a pan, and a heavy sort of thumping made by
things dropped into water. Phoebe also heard splashing and bubbling
sounds, and NaiNai's uncharacteristic impatient voice: "You wanna die now,
do you? Stay and be quiet."
Phoebe put on her sandals and tiptoed to the wash room where the water
sounds came from. NaiNai was sweeping water splashed out of the plastic
pail into the toilet pit which Phoebe hated so much. She thought seeing
one's own waste was the grossest thing in the world -- she would rather
see the carcasses of roadkills which had previously topped her most hated
list.
"What is this?" asked Phoebe.
"A fish."
"I know it's a fish, but what's its name?"
NaiNai uttered some Chinese name. Phoebe didn't bother to ask more and
squatted by the fish's side and asked: "Can I touch it, NaiNai?"
"It's a little slimy," said NaiNai. "Your mother wouldn't approve it."
"But my father would!" said Phoebe, happily. The fish didn't feel slimy
to Phoebe at all. It was cool, almost icy to the touch. It was a big one,
more than a foot. It was black, or the darkest gray, and had a shape that
reminded Phoebe of a killer whale or submarine. It was powerful for its
size, as its flat head slammed onto Phoebe's palm and crashed the back of
her hand to the side of the pail. As if sensing a way of escape, the fish
coiled and uncoiled its body in a split second and made a rolling jump out
of water, just like the way killer whales fly, and just enough to reach
the rim of the pail. But its scaleless body was too slippery and its fins
too weak to hold on. Almost in slo-mo, the fish slid back into the water.
It was only this time when Phoebe saw where the eyes of the fish were.
They were rather small. To Phoebe's surprise, the eyes didn't show any
frustration or sadness, but a sort of naughtiness, curiosity, even
happiness. The fish snapped its tail and dove to the bottom of the pail to
rest.
"NaiNai, is this a baby whale?"
"No. It's a fresh-water fish."
"But it looks like a whale!"
"You think so?" observed NaiNai. "It doesn't breathe above water, you see?"
"It must be a Chinese Whale!" exclaimed Phoebe, with the conviction of an
Eureka moment. "It must be. China makes strange things." NaiNai shook her
head and let Phoebe have her free turn with fish taxonomy.
"Can I keep it as a pet?" asked Phoebe.
"Sure," said NaiNai. "for three days."
"Why only three days?"
"In three days your father and mother will come back, and we will eat it."
"It was your father's favorite fish."
Phoebe didn't bother to point out the irony.
On the first of Chinese Whale's three days of mercy, Phoebe tried to
bargain with NaiNai to save the fish's life. NaiNai smiled and said,
"Sure, you can keep it for as long as you want. But it wouldn't live for
long in a pail."
"Then we can throw it into the lake!"
"The lake was dirty. There hasn't been a fish there for many years."
"Then where did the fish come from. From sea?"
"Lakes in the countryside. Wild ones. Where ..."
"I know," Phoebe cut off NaiNai. "Where there was no power plant, refinery,
chemical factory, and pharmaceutical lab. Imagine that!"
NaiNai didn't see the allusive irony in Phoebe's voice, and nodded,
"Exactly."
"So it wouldn't make sense for us to hire a cab and take the whale to the
countryside and throw it into a wild lake because it was such a freak, a
freshwater whale, and would be eaten by other xenophobic fish anyway?"
"I'm sorry, BeiBei," said NaiNai. "I shouldn't have bought the fish."
"No. I should be sorry, NaiNai. I've figured it out," Phoebe's eyes
brightened, in a witching sort of way. "Like Dad says, there are many facts
of life. You can't resist but learn. So how do we kill it?"
"We don't kill it, BeiBei," meaningfully said NaiNai. "We wait for it to
die."
"What if it isn't dead when dad and mom come back?"
"Then they wait together with us."
On the second day, NaiNai received a call from YeYe's hospital and hurried
off. She gave Phoebe the cell phone number of JoMo's younger brother, just
in case, but said nothing about Chinese Whale. NaiNai said Uncle and Aunt
would bring her lunch but Phoebe said she'd rather take care of the lunch
herself.
For the entire morning, Phoebe resisted the temptation to play with
Chinese Whale by reading Harry's adventure at Azkban for the third time.
The fish seemed to sense its loneliness and was flapping its tail and
making the water stir. The stalemate was broken by Phoebe's hunger and
need to make lunch. Phoebe was to make a peanut butter sandwich. But on
passing the door of the wash room, her feeling of hunger was gone. She was
bewitched by a strange thought. It was an imagination more magical than
sad, for unlike pork chops, Phoebe had no idea how Chinese Whale would
taste.
Phoebe sat on the stool besides the pail, elbows on her lap and chin in
her cupped hands, gazing at Chinese Whale. She had a faint recollection of
the saying that a week was a year in a dog's life, or something like that.
For a Chinese Whale that ratio of exchange ought to be multiplied. The
Whale perhaps had overheard NaiNai's verdict that it would be waited to
death. Eagerly it agitated in the water as soon as Phoebe sat down. The
room was small and had a small window covered by blinds half open to
apricot trees on a mild slope. The window was open and wayward wind came
in, knocking the blinds about and making rustling sounds. Every time that
happened, the Chinese Whale flipped in the water to make a symphonic echo.
"I know," said Phoebe, sadly. "You want to escape."
Chinese Whale stopped its commotion and floated, majestically, only its
fins trembling ever so slightly to keep its body and senses balanced.
"But where can I take you? NaiNai is gone. I don't have a key. If I walk
ten minutes from the apartment, I'd not know my way home. See, we are so
much alike, only that I've got a much longer time to wait. So cheer up."
Chinese Whale seemed to accept Phoebe's logic and descended to the bottom
of the pail. To wait. While it was absorbed by reflection of its fate,
wrinkles spread on the surface of water, for Phoebe felt so bad for the
Whale and herself. Slowly she dipped her hand into the water and touched
the tail of the Chinese Whale. There was a willing and tender submission,
as Phoebe felt the Whale's slithery body warm and soften in her hand and
its fins tickling her palm lines, the kind of itch she could least bear.
In that moment of touch, Phoebe felt certain the thing she had to do for
the whale as its master. For the rest of day, Phoebe played with Chinese
Whale, like she would never believe she could. She made paper boats and
ordered the Whale to wreck it. She took out a fork and pretended she was
Captain Ahab dueling with Moby Dick, knocking the wooden legs of the stool
to enhance the feel. Then she told Chinese Whale the story of Free Willy
but explained that Willy was a real whale and could live in salty oceans.
"You couldn't, could you?" sighed Phoebe.
On the third day, NaiNai went out before Phoebe woke up. Uncle MoJo was
there to greet her when Phoebe came out of her room to have her morning
wash. MoJo told her that NaiNai was in the hospital again and spared
Phoebe his routine teasing remarks about her hair. He was dialing number
after number, until finally he reached the one he wanted and asked for
JoMo. They talked in whispers, in a conversation Phoebe wouldn't bother to
eavesdrop anyway.
"Uncle Mo," asked Phoebe when she walked out of the bathroom. "When will my
Dad come back?"
"Tonight," said Uncle MoJo.
"Isn't it supposed to be tomorrow afternoon?"
"Right," said Uncle MoJo, as he picked up his car key. "There are changes.
You be a good girl and stay put. I'll call you. Your aunt will, too."
"Thanks. I'll be fine," said Phoebe, lazily.
Phoebe couldn't stay lazy for long, because JoMo and BiGi's
earlier-than-expected arrival had hastened the execution of her plan. The
largeness and daring of the plan, however, slowed down her pace, as she
had never done this before, and subconsciously she was using her slowness
as a way to debate the pros and cons of her decision. After the siesta
time, Phoebe's pace picked up. The air in the wash room was quieter than
yesterday. Chinese Whale glanced at Phoebe when her business brought her
near, that trustful gaze pets cast at their masters, but make no fuss
otherwise.
When Phoebe left the apartment, she was calm and didn't forget to leave
the door open because she didn't have the key. There were two doors, in
fact, with many safety gadgets and anti-theft mechanisms. Phoebe didn't
know how NaiNai would react when she got home e arlier than her, seeing
the doors open and her granddaughter nowhere to be found. Phoebe thought
about writing a note to NaiNai, but couldn't find words to express
herself. She could barely write her own name in Chinese.
The pail, half full with water, was heavier than Phoebe had expected. The
air, free of air-conditioning, was thicker and more pungent and made
Phoebe feel surer of herself. She flung the backpack to her shoulders and
carried the pail with both hands. Still, the water spilled as Phoebe
walked downstairs, wetting her skirt. Water, in which Chinese Whale had
swam for three days, slowly curled around Phoebe's shins and gathered
under her soles so that each step she took she felt the life draining out
of Chinese Whale. She must hurry.
"So here we are," panting heavily, Phoebe wiped her forehead and slumped
to the grassy ground. She was among the apricot trees Chinese Whale longed
for as a prisoner.
"So here we are, Whale," Phoebe repeated for emphasis. "I'm sorry I am too
little. I can't carry you to a better place. But here we are."
Phoebe took the backpack off. It was stuffed beyond the maximum extent.
Patiently Phoebe took out the contents. First there came a bamboo sheet.
Then the pillow Phoebe had been sleeping on with a matching bamboo cover.
Then a book, not Harry Potter, but Phoebe's diary book, and a pen.
Carefully Phoebe placed the pail in the shade. She set herself up
comfortably beside, lying on the bamboo sheet with the open diary book
covering her face, as if to have an outdoor siesta. There were birds
hopping about between branches and they stirred momentarily as Phoebe
entered among them, but soon quieted down. The apricot flowers had long
fallen. The wild fruits were beyond ripe. Those still hanging on the trees
had long past their edible stage and were dissolving, in extravagant
pungency, to shed their useless weight. Those on the ground had already
their seeds partly exposed to sweet-craving ants and occasional bees and
beetles.
Phoebe tied two ends of a handkerchief and put it inside the pail. It
floated like a wreath on the water. Chinese Whale tried hard to please its
master, because it knew this would be the last game they would play
together. But three days of waiting had robbed it the strength and it
could only make a lame flip of the tail as it tried to jump through the
hole. The wreath began to sink and Phoebe picked it up and shouted:
"Jump!"
The water was placid. Chinese Whale didn't move but its eyes opened, the
widest they could open, and they were teary to Phoebe. So Phoebe cried.
Phoebe wrought the kerchief clean of water and untie the knot and put it
in the water again. That way, Phoebe figured, it could float longer and
would also shield the Whale from the sun, which was setting and began to
cast light directly on the water. An apricot fruit fell into the pail.
Startled, Chinese Whale retreated, tightly pressing its body against the
wall. Water rushed through the ripped skin of the apricot and soon the nut
separated and sank.
"Whale, didn't you envy the apricots yesterday? Now you see, they, too,
were waiting for their turn." Phoebe took out the kerchief and twisted it
and squeezed out all the squeezable water.
Thusly Phoebe drained the pail of its water.
"Whale, do you know about evolution? The way things change into other
things, better things. Most times, Mrs. McDarwin said, evolution is slow.
But sometimes, it's rapid. She said the fast way is called mutation, how
genes suddenly change themselves into more powerful genes. She said
mutation is random mostly, but sometimes it could be brought about by
environment. Things all want to live; so they work hard to adapt. Look,
the water is almost gone now, your environment has changed. Can you
change? Can you breathe? Like a real whale? Breathe. Smell the apricots.
Think how you have wanted them. Then sink them into your heart!"
Three quarters of Chinese Whale's body were above water now. Its mutation
apparently happened in other ways, as it understood Phoebe's exhortation
before it could breathe. So it tried, in the long rhythm set by Phoebe's
deep Yoga-like breath. For a moment it succeeded: The evening air entered
its half-open mouth and filled its inside with the ecstasy of mutant
power. In that moment it had an unrefracted view of the evening sky, the
crescent moon, the birds, sadly perched on the branches looking down, and
a girl named Phoebe who understood so much while so young. Chinese Whale
felt terrible that it had to disappoint the girl.
"Are you with me, Whale?" said Phoebe, eyes cast at the top of the apricot
trees where the moon was gliding over. "Want to hear a poem I wrote for
you? It is short. Won't interrupt whatever you are doing. Here it goes:
What's between
An inhale and exhale
A still frame of a life in repose?
Or the endless waiting
Of a Chinese Whale?
Now you tell me."
VI. The End
Both doors of NaiNai's apartment were open when Phoebe came back. She
hesitated before entering. She was afraid that NaiNai was not in. Only in
intense panic could NaiNai fly out of the door without closing it, the
panic of finding that her granddaughter not in a cat-like repose on the
couch, watching TV or reading. But Phoebe figured she had to deal with it.
NaiNai was inside, sitting in a strangely ceremonial position on the
couch.
"NaiNai." Phoebe called timidly into the unlit room.
"BeiBei!" NaiNai's voice had not its characteristic calm. It was not one of
panic or worry. It was a mixture of sob and wail. "You ... I ... I need to
tell you ..."
It all became clear to Phoebe now. She ran close to NaiNai and hugged her
as tightly as she could. "I'm sorry, NaiNai. I am sorry. I'll never
believe in magic. I ... I loved YeYe."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
2. Human Rights vs. Human Rights .......................... Richard Low 108
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The idea of human rights did not truly come into its own until the rise of
Nazi Germany because of its inhuman laws authorizing the dispossession and
extermination of Jews and other minorities, permitting arbitrary police
search and seizure, and condoning imprisonment, torture, and execution
without public trials. Then how could human rights come into conflict with
one another? Well, they could, and they have. What a shame!
In this short piece, three cases are presented which may serve to
illustrate how difficult it is to make the idea universal. The first case
takes place in the Middle East, the second in Northern Ireland, Britain,
and the third in South Carolina, USA.
The Middle East
Nazi atrocities during World War II have left not only a huge indelible
black spot on Western civilization, but also a big black blot on the
conscience of the Westerners. If so, would not one expect the Westerners
to make up to the Jews by offering adequate compensations? Which the
Westerners have done. The Germans have been paying billions upon billions
to their Jewish victims, and the Westerners have been helping the Jews to
re-establish their homeland, but at the inhuman expense to the
Palestinians.
Were the Palestinians, the Romans, or Italians, or even any other
non-Semitic outsiders, the Jews would have a perfectly legitimate right to
retake their land by whatever means at their disposal, plus Western aid to
the tune of nearly a quarter of a trillion US dollars since the end of
World War II. But,unfortunately, the Palestinians are just as native to
that piece of land as the Jews, if their Old Testament is to be believed.
Hence, a case of the human rights of the Jews versus the human rights of
the Palestinians.
The Orange Order in Britain
An AP dispatch from Belfast, Northern Ireland, on Thursday, July 13,
described how more than 80,000 members of the Orange Order, Northern
Ireland's Protestant fraternal group, marched across Northern Ireland the
day before, vowing to protest against British security forces until they
regain their right to parade through Catholic areas. It is easy to see
that the Catholics there would surely regard such an act as an insult and
a humiliation. Otherwise, we would not have read or heard about the
decades of bloodshed there in the media.
Thus, one has found freedom fighters and terrorists in the same persons in
Northern Ireland. Beauty is indeed in the eyes of the beholders! Then, a
case of Orangemen's human rights versus Irish Catholics' human rights.
The Confederate flag in the USA
This above story in Britain brings to mind a similar one in this great
country of ours, though no longer a British colony, about the South
Carolinians' rally to honor their Confederate flag and their determination
to see it fly it over the capitol dome* in Columbia, South Carolina. They
claim it to be their right to preserve their Southern heritage. Again, it
is not difficult to see that the blacks would surely regard such an act as
an insult and a humiliation; hence, the ongoing boycott.
It may be mentioned in passing that those Orangemen in Northern Ireland,
Britain, and these white South Carolinians in the USA, although separated
by the wide Atlantic Ocean, appear to be sharing the same tradition and
the same heritage. Just look at the trouble that the GOP presidential
candidate Gov. George W. Bush got himself into following his campaign
speech at the Bob Jones University there
How intriguing!
Finally, a case of white South Carolinians' human rights versus black
South Carolinians' human rights. So whose human rights does the West
intend to promote? And how to resolve such conflicts? It is no wonder that
the respected former editor of _The National Interest_, Dr. Owen Harries
in his 1994 _National Review_ article implicitly questioned the propriety
of the United States' high-handed promotion of human rights in the Third
World and their use against China saying: "The West has regularly behaved
toward non-Western governments for the last two to three centuries; i.e.,
they have laid down the law from the presumed position of superior
enlightenment, making their demands not in terms of merely Western values
but of universal ones; or, more accurately, acknowledging no difference
between the two: Western values are universal.
Could the refusal of the Downing Street and the White House to do anything
to uphold their own underdogs human rights be looked upon as a reflection
of the West's "superior enlightenment"?
In reality, what is happening in the Middle East, Northern Ireland and
South Carolina constitutes an embarrassment to Western values. Therein
lies the dilemma for a so-called democracy -- to ban or not to ban an act
that infringes upon another fellow countryman's human rights. Which then
brings into question the universality of human rights.
Had Marshall Josip Tito been alive--he, no admirer of enlightenment--
would have banned the Orangemen from ever holding their parade in Catholic
areas and the white South Carolinians from ever flying their Confederate
flag over any public ground!
* Although the flag no longer flies over the dome, the flag issue has
not been resolved to the satisfaction of either the whites or the blacks
there.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. On Corruption -- A Realist's Approach ..................... Ning Luo 121
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
(responding to "About the mainland Chinese looking for a job in NZ" )
It strikes me that the discourse on corruption in China among Chinese has
a prevailing moralistic sentiment. A contrasting approach would focus on
the economic measure, the cost-effectiveness and operability of
alternatives, and the proportion of the issue among all major challenges
that China is facing.
First, I would like again to point out that there is a serious lack of
qualitative and quantitative measures on corruption and its economic
effects. If we are really serious about solving the problem, not just
venting our moralistic frustration, we cannot satisfy ourselves by
dwelling in the endless stories of bribery and other unfair advantages
taken by the people at certain positions. Bribery is only one form of
corruption, a relatively primitive one. There are many other forms that
cause damages no less debilitating. We need to identify the forms that can
be categorized as corruption in practice. One needs first to separate
activities that are legitimate/illegitimate (allowed/prohibited by
standing legal and regulatory codes) and that are fair/unfair. An activity
that is legitimate/illegitimate is not necessarily fair/unfair. Of course,
the legitimacy and fairness are intertwined. The unfair regulations should
be amended. It is here that we begin to touch the center of the issue:
How are the codes written?
By whom?
Who will benefit from it?
By how much?
At the end of day, the question is: What alternative can you propose? We
may not like the reality we see, but if we cannot propose some
implementable and operable alternative that will alleviate the problem,
all talks remain as talks.
We must recognize that there has been a fast build-up of Chinese legal
system and code in the last decade. This is the first step in the right
direction. For many people, this development has not dampened the
pervasive corruption, and it has become the source of great discontent.
However, we need to have a little historic perspective here.
After the Civil War, the American economy went on a fast expansion in both
geographic and technological dimensions. The American legal and
governmental institutions did not catch up with the profound economic and
social changes brought about by the fast expansion until the Great
Depression. The period in between produced many Robber Barons and
numerous urban slums. What China underwent in the last 25 years in terms
of economic expansion and social transformation has few comparisons in
world history, probably the only close parallel is what the U.S. went
through between the 1860s and 193's. Looking from this perspective, one
has to recognize that Chinese government has not done a bad job in
maintaining the social cohesiveness and in moderating the wealth divide
between the rich and poor, so far.
The complimentary appraisal aside, there is an enormous amount of work to
be done, and done quickly. Whatever the problems are, China cannot
forward based on moralistic consideration alone. One must always ask the
questions: What are the viable alternatives? How much economic and social
benefits they will bring to us? What are the costs for carrying through
the changes?
Finally, it is important to keep in mind that although corruption is a
serious problem in China's development, there are many other problems and
challenges. It is important to keep the corruption issue at its
proportion. Should we blame most of the problems in China today on
corruption? Should we place anti-corruption at the top priority?
To continue:
There is a whole spectrum of attitudes toward corruption (let's assume we
have agreed at least on some forms of it, such as bribery), from
condemning it as evil to be eliminated ... to some economists' view that
it is a necessary lubricant for economic operations.
It would be rewarding for us to learn how the U.S. evolved in the last 100
years or so, since it is considered by many as the model in contrast to
many "corrupted" societies. We must recognize the American ingenuities in
incorporating the extra-institutional activities into the system.
For example, if you look at the parallel historic evolutions of Wall
Street and the federal regulatory bodies (the Fed, SEC, FTC, etc.), you
see that instead of trying to eliminate perceived unfair advantages of a
few, the broad approach they have been taking is trying to
institutionalize the outside channels, bringing them up above ground, into
the open, so that more people would have opportunities to access them.
There is much less corruption now then 100 years ago, because it would
cost them much less to pursue in legitimate ways in most cases.
There is a big ongoing debate in this election year on political
contributions to "soft money." This is one of the key channels that make
the rich people and politically active groups gaining disproportionate
influence over government powers. Is it a form of corruption? Is it fair?
Is it evil?
It is very interesting and education for us to follow the open debate and
behind-scene maneuvers on this issue.
If we take commercialization of society as floods, the American approach
is like Da Yu's approach to the flood of Yellow River, trying to establish
channels to guide it, rather than trying only to block it.
Where do you place this approach within the moral spectrum with evil and
lubricant as its two polarities?
Nowhere. It is simply not a moralistic approach. If you see corruption as
evil, you would of course want to block it. If you see it as a lubricant,
leave it free. Both are actually simple.
However, if you try to guide the "outside" activities inside, there are
many, many ways to do it.You would have to understand its economic
origins. You would have to compare various paths to see which one
optimizes the solution. It would be much more laborious than simply
labeling corruption as evil or good. But it is, IMO, the only productive
approach.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
4. Baseball Idioms ........................................ Roaring Lily 70
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
SOURCE: <www.edweb.sdsu.edu/triton/ideas98/SANCHEZ.HTML>
A love of team sports unify Americans. An understanding of this will guide
your knowledge of American idioms, since sports idioms bridge the gap
between language and culture. When understood and used, idioms derived
from baseball will enrich the lives of all who live and work in America.
Baseball is America's pastime. It is the great equalizer: in no other game
here is a single man pitted against a team of nine. The batter faces a
distant outfield, comprised of a left fielder, a center fielder, and right
fielder. He must get around the infield, comprised of the first baseman,
the second baseman, the shortstop, and the third baseman. The batter's
greatest challenge is to contend with the pitcher and the catcher.
Playing ball under these circumstances is much like a lone David facing
nine Goliaths.
Striking out is the worst fate that a batter can face. Generally, it
means he has swung and missed three balls that have gone across home
plate. A ball hit out of bounds--a foul ball--if caught, can also retire
the batter, creating an out for his team. Three outs and his team has
played their half of an inning. When a man strikes out at any enterprise,
it means he has failed. A common legal phrase is "three strikes and you're
out." Although the expression has its roots in baseball, it refers to
incarceration laws in several states: three arrests for crimes and the
maleficent goes to prison. A foul ball thus can be either a doer of
misdeeds or a vile canard.
When a batter hits a single, he makes it to first base. A teenager who
wants to date might tell his friends, "Yes, I made it to first base with
X. We're going out on Saturday." If he favorably impresses the young lady,
he has hit a home run, succeeded. A couple that ge salong immediately has
hit it right off the bat, which alludes to the batter making good contact
with a pitched ball, perhaps a home run. A homer means he has hit it out
of the park, allowing him to go around all the bases and cross the plate
for a run.
However, a home run is not the ultimate that a batter can hope for. That
would be a grand slam, meaning he hit a ball out of the ballpark while
three of his team mates were on the bases, called bases loaded. Thus, a
batter who hits the rare grand slam has driven in four runs for his team.
Likewise, a businessman who hits a grand slam or hit a four-bagger or
round-tripper has achieved a coup for his company. Sometimes the boss
will ask for a ballpark estimate of how much a new deal will cost. A young
man who is on the ball has all the figures at his command. If he does not,
he is off-base.
Baseball is a game of statistics, just like the tallies on the stock
market. We keep score of a game, of a team, or of a batter's progress
throughout the season. Rarely will batters hit .300 or above during a
season; he must deal with the constant specture. No wonder he wants to
remain on the ball, or keen for competition. In the business world, when
there is a crisis, companies start playing hardball. A most apt example is
how the U.S. Justice Department is dealing with Microsoft. When the two
sides begin to cooperate, they are playing ball, or calming down. However,
a bone of contention between the parties might be called throwing a curve
ball. The parties retreat and allow their lawyers to touch bases, i.e.,
negotiate.
We go to bat for our side when we finally tire of the finally had enough
of the other side's conduct--that is, offer moral support or total
committment. However, we do not have to be Bill Gates to want to bat a
thousand, that is, triumph all the time. Baseball is, however, a humbling
sport, a struggle of one against many.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
5. Deception in News ......................................... Ray Zhang 337
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
When I was a kid, I had always been amazed by "optical illusion" pictures
-- you know, the kind that you thought was showing one thing until you
examined closely and came to find out it's about something else. Ever
since then, I have always been very impressed by artists' ability to
"twist things around."
Growing up in China, I was taught and constantly reminded to read bewteen
lines, for often that's the only way one can speculate the "hidden
meanings." For the past decade or so, however, I have been surrounded by
the "free press" and my guard was let down, so to speak. However, as I am
bathed by this free press day in and day out, I gradually came to realize
that free press is not that free after all. In western news reports,
particularly those concerning China and Chinese, one can often observe the
"optical illsion" property. I don't really have a good theory on why such
is the case, except to speculate that perhaps mistakes and accidents,
stereotype and prejudice, and hidden agenda and political motivations play
a role here. As much as I cherrish the relative "free" nature of press in
the west, I can't help but sharing some of my latest findings of
"deceptive" news reports with you all.
If you have similar feelings like I do, and happen to come across
"deceptive" news reports/stories, please share them with us, in which
case, full credit of the reports should be included, for both copyrights
compliance and accurate ratings of news agencies by CCF. If you would
like to offer your comments on a particular news report, it's even more
welcome.
In this installment, I include three pieces of news reports that I think
have room for improvement, to put it mildly. What do you think?
The original reports are qouted by ">" and my comments are inserted where
I feel appropriate.
1) By Agence France Presse (AFP) (http://www.afp.com)
> BEIJING, July 21 (AFP) - China's Falungong followers continued
> to defy the authorities Friday, flocking to Tiananmen Square to
> protest on the eve of the first anniversary of a ban on the
> spiritual movement.
>
> The government on Friday also went on the offensive -- launching
> new attacks against the group and its founder, former government
> grain clerk Li Hongzhi, who is living in New York.
>
> "Li Hongzhi and his Falungong developed from an evil sect into a
> political group openly opposing the government. It eventually became
> a tool for anti-China groups overseas," a government announcement on
> China Central Television Station said.
>
> "Li and overseas enemy forces are running in the same stream of
> polluted water and acting in collusion with each other. Li Hongzhi
> has become the running dog of overseas anti-China forces."
>
> Police Friday were seen rounding up several Falungong
> practitioners in police vans and one witness saw 10 people being
> taken away. Two vans, carrying a total of 16 detainees, were also
> seen leaving the square.
>
> The protests, staged ahead of Saturday's anniversary, have
> exposed the government's failure to crush the widespread movement.
>
> Thousands of people are reported to be making their way to
> Beijing to pressure the government into allowing followers to
> practice freely, and police throughout China have launched a massive
> effort to curb the protests.
>
> Hong Kong practitioner Sophie Xiao said her mother, a pensioner
To the best of my knowledge, Sophie Xiao is the spokeswoman for Falungong
Hongkong branch. In her capacity as the spokeswoman, she is more than
just an average of an "average" practitioner. Such an omission of an
important fact is inexecusable. The report did make a brief mentioning
later on but only identifid her by her last name. If not paying
attention, a reader might very well think Sophie is just an "average"
practitioner.
> living in Beijing, was taken to a hotel in the suburbs on Monday by
> her former employers -- a state-owned company which works closely
> with police.
>
> "They told me they're not going to release her until next
> Monday," Xiao said.
>
> Practitioners in other cities are under house arrest, with
> officers watching their movements and tapping their telephones, Xiao
> said.
>
> Falungong founder Li Hongzhi recently published an essay on the
> Internet encouraging people to speak the truth about Falungong,
> interpreted by many practitioners as encouraging defiance.
>
> Li signaled he wants a conclusion to the year-long struggle with
> the government.
>
> Spokeswoman Xiao said Li is plotting a mass protest, but said
Here is the first mentioning of Sophie Xiao's spokeswoman status. Again,
no mentioning of her first name. Perhaps the reporter thought Sophie Xiao
was well-knowned. I am not sure if that's the case though.
> she did not know when he wants it to take place.
>
> "He feels the time has come for some kind of conclusion," she
> said.
>
> "It's reaching a panic stage... It's like a study period. After
> going to university, you have a graduation. There will be a sort of
> conclusion line drawn somewhere for him to tell who passed his tests
> and who didn't."
>
> The group's membership in China has fallen from 80 million to 70
> million in the past year, Xiao said.
>
> "There are people of course who stopped practicing because of
> China's mighty propaganda because they repeat all kinds of pressure
> on the families. So many people give up, but a majority of people
> still hold on to it. We're not worried," Xiao said.
>
> Falungong, which is based on Buddhist philosophy and traditional
> Chinese meditation exercises, claims to help followers improve their
The "which" part is completely out of line. Many will dispute such a
"which" and especially the "traditional" part. I am particularly puzzled
by such a "snake tail." My very very limited experience with news
reporting tells me that a good news reports should answer the "Who did
What? When? Where? Why? and How?" question. In this case, it's either a
wrong "What" or much worse a covert attempt to influence and mislead
readers opinion.
> physical and mental well-being.
>
> The government has branded the group an evil cult and described
> the movement as the biggest threat to its authority since the 1989
> mass pro-democracy protests.
>
> Since the ban, 10,000 practitioners have been sentenced to
> labour camps, 450 have been sent to prison for up to 18 years, 600
> have been sent to mental hospitals and 24 have died while in police
> custody, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group.
>
> Another 25,000 people remain in police detention centers, where
> they are held for up to a month.
It will be fair here to give the account by the Chinese government. I
personally don't believe either one hundred percent. But knowing accounts
from both sides, it will be easier for a reader to come up with his or her
own conclusion.
Also, about the people "died while in police custody" part, it will be
fairer to mention why they died. It should give the number of total
people allegedly detained by the police, so the reader can decide if the
death ratio is high compared to the ratio of natural death. It should
also mention the fact that many practioners had diseases, such the chance
of dying of diseas is higher than the average population.
Reading the report at its face value, readers are inevitably given the
impression that all 24 people died because of police mistreatment. Police
mistreatment is not impossible, but is it the 100% cause? Just because
chinese government is "no good," should it be responsible for every human
tragedy?
2) By Agence France Presse (AFP) (http://www.afp.com)
The reporter for this next piece of news used a very tricky deceptive
practice: exchanging the meanings of "China" and "PRC" at will.
I have not read the original speech (presumably in Chinese) of Annette Lu.
But even according to the very report by AFP, what Lu said was "Taiwan is
definitely not part of the PRC." If that's the case, I am questioning how
on the earth the reporter was able to re-interpret it as "Taiwan's new
vice president Annette Lu said Sunday Taiwan was not part of China"?
Anyone with some common and hasn't been brainwashed by biased media should
know that the two quotes above carry completely different meanings.
China, PRC, Chinese Government and CCP all carried different meanings. It
was often said that CCP is famous for equating those expressions as it
sees fit. Now it's very ironic to see a western media doing the same
thing, but for a different purpose.
> TAIPEI, July 23 (AFP) - Taiwan's new vice president Annette Lu
> said Sunday Taiwan was not part of China and refused to embrace
> Beijing's "One China" ideal in a speech sure to anger Chinese
> leaders.
>
> The outspoken Lu, from the pro-independence Democratic
> Progressive Party (DPP), objected to the Chinese official line that
> "there is only one China in the world, Taiwan is part of China, and
> the People's Republic of China is China's sole legitimate
> government."
>
> In her speech, made at National Sun Yat-sen University, Lu said
> the 23 million people in Taiwan must make it clear to the world
> "Taiwan is definitely not part of the PRC."
>
> Brushing off Beijing's previous verbal attacks against her, Lu
> said she had been described by Beijing as "scum of the nation" after
> she used "neighbours" and "distant relatives" to define the
> Taipei-Beijing relationship.
>
> She said her comparison was nothing wrong saying "I'm willing to
> take the brunt for the people."
>
> Beijing heaped a barrage of vitriolic attacks against her in
> April, with the state-controlled Xinhua news agency branding her a
> "lunatic" and "traitor," for pushing Taiwan's sovereignty.
>
> An advocate of the island's membership of the United Nations, Lu
> asked Beijing to stop using its "One China" principle to suppress
> the island's international identity.
>
> Lu launched a drive several years ago pushing for Taiwan's
> re-entry to the UN, which ousted the island in 1971.
>
> Spurred by flaring tensions across the Taiwan Strait after his
> election on March 18, President Chen Shui-bian has delivered olive
> branches to Beijing.
>
> In his inaugural speech, Chen said he would follow the "four
> Nos" provided China did not invade the island.
>
> The "four Nos" are pledges not to declare independence, not to
> change the national title, not to push for "state-to-state"
> relations to be included in the constitution, and not to promote a
> referendum to change the status quo in regard to independence.
>
> But Chen has refused to embrace the "one China" formula used by
> Beijing to encapsulate its demands of sovereignty, agreeing to
> regard it only as a topic for discussion.
>
> Taiwan and China were separated in 1949 at the end of a civil
> war, and Beijing has since considered Taiwan a province to be
> reunified.
3) By Agence France Presse (AFP) (http://www.afp.com)
> NEW DELHI, July 23 (AFP) - China and India appear to have finally
> buried the hatchet on India's nuclear tests, and now hope to open a new
> chapter on bilateral ties by accelerating efforts to resolve their touchy
> border dispute.
>
> While no major initiative emerged from Chinese Foreign Minister Tang
> Jiaxuan's one-day visit on Saturday, the tone was clearly one of moving
> along a relationship dogged by decades of mutual mistrust and Cold War
> tensions.
>
> Tang, the highest-ranking Chinese official to visit since India's May,
> 1998 nuclear tests, also took the opportunity to try and ease Indian
> concerns over Chinese military cooperation with Pakistan.
>
> "China stressed that the relationship with Pakistan was a normal,
> bilateral, sovereign relationship and not directed against any country,
> particularly India," Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said after his
> talks with Tang.
>
> China's transfer and sale of missile technology to Pakistan has long
> been a source of serious concern to New Delhi, as well as Washington.
> "China's transfer and sale of missile technology to Pakistan has long been
> a source of serious concern to New Delhi, as well as Washington."
The reporter left out a crucial word here: allegedly. As much as one
wants to belileve in China's transfer and sale of missile technology to
Pakistan, as it stands today, it's only an allegation. If my brain cells
still serve, I don't believe Beijing ever admitted to transferring missile
technology to Pakistan, and there was no conclusive evidence to show the
contrary. "What about CIA's "conclusive" report?" you ask. First of all,
it's only the point of view from one branch of the government. I am not
sure if it will hold water when cross-examined in the court. Second, if
one believes that CIA did make a "mistake" about map and caused the
"allegedly" mistaken bombing of Chinese embassy in Belgrade, I will have
to agree with him: CIA's evidence is "conclusive."
"Innonecent until proven guilty" extends not only to the people and
the government of the "free world" but also to the "repressive regime."
"Innonecent until proven guilty" knows of no double standard.
>
> Differences on this issue are high on the agenda of the joint security
> dialogue inaugurated in March at Beijing. As a result of their meeting,
> the two ministers agreed to upgrade the level of the dialogue.
>
> The two sides also announced the resumption of high-level military
> exchanges, with reciprocal visits by military chiefs of staff in the
> pipeline.
>
> Tang also met with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, before
> flying to Pakistan Saturday evening for talks with the military regime of
> General Pervez Musharraf.
>
> On their long-running border issue, the two foreign ministers agreed to
> "increase the frequency" of meetings of the joint expert group charged
> with resolving the issue.
>
> India and China fought a brief but bloody border war in 1962, and
> attempts to reach some common understanding on the demarcation of their
> joint borders have moved at a snail's pace, if at all.
>
> India says China still holds 40,000 square kilometers (16,000 square
> miles) of its territory in Kashmir, while China lays claim to a wide
> swathe of territory in the far east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh.
>
> Significantly, Tang and Singh agreed that efforts should be focused on
> the least-contentious "middle sector" of the joint border, where experts
> feel there is more chance of achieving a negotiated settlement.
>
> The two foreign ministers also discussed the volume of bilateral trade
> and stressed the importance of cooperation in the fields of
> "knowledge-based technology."
>
> Bilateral trade stood at 1.98 billion dollars in 1999, a rise of only
> 3.4 percent from the previous year.
>
> For New Delhi, Tang's visit marked the latest stage of fence-mending
> diplomacy with Beijing following the 1998 tests, and a fresh opportunity
> to redefine a relationship previously dominated by India's close ties to
> the Soviet Union and China's friendship with Pakistan.
>
> Ties improved after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but then ebbed
> following the 1998 nuclear tests, which Delhi justified by citing a
> perceived "China threat" -- an argument that enraged Beijing.
>
> The current rapprochement comes as Delhi is attempting to redefine its
> relations with other world powers.
>
> US President Bill Clinton made a landmark visit to India in March and
> Russian President Vladimir Putin is due here in October.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
6. For Chemistry/Chemical Engineering Professionals and Students:
.................................................... ..... Harold Kung 71
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Great Lakes Chinese American Chemistry Society (GLCACS) will hold its
Fourth Annual Conference on 8/19/2000 (Sat) at
Sheraton Arlington Park Hotel *
3400 W. Euclid Avenue, Arlington Heights
Illinois 60005, USA.
Phone Number: 847-394-2000
If you are a chemistry/chemical engineering professional/student and
haven't registered yet, please do it as soon as possible. On-line
registration is now available (http://www.glcacs.org/conference.htm)!
Spaces are limited and early registration is strongly encouraged.
Registration deadline is 8/14/2000.
Program:
Dr. Sunney Chan (Vice President, Academia Sinica, Taiwan)
"Chemistry in the 21st Century"
Dr. Allan Cohen (First Analysis)
"What is a Ph.D. Chemist Doing in the Financial Service Industry?"
Dr. Barry Yang (GE Research)
"Plasma for Coating"
Prof. Warren Haug (Vice President, Retired Group, Procter and Gamble)
"Non-technical Skills to Succeed in American Industry"
Dr. David Willcox (Abbott Laboratory)
"Challenges in Scaling-up in a Pharmaceutical Industry"
Dr. Christopher Marshall (Argonne National Laboratory)
"Combinatorial Methods in Chemistry and Catalysis"
Dr. Di-Jia Liu (Honeywell)
"Resurgence of Fuel Cell Technology and the Opportunities It Brings to
Chemical Industry"
Prof. Harold Kung (Northwestern University)
"Future Car Challenge: the Research Program of the Partnership for a
New Generation of Vehicles"
Fees: Regular Member: $50 (including lunch)
Student Member: $15 (including lunch)
Conference Contact:
Prof. Harold Kung, e-mail: hk...@nwu.edu
Mr. Dominic Chow, Tel: (847) 491-3519, e-mail: d-c...@nwu.edu
* The conference hotel is offering the attendees a room rate of $99.
The cut-off date for this rate is July 28, 2000. To make reservation,
call the hotel directly, at (847)394-2000. Identify the affiliation with
Chinese-American Chemical Society.
--
The Great Lakes Chinese-American Chemical Society (GLCACS), one of the
chapters of CACS, was initiated in 1997. Currently, it has about 100
registered members, who are chemistry and chemical engineering
professionals and graduate students in the Great Lakes areas.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
7. Free Newsletter: China Legal Change ................. Theodore Spaeth 35
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
We recently started offering FREE semimonthly e-mail news briefs which
announce major new Chinese legislation published by China Legal Change. I
think this would be helpful for your news coverage. To sign up, just
reply to this message and state whether you would like to receive the
short briefs in PLAIN TEXT or HTML format.
Sincerely yours,
Theodore Spaeth
China Legal Change
Internet Manager
Publication web site: http://www.china-legal-change.com
Free database search web site: http://www.chinalegalchange.com
E-mail: theo...@china-legal-change.com
Helpful Information Technology Company
P.O. Box 28634
Gloucester Road Post Office
Hong Kong SAR
China
Tel: (852) 2947 1319
Fax: (852) 2635 6124
If you don't want to receive any more e-mail from us, please send a simple
message to rem...@chinalegalchange.com
(theo...@china-legal-change.com)
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+
+ Executive Editor: Sue Bruell Associate Editor: Ray Zhang +
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
+ To subscribe: mail "Sub China-NT Your-First-Name Your-Last-Name" +
+ to list...@listserv.uga.edu +
+ To unsubscribe: mail "Unsub China-NT" to list...@listserv.uga.edu +
+ +
+ For back issues of CCF and general information, visit our web site: +
+ +
+ http://China-Net.org +
+ http://China-Forum.org +
+ +
+ For contribution and inquiry, mail to: C...@china-forum.org +
+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+