2005 - 600th Anniversary of Zheng He's 1st Voyage

As 2005 rapidly draws to a close, I would be derelict if I failed to mention that 2005 marks the 600th anniversary of Zheng He's first of seven voyages to South Seas and Africa -- having set sail on July 11, 1405. To celebrate this event, there is a long article in the July 2005 issue of the National Geographic: "China's Great Armada: Six hundred years ago, China's Admiral Zheng He led a mighty fleet on the first of seven voyages that reshaped an empire " (pp 28-53). Indeed, the Library of Congress had a day-long symposium on Zheng He (on May 16, 2005), with participants around the world, including Gavin Menzies, a retired UK submarine captain and author of a best-selling book 1421: The Year China Discovered America (in which Menzies contends that, during the 6th voyage, Zheng He's colleagues set foot in America). Later, the LC staff organzied a two-week trip to China, visiting sites made famous by Zheng He, in which my wife and I joined (each participant paid his/her own way). We visited Taichong (between Shanghai and Suzhou), where Zheng He set sail for the open sea; Nanjing, where Zheng He's boats (some "may have measured up to 400 feet in length and 170 feet across the beam" - National Geographic) were built; Kunming, Zheng He's birthplace; and Quanzhou, along with Alexandria, the two leading seaports in that era, where provisions and goods were loaded.
Posted at 9:12 pm, Saturday, December 31, 2005.

Mao Zedong's quote in "One Billion Customers"

James McGregor, a journalist-turned-businessman, parlayed his limited experience in China into a book on doing business in China, One Billion Customers, a best seller in 2005 as reported in the Wall Street Journal. Being more a journalist than an executive, he cannot, somehow, leave sensationalism at home, but indulges in exaggeration and misrepresentation. In one passage, McGregor quotes a saying, said to be from the Qing Dynasty, that was favored by Mao Zedong. McGregor, not known to have a command in Chinese, "translates" it as "Make the past serve the present, make foreign things serve China."
To my knowledge, this saying, well known in China, came into being during the May 4th movement, byHu Shih (who later served as China's ambassador to USA) and his friends. I probably would translate it as "Apply the past to benefit the present; apply western [methodology] to benefit China." The past in this quotation refers to history; what is wrong with learning from history, particularly from one that is as long and as rich as China's? The western in this quotation refers to western methodology in science, which China lacked -- not things, which China, then and now, had plenty. Perhaps McGregor had in mind things like opium and gunboats, which did serve China, albeit in a negative way, to humiliate China, not to benefit her.

Manassas VA defines "Family"

Recently, Manassas VA, a state adjoining Maryland in which I live, passes a law that defines "family" as including only parents and their offsprings. Uncles, aunts, cousins, nephews and such are "unrelated persons," and, by implication, so are grandparents. The law goes on to say that having more than one "unrelated person" living under one roof violates the city's zoning ordinance, and city inspectors are scheduled to visit "selected" households to inquire about the number of residents and their relationships. Clearly, this is a clever way to wage, as a Washington Post editorial headlines, "War on Immigrants."
This law reminds me of another one, enacted in San Francisco in the early part of the 20th century, with Chinese immigrants as the intended targets. This SF law stipulated the minimum number of square feet for each resident in a household, with violators being sent to jail. The rigorous enforcement of the law forced over-crowding in jails, resulting, ironically, in the jails not meeting the city's own minimum-space requirement. Per force, the law had to be repealed.
The city fathers in Manassas, undoubtedly, had learned from the SF episode and have improved upon it -- thus, I give them a mark for being "clever."
Posted at 7:12 pm, Saturday, December 31, 2005

Sun Tzu's Art of War

Before I set up my blog yesterday, I was hoping to find a forum to discuss matters related to Sun Tzu's Art of War. As it so happens, yesterday, I received an e-mail from a reader in Johannesburg who has a similar interest. The thought occurred to me that, perhaps, I could use this space to discuss Sun Tzu's teachings and their proper rendition into English. To start the ball rolling, let me quote a famous passage by Sun Tzu: "Therefore, with knowledge of our enemy and knowledge of ourselves, we will not be in a precarious position -- not even once in 100 battles." (my translation, from "The Art of Leadership by Sun Tzu: A New-Millennium Bilingual Edition of Sun Tzu's Art of War" (Premier Publishing, 2001, 272 pages, at p. 44); the book is available from Amazon.com)
Posted at 10:22 pm, Friday, December 30, 2005

Kwong-Miscevic book "Chinese America" (#4; Topic A)

Lisa See, in her review of "Chinese America: the Untold Story of America's Oldest New Community" (Washington Post, 12/27/05), began with the sentence: "For about 140 years, Chinese American history was lost, forgotten or deliberately covered up." This sentence shook me up, and is the main motivation behind my wanting to do a blog that emphasizes US-China relations, Chinese culture, and Chinese Americans. Practically every sentence in this long and perceptive review is worthy of quote -- it has certainly whetted my appetite for reading the book -- a longing of hers, indeed a challenge, is particularly significant: "No one has yet written convincingly of the transition from the grimness of the past to the tremendous successes we see today." It is hoped that this post would begin a discussion on this important topic.
Posted at 5:34 pm, Friday, December 30, 2005

Confucius on making contribution by gentlemen

Confucius, undoubtedly the greatest teacher ever lived in China, once said (as recorded in The Analects of Confucius): "A gentleman would regret for not making a contribution for which his name may be remembered beyond his life time." (Chapter 15, on The Obligation of Gentlemen, Paragraph 20) (My translation, from "The Analects of Confucius: A New-Millennium Translation" published by Premier Publishing in 1999, at page 189; available from Amazon.com.)
Posted at 10:51 am, Friday, December 30, 2005

Teacher reverence in China

People of Chinese ethnicity value education. A corollary of this is that they -- and I am one of them -- revere teachers. In China, any one who has taught others is always regarded by these pupils as "teacher", regardless of how briefly, how informally, or how long ago. A couple of months ago, a leading statesman from Taiwan revisited his native town on mainland China for the first time since 1949; the first thing he did was to meet his elementary-school teacher -- and he proceeded by kneeling before him. When I revisited Shanghai in 1983 for the first time since 1949, I had the pleasure of meeting a teaching assistant during my college years. Despite my having a PhD and having retired as a full professor in USA, I still called him "Wang Lao Shi," (Respected Teacher Wang). In my Tai Chi class in Maryland, teachers are invariably addressed as "X Lao Shi" by every student, even though they are much younger than many of the students. This attitude of reverence -- and, by implication, gratitude -- seems to be lacking in the United States.
Posted 10:30 am, Friday, December 30, 2005

Taxi Service in Shanghai

In Shanghai in October 2005, three features of its taxi service impressed me. One, its ready availability (I was told, by a taxi driver, that the three leading taxi firms, alone, have a total of over 20,000 vehicles). Two, its low fare (about one-third of that in USA). Three, the drivers' refusal to accept tips (indeed, they prefer fare cards used by locals, thus, no cash). In today's Wall Street Journal, there is a news report that the Chinese government has made a sizable grant to the Chinese National Petroleum Company to compensate for its loss in revenue due to low price it charges -- this might account for the taxi's low fare; in any case, it inspires me to post this as my very first entry in this space.
Posted 11:49 pm Thursday, December 29, 2005