Self-directed investment and super Tuesday (#58; Topic D)

If handling investment is difficult, handling a self-directed investment program (SDIP) is doubly difficult. What does one expect to accomplish by such a program? For a retiree, perhaps finding something challenging to do is high on the list. However, to be meaningful, a condition must be attached: the performance of a SDIP must be comparable to -- in the same league as -- that by professional money managers. This reminds me of an article by an amateur racer I read some time ago. He was a collector of Ferrari racing cars. So, one time, the manufacturer allowed him to be in a race featuring legendary professional racers (he mentioned some names but I can recall none). He admitted that while he was physically there, he was mentally AWOL -- and car racing is, for practical purposes, more a physical game than a mental game. Applying this to investment, which is certainly a mental game, one can understand the difficulty an amateur faces -- and I am beginning to appreciate this. Every morning, one must read the papers and otherwise keep informed -- Jim Cramer, who hosts an investment show on TV, admitted that he got up before dawn to digest all these news. Then, the daily events. Today, for example, the OPEC meets in Vienna (about 10 am EST) to discuss oil production (decision, after a 15-minute meeting, the shortest on record: no change in output). In the early afternoon, in the last Fed meeting to be chaired by Alan Greenspan (he retires after today), is another interest hike in the cards? (said to be 98% certain). Then, after the market closes, shortly after 4 pm, Google, a hot stock that is difficult to tame (moving from its IPO's price of 85 (August 2004) to over 470 a week or so ago to about 430 now) will announce its 2005 earnings. And, finally, at 9 pm, President Bush will deliver his state-of-the-Union message. Can an amateur investor keep tract of them -- let alone digest them and make intelligent decisions out of them? A tough challenge, indeed.
Posted 10:55 am, Tuesday, January 31, 2006

4704, Year of the Dog (#57; Topic K)

Sunday, January 29, 2006, marks the 4704th New Year's Day according to the lunar calendar; it is the Year of the Dog. On that day, every one's age is incremented by 1. From that day onward to the eve of the next lunar New Year's Day, a new-born baby is a Dog-year person, or, simply, a Dog. The Chinese zodiac, 12 in number, repeats itself every 12 years; thus, any one born in 2006, 1994, 1982, 1970, 1958, 1946, 1934, 1922, 1910, is a Dog-year person. While it is considered impolite to ask about a person's age in USA, this is not taken so seriously in China. In any case, in China, there is a euphemistic way of getting the needed information. One simply asks: To which animal do you belong? When one answers: "I am a Dog," that person, if a pre-teen, was born in 1994; if a senior in college, in 1982; if a young professional, in 1970, etc. This is comparable to one's asking, in USA: In which year did you graduate from high school? The US approach, however, is less precise -- one may skip a year, another may have left school before graduation, etc. The 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac are ranked. So, it is easy to figure out whether A is older than B by simply asking for the animal to which each belongs. A couple of days ago, at a year-end banquet for retirees of Chinese ancestry, sitting two seats to my right is a Rabbit, which ranks just above the Dragon (I am one); thus, he is a year older than I; sitting two seats to my left is a Snake, which ranks just below the Dragon; thus, he is a year younger than I -- we are, as of yesterday, 80, 79, and 78 years old, respectively, according to the lunar calendar.
Posted 11:15 pm, Monday, January 30, 2006

Champion skater Michelle Kwan (#56; Topic A)

En route to the beach, I heard over the car radio that the U.S. Olympic Committee had granted Michelle Kwan a spot on the U.S. figure skating squad at the Winter Games next month. (Kwan, due to hip injury, did not compete at the Olympic trials in St. Louis two weeks ago, but petitioned for an exemption or a make-up; in the make-up she performed to the judges' satisfaction.) This is indeed good news. Though a 5-time world champion and 9-time national champion, the Olympic Gold medal eluded her. Kwan was bumped from the team in 1994, when Nancy Kerrigan claimed a spot via injury waiver. Barely a teenager at the time, Kwan's mother, speaking on her behalf, was most gracious in accepting the bump. I presume the U.S. Figure Skating Association took that into account in granting her the petition. At the 1998 Olympics, Kwan was second to teammate Tara Lipinski, and MSNBC headlined: "American beats Kwan", even though Kwan was "born, reared, and trained in the United States" as Iris Chang ruefully wrote in The Chinese in America (2003, pp 392-3). At 2002 Olympics, Kwan was again second (this time to teammate Sarah Hughes), and Seattle Times wrote "American outshines Kwan." How long does it take the media to learn? In any case, we are all routing for you, Michelle.
Posted at 9:52 pm, Monday, January 30, 2006

"I never buy cars built in America" (#55; Topic J)

Returning to my car after ordering a plate glass at a strip mall in Rehobeth Beach last Friday, I saw a small, boxy car parked next to mine. With a nameplate I had never seen before, but with a contour similar to a Citroen, I thought it might be a hybrid car imported from France. My standing in front of the car apparently attracted the owner's attention, who, on his way to a drug store next door, stopped and turned back. He said it is a Japanese car, imported from Japan. Because of its economical gas consumption, 38 mpg, the car is very much in demand, with each dealer allotted only 5 cars. He got his from a dealership in a nearby town. Before leaving, he repeated that the car was built in, and imported from, Japan. For emphasis, he added: "I never buy cars built in America." Hearing this, I said: "I am just the reverse. I never buy cars built in Japan." Leaving the parking area and reviewing his comment, I realized that this gentleman not only did not buy American cars built in America, but also cars with Japanese nameplates built in America. By the same token, I should have said to him: "I don't buy things Japanese." Over the decades, my wife and I have owned perhaps 10 cars; they were/are either American or German. My watches are Swiss-made. My boss gave me the very first TV, back in the 1950s; it was a Magnavox; since then, I have bought Zeniths, RCAs, or GEs -- my latest purchase was a Memorex with a built-in DVD. In addition to several GE clock-radios, I have a beautifully designed one, a B&O, a gift from our son. When I came to USA, I brought my Leica with me; I later bought a Rollei; at the moment, I am in the market for a digital, most likely it would be an HP.
Posted 8:34 pm, Monday, January 30, 2006
Posted at 8:19 pm,

Mozart's 250th birthday anniversary (#54; Topic H)

Last Saturday, the Metropolitan Opera mounted Mozart's Magic Flute; earlier this week, Washington Post had a write-up of Mozart in its Kids-Post section. Today is his 250th birthday anniversary. In Oberammergau for the Passion Play in 1990, my wife and I ventured into Vienna and, inter alia, heard Magic Flute at the Opera House. The ticket price (over $1000 equivalent) for the best seats astonished me; seeing that these seats were equipped with little lights for serious patrons -- and they were serious -- to follow the libretto was equally impressive. We then went to Salzburg, where Mozart was born. There, I learned that the archbishop of Salzburg ruled the province. Undoubtedly the most powerful as well as the richest, he, perhaps in his capacity as a (the?) patron of the art, employed Mozart as a court musician. Incurring the archbishop's ire, Mozart was dismissed and forced to leave Salzburg for Vienna. Thus, it was ironic to see, when we were in Salzburg, Mozart's likeness on display all over town. Out of curiosity, we went to a castle high in elevation, perhaps one of the archbishop's residences, for a chamber concert -- with candle lights, no less -- featuring Eine kleine Nachtmusik and such; the archbishop certainly lived well. The Post article mentioned that listening to Mozart may increase one's I.Q. by 20 points. He was, no doubt, a creative genius; his music is playful, and his ability to generate many variations on a theme is indeed an inspiration.
Posted 12 noon, Friday, January 27, 2006

"History from the Asian perspective" (#53, Topic H)

Discussion over Google's search service for China (#43, #52) is still going on strong in the media. Over CNBC today, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich was sympathetic to Google's position. A member of an on-line publishing forum, holding an extremely negative view, directed his fellow members to a column in Market Watch, which I dutifully did; the columnist was sarcastic. A side-bar accompanying the column was written by an alarmist: yielding to China would result in her rise; "when China rules the world, history will be written from the Asian perspective." Though he did not realize it, he actually made several confessions. One, at the moment (and, for the last century and half or so), the world is ruled by the west; this is ok. Two, history written from the western perspective is ok. Three, when China rises and rules the world, watch out; history written from the Chinese or the Asian perspective is a no-no. This reminds me of an episode. Goethe, responding to a friend of his ignorant of China's literary heritage, famously said: When they were reading novels in China, our ancestors were still living on trees. So, I have a question: when ancestors to western historians were still living on trees, who wrote the world's history?
Posted at 7:33 pm, Thursday, January 26, 2006

Google in the news - Round 2 (#52; Topic D)

While Google is yet to take care of Department of Justice's request of a million websites containing pornographic material (#43), today's media reports Google's entering China with a modified search service, "omit[ting] content that the country's government deemed objectionable" (as Washington Post puts it). This, of course, is big news in USA, being talked about from early morning debate over NPR/BBC, to day-long coverage over CNBC, to evening analysis over PBS. "Making a buck over moral responsibility" was hurled about, along with condescending remarks about China. I frankly do not see the difference between DOJ's and the Chinese government's aim: to protect the citizenry. If anything, the Chinese approach is superior; it is preventive, comparable to banning the importation of diseased cows or chicken, while the DOJ's is after-the-fact, comparable to assessing the extent of a virus's damage after it is allowed to spread freely. The DOJ's approach is also vague and expensive -- reasons advanced by Google for balking at compliance -- while the Chinese approach is both effective and simple: once in place, it is done. Come to think of it, no one twists Google's arm to enter China -- Baidu, a native Chinese search service, had a 46.5% market share in China in 2004, compared to second-place Google at 26.4%, as reported in today's Wall Street Journal. Perhaps critics gained satisfaction as Google's stock was down by more than $10 today.
Posted at 9:57 pm, Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Chinese vegetarian dinner (#51; Topic K)

Being an author-cum-publisher, I participate in an on-line publishing forum for small and self publishers. Members of this forum hold a dinner whenever a professional publishing organization holds its an annual meeting. This year, it is mid-May at the Washington's convention center. In volunteering my services (since I live in the DC area) for organizing a banquet-style dinner in a nearby Chinese restaurant, I mentioned that tables for vegetarians may be arranged. From comments received, it is apparent that most do not appreciate that banquet-style vegetarian dinners are special treats in Chinese cuisine. How do you do 10 courses, each a vegetarian dish? A mock fish or a mock chicken is far more difficult to prepare than the real thing -- and equally expensive, if not more so. In 2004, though I cancelled a trip to China to celebrate the 99th birthday of my father (due to my heart procedure), the celebration was nevertheless held, along with a vegetarian dinner for all guests I hosted in absentia. December 25, 2005, was my father's 100th birthday; regrettably, I had to cancel my visit (I was in Shanghai in October, and paid my respects at my father's grave), but the celebration and vegetarian dinner were held unchanged. There are several Chinese vegetarian restaurants in DC; the 10-course dinner of one, where I have played both host and guest, has a theme: Dishes of Ladies of the Red-Chamber Dream -- each course featuring food favored by a fictional female character in this classical Chinese novel. No other cuisine, to my knowledge, combines food and culture -- in a supposedly simple vegetarian dinner.
Posted at 3:30 pm, Wednesday, January 25, 2006

Going to the dentist (#50; Topic K)

After moving to the retirement community last April, going to my regular dentist became inconvenient. After my second such visit, I decided that I needed a new dentist closer to me. I found one, and went for teeth cleaning by his dental hygienist last month, and saw him for real this afternoon. He took an inventory of my teeth. I am without 3 wisdom teeth and 3 other teeth -- I joked that the lack of wisdom teeth must be the reason that I am so stupid. To each tooth, he then measured its relationship to the gum, annoucing "1", "3", "7", "11", and such to his assistant for recording in a chart. Judging from the pain he exerted to each tooth before announcing the figure, I inferred that the higher the number, the worse that tooth is. I asked, and he confirmed. While in his office, the thought occurred to me that going to the dentist for routine work such as cleaning, common in USA, is uncommon in China. I recall that the only time I went to a dentist when I was in China was to have teeth pulled. I also recall that, the first time I went to a dentist in USA for cleaning, I needed to be sedated before the hygienist could do her work -- not only was it painful, it took her two sessions to complete the job. I also recall that the cause of my mother's death -- she died when she was only 33 and I was only 10 (according to the lunar calendar; that is, nominal age -- 32 and 9, respectively, according to the western way of stating age) -- was dental related. So, while what the new dentist did to me was painful, I realized that it was for my own good. I remained calm and thanked him upon leaving his office.
Posted at 10:56 pm, Tuesday, January 24, 2006

Cash gift, US-style (#49; Topic K)

Today's Washington Post reports: "Wednesday is the big birthday bash for Sen. Conrad Burns (R-Mont), who's celebrating his 70th at powerhouse lobbying firm Cassidy & Associates. No need to bring a special gift ... Simple attendance is $1,000 per PAC [political action committee] and only $500 per person." ("[I]f you want to host the bash", simply double the figure.) So, I was wrong -- cash gifts are not out of fashion in USA (#38), but are indeed used, and for a most worthy cause: to add to the coffers of reelection campaigns, the bedrock of democracy. Reading it, I also wonder: given that $500 equals the per capita GDP of East Timor, Somalia, or Sierra Leone (from the CIA World Factbook, as reported in aneki.com), how should these countries finance their election campaigns? Lobbying, according to Post, is a "noble profession;" in what ways are lobbyists benefiting the citizenry? This is answered elsewhere in the same issue of Post: "the [U.S.] Chamber [of Commerce], which lobbies for business large and small, wants the Securities and Exchange Commission" to relax rules affecting corporate accountability. Presumably, that would benefit ordinary investors, though the former SEC chairman, in an ed-op piece also in that very same issue of Post, demurs: "conflict of interest between members of Congress, their staffs, lobbyists and contributors must be untangled." So, for a third-world country moving toward democracy, is having the US-style campaign financing an integral part of the deal?
Posted at 8:30 pm, Monday, January 23, 2006

"Cars from China ... are selling well in USA" (#48; Topic B)

Last night, CNN revealed that Ford plans to restructure (the second time in this century, the first one being in 2002). This morning, in anticipation of Ford's announcement at 10:30, NPR held a forum. One caller prefaced with: "Cars from China and Korea are selling well in USA; the American auto manufacturers are squeezed" and asked what can be done. I asked myself: What is going on? Chinese cars selling in USA? Selling well in USA? Where did this caller, who sounded intelligent, get this misinformation? Why Japanese cars, which dominate the US market, are not even mentioned? Is there an anti-China lobby looming in the background? Fortunately, the forum's resource person, New York Times's Detroit bureau chief, calmly corrected her, beginning with: "Chinese cars were exhibited for the first time in the United States in the Detroit Auto Show last week; it is called Geely" (#25). She continued to say that GM is the largest auto manufacturer in China, and that Ford plans to be the second largest -- this latter point was confirmed by Bill Ford, Ford's CEO, in his press conference at 10:30, carried live over CNBC -- Ford plans to have "a strong presence in China." Hearing this, I again ask myself: I have never heard or read that GM or Ford has a visible presence, let alone a strong presence, in Japan. Now, with GM and Ford dominating the Chinese market, and with China not having even a single car in the USA, China is already being fingered as the culprit for the weakening, if not the demise, of GM and Ford. What is going on?
Posted at 11:27 am, Monday, January 23, 2006

Collect-from-low-to-benefit-high schemes (#47; Topic K)

The question-and-answer column in yesterday's Washington Post had a letter writer asking the etiquette of housewarming gifts: (1) may a housewarming partygiver-cum-houseowner invite mere acquaintances?, and (2) when the same partygiver buys a new house, is it ok to have another housewarming party and invite the same crowd over? The answer: just give a party; don't mention the occasion -- this is designed to discourage owners who "flip" (buy and sell in rapid order). While the answer is unlikely to please our letter writer, whose main aim is to collect gifts, it is indeed the practice in China. In China, house ownership percentage is low -- one who owns a house is one who has arrived. Why show off? I have never heard of housewarming parties when I was in China. And why ask the less fortunate to fork over cash? To my way of thinking, holding housewarming parties is an example of collect-from-low-to-benefit-high schemes, of which Americans are fond. Another example is office collections. I remember an episode, when I was working. One time, a colleague's husband came to town; she invited several of her associates to meet him after work, at a restaurant across the street. I went, shook his hand, had a glass of orange juice, and departed. The next day, we were presented with a check of $150, which came to $15 per head. The secretary who came to collect from me complained, because a glass of orange juice was also what she had consumed -- and she was assessed the same $15!
Posted at 9:31 pm, Sunday, January 22, 2006

Xiangqi (#46; Topic I)

About 10 days ago, a faculty member at Howard University called me to talk about Xiangqi (on which I have written 5 books); he got my telephone number from the internet. He informed me that he was a master in western chess as well as in Shogi, that he had downloaded some games from the 9th World Xiangqi Championship [held in Paris in July 2005], and that he was able to follow these games despite his having no knowledge in Chinese. I complimented him for his industry and for his dual mastery of western chess and Shogi (a rare combination). I mentioned that I was in Paris for WXC9, and that the 6th and final volume in my series on Xiangqi, reflecting games from that championship, will be published in 2006. The purpose of his call was to find out contents of my books, and I promised him some information, but, being away at the beach, forgot to do so in time. This prompted him to call me again two days ago; this time, he added that he preferred Xiangqi to western chess. This assessment is to be expected; still, it is good to hear from a western-chess master. As noted earlier (#45), proto-Xiangqi, the forerunner of all war-simulation games, was a Chinese invention -- by Han Xin, the all-winning commander-in-chief in 203 BCE, during the Chu-Han Conflict period. A good friend of mine, a European Xiangqi Champion in the 1990s, has initiated a blog, Xiangqi en blog, http://www.elephantchess.blogspot.com, a week or so earlier than mine; it is excellently done. The latest entry (dated 1/21/06) is on Astonishing memory of Liu Dahua, a grandmaster whose amazing ability I first witnessed in Singapore in 1995.
Posted at 11:56 am, Sunday, January 22, 2006

Coca and opium (#45; Topic F)

A front-page story in today's Washington Post is on Bolivia's coca production. It seems that the future of a $100 million coca-eradication program funded by US is uncertain, now that Evo Morales, a coca-farmer elected to become Bolivia's next president, will be installed tomorrow. One of Morales's campaign issues is to decriminalize the cultivation of coca, as it has medicinal value -- and one of the ingredients in soft drinks. Indeed, I have personally benefited from coca tea. In my first trip to La Paz on World Bank business in the 1990s, I felt dizzy upon arrival. (Among capitals, La Paz has the highest elevation; hotel rooms are equipped with oxygen tanks.) The following morning, I had a breakfast meeting; when calling to cancel, my contact advised me to have a cup of coca tea and a piece of dry toast; I felt much better afterward and was myself in the early afternoon. Reading the Post story leaves me the impression that coca -- and opium before it -- is a tool of western powers. When it suits the powers one way, it is criminalized; another way, decriminalized. In the early 1800s, Britain, with nothing to offer a self-sufficient China, resorted to smuggling opium. When the Chinese government banned opium's importation, Britain declared war; winning the "Opium War" allowed Britain to gain trading rights at five ports as well as control over Hong Kong, which was returned to China only in 1997. That year, my book, The Genealogy of Chess, which documents that proto-chess was a Chinese (not Indian) invention, was completed. To celebrate two happy occasions, I began the final paragraph of my book with the following: "After 156 years, the opium warlords were finally driven out of China. .. Shall we make the year 1997 in which, after more than 300 years, the truth about the origin of chess be finally told?"
Posted at 9:01 pm, Saturday, January 21, 2006

Awesome and awesome (#44, Topic L)

A couple of weeks ago, in another question-and-answer column, a young mother wrote in and talked glowingly of how well her in-laws have been treating her. She then said: "And their relationship with their grandchildren is awesome." At that moment, I stopped and asked myself: How come, when their relationship with the mother is so good, their relationship with the grandchildren is so miserable." At that point, I actually had committed two faux pas, but I did not realize it until later -- one, being presumptuous, that letter writers to columnists are invariably in need of help; two, jumping to conclusions. When I read on, the writer continued to describe how lovingly her in-laws treated their grandchildren. Analyzing my missteps, I realized that I was tripped by the word awesome -- I instinctively equate it to awful and fearsome. Then I remembered that our son-in-law and our grandson use the word awesome, in a positive way, a lot -- still, if my mind is a Google search machine, equating awesome to goodness will not be at the top of the search. Yesterday, we received a thank-you note from our grandson. Sure enough, the word appears in the very first sentence: "Thank you for the awesome fleece robe [and other goodies he received as Christmas gifts]." So, we learn; and grandsons are as good a source as any. It is indeed awesome.
Posted at 11:17 am, Saturday, January 21, 2006

Google in the news - in China and in USA (#43; Topic D)

About a week ago, I read a news story about Google in China. It seems that an agency of the Chinese government, having identified a specific blogger writing in inflammatory language in contravention of stated government's policy, asked Google to deny its continual presence. Google complied, since its policy is to observe host countries' laws. The story, mundane as it is, was played up in the media, giving me the impression that this is not done in USA. How naive I was. On Thursday (1/19/06), in a story on Department of Justice's request that Google produce all pornography-containing websites to which Google has access, I read, in passing, that DOJ has made similar requests of Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines, and that they had complied. Such compliance apparently has no news value; it broke into print only because of the Google story -- because Google refused to comply, on the ground that the request was vague and may force Google to reveal its trade secrets (how its devices crawl in search of websites, etc). DOJ relented, and now asks for only 1 million such websites. The case is still pending, but it has caused the Google stock to tumble -- from an all-time intraday high of 475.11 (with closing at 467.11) on Tuesday, it closed at 444.91 on Wednesday, down 22.20; at 436.44 on Thursday, down 8.47; and at 399.46 yesterday, down 36.98. In today's New York Times op-ed page, a money manager says: "Google fell 8.5 percent yesterday, their biggest decline ever, after the company said it would fight federal prosecutors' demand for records on Internet users' search queries." So, one learns, though, in this instance, the tuition is rather high.
Posted at 10:18 am, Saturday, January 21, 2006

A Million Little Pieces (#42; Topic D)

In the media last several days, there were quite a few commentaries on the author of a book, A Million Little Pieces, James Frey. It seems that Frey "embellished" his memoir, which is on his being a drug and alcohol addict, his struggle with the law and with himself, and his rehabilitation and redemption. All these are rather mundane, except that, while others' embellishments tend to accentuate the positive, Frey elected to exaggerate the negative -- in jail for several months instead of a mere three hours in a police station, etc. Nothing wrong with that either, except that the book was picked up by Oprah Winfrey's book club, and it became a best-seller. A former newspaperman reported these and other "falsehoods" in his blog, accusing Frey of being "dishonest and unethical." The book's publisher was also faulted for not engaging in fact-checking. When similar charges were levied against Oprah, she rightly claimed that she was not in the business of authenticating a book's every detail; only the message -- in this case, redemption -- counts. Frankly, I find all these charges of "fiction" puzzling. Can any event, let alone a life of many years, be reported with complete objectivity? unabridged without any omission? uncensored without any "embellishment"? How come there are many versions of any famous person's biography? Being a cynic, I think Frey's critics are simply jealous of a fellow writer's attaining fame and fortune.
Posted at 9:48 pm, Friday, January 20, 2006

"Most college students lack skills" (#41; Topic E)

In a recent study by the American Institute of Research, reported online yesterday, "more than 50 percent of students at four-year schools ... could not interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, [or] compare credit card offers with different interest rates and annual fees...." This study reminds of an episode more than 40 years ago, when I was an assistant professor at the University of Southern California. In a faculty meeting one day, our department chairman, using a student's writing in his class as a sample, discussed their poor command of English. Writing is important to students aiming for the public accounting profession, as junior auditors are expected to write internal-control memoranda and seniors to draft notes to financial statements. He proposed that all seniors in our department be tested for their English proficiency, and produced a sample test he drafted. Looking at it, I could not help wondering: the draft test was easier than the English portion of a college entrance examination I took when I was in China -- when I was a mere high-school graduate and where English was not my or other applicants' mother tongue.
Posted at 8:41 pm, Friday, January 20, 2006

Index of entries #1-40 (#40X; 0)

In #18, I identified topics to comment and added numbers to entries; together, they are serviceable as an index. I plan to update this index after every 20 entries, along with reclassification of entries.
A Attitude - Chinese America (reclassified from D) 4, "family"6, color 21, profiling 33
B Business - A Billion Customers 7, GM 23, GM and Chinese cars 25, Chinese car 30
C Classics - Confucius 3, Sun Tzu 5, Sun Tzu 11
D Daily life - Taxi 1, "I aim low" (reclassified from D) 22, zero hits 28, million$ 31, grandmother 34, happiness 36, "I'm a member" 40
E Education - teacher reverence 2, learn something new 10, engineering graduates 19, teaching accounting 20, college entrance examination 32, "Is education important?" 37
F Foreign relations - Index of economic freedom 17, "eating America's lunch" 24
G Games - football and soccer 12; computer and chess 13, Rose Bowl 16, "Deal or no deal" 26
H History - Zheng He 8, 350-year-old Rock 14, "China discovered America" 29, Ben Franklin 35
I Invention - firecracker (reclassified from D) 9, acupuncture (reclassified from D) 39
K Customs - Cash gift (reclassified from D) 38
L Language - teaching Chinese (reclassified from E) 15, Chinese and English (reclassified from E)
27
Posted 11:51 am, Friday, January 20, 2006

"I'm a member" (#40; Topic D)

The retirement community to which we moved last April has, among its numerous clubs, the Chinese Club. It is intended for residents with Chinese ethnicity, giving them an opportunity to get together to listen to native-language speakers. In time, it was broadened to include residents with Chinese-ethnic family members. Because the club is well run and well funded (with donations from well-to-do residents, etc), its due is low ($10 per year), which is used to subsidize many of its activities and to pay for flowers for deceased members. In 10 days' time (January 29), it will be another lunar New Year's Day. To celebrate this event, the club will host a banquet-style luncheon -- the usual fare, if one were to go on one's own, would be $20+ per head; the club, with its strong buying power, will pay only $15 per head. In turn, it asks each club member to pay only $10, contributing $5 from its coffers -- nonmember guests pay $15 each, still a good deal. Good news such as this travels fast, so much so that many residents of the retirement community, who have nothing whatsoever to do with China or her culture, want to participate. When the club's treasurer (which happens to be my wife) attempts to collect from them, they only want to pay $10, claiming that "I'm a member." Confronted with facts to the contrary, some claim "this is the last check I have;" others say that they carry no additional cash. Such is life.
Posted at 10:00 pm, Thursday, January 19, 2006

Acupuncture in US Army (#39; Topic I)

On the way to our retirement community's clubhouse for a lecture on the biochemistry of food, my car radio was tuned to WTOP, the area's top-rated all-news station. It was in the midst of reporting on acupuncture, an ancient Chinese medical practice. It seems that the U.S. Army is a big user -- a colonel and his staff in a medical facility (I did not catch its name) have administered it to Army personnel no less than 11,000 times. Eleven thousand times! The report cited acupuncture's two advantages. One, its portability -- all a doctor needs are needles, each only slightly longer than a toothpick; no expensive equipment is required. Two, its low cost -- each needle costs only 38 cents; a treatment, using a dozen or so needles, would cost "less than a cup of coffee." Perhaps a third advantage -- when acupuncture is used as anesthetic during surgery -- may be advanced: its relative safety. No chemical needs to be injected into a patient's body; there is no danger of overdose. So, let us chalk acupuncture up as an example where the world's most advanced superpower relies upon an ancient Chinese practice -- in medicine, no less.
Posted at 4:42 pm, Thursday, January 19, 2006

Cash gift or in-kind gift? (#38, Topic K)

The question-and-answer column in American newspapers' society section is a valuable source, for me, to learn about customs and/or matters of concern to well-to-do members of the society. Yesterday, in Washington Post, a mother, on behalf of her soon-to-be-a-graduate daughter, asked, in effect: In the graduation announcement, is it ok to "tastefully" ask that gifts be in a form suitable for her "future home" trust? This carefully worded letter evoked, uncharacteristically, a most violent response from the usually genteel columnist: "No one, no matter how fond of your daughter, wants to buy her a house.... You would get the prize [for being the greediest and the rudest]." For an old man out of China, I beg to differ. What is wrong with cash gifts? How many pen-and-pencil sets should a graduate have? Or, in weddings, how many pot-and-pan sets should a bride have? I always thought that, in a capitalistic society such as the USA, the dollar rules, but this appears to be not so. In China, only relatives give in-kind gifts; friends and acquaintances send cash -- it is easier, both to the sender and to the recipient. Indeed, in China, wedding gifts, in cash, are invariably used to pay for wedding banquets -- else, how can an average father of the groom host a wedding banquet of 80 or more tables (meaning 800-1000 guests)? (In China, it is the father of the groom who picks the tab).
Posted at 11:53 am, Thursday, January 19, 2006

"Is education important to you?" (#37; Topic E)

At 8:30 last evening, a representative from a respected magazine (I have been a subscriber ever since my Wharton days) called me. Anticipating that I would leave this world before my wife does, I have accompanied her to many courses that would make her less finance-illiterate; a year or so ago, we went to one offered by that magazine. (Finance-literacy is an unending process. Even I, probably ranked in the 90th percentile on financial matters, learned a thing or two in every course I attended.) The purpose of this representative's call was to sign her up for a new course. Though receptive, I said that the tuition for the course, in four figures, seemed high. He then blurted out with a provocative question: "Is education important to you?" Answering it in the affirmative and adding that we have four Wharton MBAs in our family, I asked him: How about you? He did not go to college. Being an educator most my adult life, I realize that many worthy people could not go to college for a variety of reasons; to them, I have nothing but understanding. Indeed, people from China also appreciate that learning is not necessarily the same as going to college. However, by asking "Is education important to you?" when the inquirer, in my view, is in need of same is a bit too much. I said so and ended the call.
Posted at 11:33 am, Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Happiness index and misery index (#36; Topic D)

Power in our building was knocked out by strong wind last night. Fumbling with the radio dial this morning, I somehow got a Federal-network station, in the midst of reporting a Federal-funded program on teaching people how to laugh, since "laugh makes people happy," and since the pursuit of happiness is one of a person's unalienable rights. Coincidentally, the night before, I read a review of The History of Happiness in The Economist (1/14/06). Darrin McMahon, the book's author, wrote that happiness to ancient Greeks was largely bound up with the notions of luck and fortune, while Christianity played down these in favor of "the promise of eternal happiness in the next life." In China, happiness is linked to learning. The Analects of Confucius opens with: "Learning coupled with practice whenever possible -- is it not joyful?" (1.1). Elsewhere, the Master said: "A person with knowledge lives a happy life" (6.23). (Both are from my translation of the Analects, published in 1999). Interestingly, the United States does not compile a "Happiness Index"(Bhutan does), but a "misery index" (the sum of unemployment and inflation rates). In the 2005 version, which expands to include GDP growth and budget balances, USA was on top among G-7 countries (in 1994, Italy led the pack).
Posted 10:32 pm, Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Happy 300th birthday, Ben Franklin (#35; Topic H)

Today marks the 300th birthday anniversary of Benjamin Franklin. Among his many achievements, he was the founder of the University of Pennsylvania, from its Wharton School I earned an MBA degree. So, in a way, I owe him a special debt. Early on, when reading Max Weber's highly acclaimed book, Protestantism and the Spirit of Capitalism, I was both pleased and puzzled by Franklin's being singled out as personifying the spirit of capitalism. Pleased because Franklin was superb in whatever he chose to do -- he was highly motivated; he excelled -- he certainly had high spirits. Puzzled because, it seems to me, protestantism was not his faith. He was a member of the Society of Friends, or a Quaker, as that organization is known -- it is also U Penn's nickname. In Quaker gatherings, everyone sits in silence; no one speaks. There are no preachers, certainly no preaching. One simply meditates. To my way of thinking, many of America's founding fathers were deists; Thomas Jefferson was one, George Washington was another -- and so was Franklin. This is understandable, since one reason for these founding fathers fleeing their fatherland was to avoid religious suffocation. Come to think of it, while Weber wrote many books on religion (and I have read quite a few), he never once defined what religion is.
Posted at 8:40 pm, Tuesday, January 17, 2006

"Who else has a cute grandmother story?" (#34; Topic D)

Another favorite carton of mine, in addition to Dennis the Menace (#31), is The Family Circle. Today's panel shows a smiling Billy, returning to his seat after being complimented by his teacher for telling a grandma story before his peers: "Very good, Billy. Now who else has a cute grandmother story?" I have one. At our daughter's and son-in-law's house over the holidays, a Christmas gift my wife received, from her grandchildren, was a box containing a book on Origami (an ancient paper-folding and -cutting exercise for children, originated in China but is better known by its Japanese name) and an assortment of colored papers for folding them into animals and the like. One afternoon, my wife taught her how to do them; both had a good time. And little Veronika's interest and undivided attention impressed me. In a class in the new year, her kindergarten teacher taught Origami. After she finished, Veronika raised her hand and then said: "My po-po [= grandma in Chinese] taught me to fold from corner to corner." And the teacher responded: "Very good, Veronika." This made her happy; she told the story to her mother, which made her mother happy; in turn, it made her po-po happy.
Posted 11:31 am, Monday, January 16, 2006

"Voice profiling" (#33; Topic A)

On the eve of Martin Luther King day, a national holiday, CNN beamed a segment on "voice profiling" this evening. In a test in St. Louis MO, it seemed that when an accented voice called a number concerning a rental vacancy advertised in the newspaper, the answer would most likely be: It is no longer available. If an unaccented voice then called that same number immediately thereafter, the caller would invariably be invited for an interview, suggesting that the rental vacancy was still available. The test was replicated by one of the city's agencies, with the same results. The CNN program then interviewed a civil-rights attorney, who said that, in 2004, "more than 2,000,000 people had the door slammed in their faces" concerning rental matters, and that more than 9,000 housing discrimination complaints were filed that year. I remember, when I first started to work after graduation, my experience in finding a rental unit around the University of Chicago -- in Chicago's southside -- was about the same. That was 1953; it is now 2006. So, while the administration takes upon itself the noble mission of improving human rights around the world, it seems that those in the United States have remained substantially unchanged over the half century.
Posted at 8:32 pm, Sunday, January 15, 2006

A college entrance examination? (#32; Topic E)

In today's Washington Post, there is an essay ("Writing wrongs") by one self-described as a former "free-lance editor for a college application consulting firm." For $150-200 paid to her firm, she would provide "needed proofreading help." For $399, she would serve as a "comprehensive" editor, producing an essay (an "aspiration") as the basis for the college applicant's writing his/her own essay -- though, invariably, that "aspiration" would be submitted, verbatim, by the applicant as his/her own essay. The former editor raised objections, resuling in the firm's not sending her new "clients." To my way of thinking, this approach to writing college-specific essays is either redundant or inadequate bordering on being unfair. It is redundant because, essay writing is already covered as a subject in the SAT -- why do it again? If it is worthwhile redoing, it would be inadequate. In China, each college conducts its own proctored entrance examinations, combining, in effect, SAT and college-specific essay-writing in one round. There is no "aspiration"; there is no outside help of any kind -- all applicants must use their own brain-power to compete. Fair and square. After all, civil examination, allowing unheard-of talents from remote area to shine, originated in China, millennia ago -- it is still going strong. Why not emulate what is the best and the fairest?
Posted at 12:30 pm, Sunday, January 15. 2006

"How far away am I from a million dollars?" (#31; Topic D)

A unique feature in American newspapers, absent in their Chinese counterparts, is cartons. One of my favorites is Dennis the Menace; one reason might be that I have a grandson about Dennis's age. A few days ago, there was a panel showing Dennis kneeling on the floor, having emptied his piggy bank and counting its contents, being coins scattered about. Next to him was his mother, to whom he posed this question: "How far away am I from a million dollars?" While I cannot locate that panel (thus, the words used by Dennis may not be exact), this question lingers with me. The more I think about it, the more I appreciate the question's simplicity, profoundness, and educational value. First, I see Dennis setting a worthwhile and achievable goal -- a million dollars is a good sum of money; it is certainly a worthwhile goal. But, is it achievable? Very much so, particularly when one starts saving at an early age and continues doing so throughout the years. This is where profoundness comes in -- to achieve this worthwhile goal, one has to be persistent. The power of compounding is this panel's educational value. In time, Dennis would have a bank account (perhaps he has one already; emptying his piggy bank is but a prelude to depositing its contents into his bank account); with deposits into his bank account, and with their balance earning interest, which is compounded, Dennis is likely to be a millionaire several times over before he reaches his retirement age. What a simple but elegant way of educating the youngsters -- or educating an old man like myself.
Posted at 10:58 am, Sunday, January 15, 2006

Another Chinese-made car for the US market (#30; Topic B)

CNN, featuring the Detroil Auto Show in its Money Matters program today, had an interview of Malcolm Bricklin, who had built cars under that nameplate in the 1970s, and imported Subarus from Japan and Yugos from Yugoslavia in the 1980s and 1990s. This time, he plans to import another Chinese-made car to the USA. (I had mentioned Geely in #24.) Known as Chery -- the name is likely to be changed, as it is too close to Chevy, an affectionate name for Chevrolet -- Bricklin's target is to sell 250,000 cars in 2007. Mainly sports cars, Chery would be priced less than $20,000, some 40% below comparable offerings built in USA, Europe, or Japan -- but, according to Bricklin, superior to them in all other respects, as these cars will be built in brand-new plants using the latest technology and facilities. Let the competition begin.
Posted at 6:01 pm, Saturday, January 14, 2006

"China had indeed discovered America by 1421" (#29; Topic H)

Mentioning "China's Columbus-beating map" on its cover, the 1/14-20/06 issue of The Economist reports that a 1763 copy of a 1418 map (shown on p 80) will be unveiled in Beijing on January 16 and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich the next day. With six Chinese characters at the map's upper right-hand corner identifying it as a "general chart of the integrated world," the map also has notes that substantially match descriptions in a 1418 book The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft -- which, if my memory serves me, is based on ship logs kept by Zheng He's mates on his 7 voyages beginning in 1405. After discussing the yeas and nays concerning the map's authenticity, The Economist concludes by saying that "the Chinese, having discovered the extent of the world, did not exploit it, politically or commercially. After all, Columbus's discovery of America led to exploitation and then development by Europeans which, 500 years later, made the United States more powerful than China had ever been." I share this sentiment, though the last 15 words are debatable.
Posted at 4:52 pm, Saturday, Janaury 14, 2006

"Zero hits on Google" (#28; Topic O)

A carton in the 1/23/06 issue of Business Week shows a shabbily dressed executive (ex-executive?), standing in a street corner and waiting for handouts. He carries a sign "Zero hits on Google." I seem to be in the same bind. Blogging is indeed a state-of-the-art vehicle; I am fascinated by it and have, since initiating one on 12/29/05, posted no less than 28 times -- almost two a day. However, so far, none of my blogs has comments. True, a former colleague of mine at the World Bank has written me twice, each time after his comments to my blogs failed to register. He said he was aware of the reason for his first rejection: it was too long (the limit, according to him, is 300 characters, which is about 50-60 words; his first comment went to about 300 words; I was completely unaware of this limit until he said so). In his second e-mail, he said his comment on my blog on Chinese cars in USA (#25, 1/12/06) also failed to register, but, this time, he did not know the reason. Being a novice in this enterprise, I do not even know how to append photographs to my posts, let alone commenting on how to register comments. And I do not know where to seek help. This exposes the frustrations of a retiree -- with no IT staff to consult, I am at a complete loss.
Posted 9:41 am, Saturday, January 14, 2006

Learning Chinese in USA, learning English in China (#27; Topic E)

Awakened by NPR at 7, the program was The Market Place, beaming from Shanghai. The anchor began by identifying himself and greeting his listeners in Chinese (Zao sha`ng hao = good morning). After a few minutes on the Chinese economy, the program switched to a special report from Chicago: (1) a "China connection" program is alive in the Chicago public-school system, involving some 5,000 pupils from 5th grade to 12th; (2) similar programs are offered in public schools in Houston, Philadelphia, and Charlotte, with some 30,000 pupils; and (3) it takes 1,500 hours to learn Chinese, compared to 500 hours to learn Spanish or other western languages. The anchor added that, on a visit to an elementary school in Shanghai, he was greeted by a pupil, in English -- English is taught in China from 3rd grade onward. He expressed the hope that more students in USA might elect Chinese as a foreign language to learn, and invited his listeners to click to the program's website, marketplace.org for other commentaries. Well done. We certainly need more programs like the Market Place that promote US-China relations in a positive way.
Posted 8:26 am, Saturday, Janaury 14, 2006

"Deal or No Deal" (#26; Topic G)

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal has a front-page story, "Why game shows have economists glued to their TVs;" one such game is "Deal or No deal." Being interested in game theory (made famous by the 1996 and 2005 Nobel laureates in economics), I saw one a week or so ago. The focus of the program is on 30 briefcases, each containing an amount ranging from 1 cent to $1 million. A contestant selects one briefcase; plays an elimination game to infer the amount in the briefcase selected; and decides, after each round of play, whether to accept an offer from the host (in which case play stops) or to continue playing. In each round, 5 numbers are called; after revealing their contents and retiring their number, an offer is made. The game becomes suspenseful when only 5 or fewer briefcases remain. In the program I saw, the 3 remaining cases contained $10,000, $200,000, and $300,000; and the offer was $167,000. The contestant, a bricklayer, after consulting his brain trust (his mother, his wife, and 2 friends), decided to accept the offer -- a rather rational decision, as the probability-based fair value at this juncture is $170,000. Were this offer declined, another number would be called. If the number called contained $10,000, the offer would have to jump to $250,000; if the number called contained $300,000, the offer would drop to $105,000. The game show is thus a good test of one's risk tolerance -- a more speculative player might decline the $167,000 offer in favor of calling another number. Very educational -- it certainly yields valuable research data for economists.
Posted 7:25 pm, Friday, January 13, 2006

Chinese cars in USA, GM cars in China (#25; Topic B)

USA Today carries a half-page story on "First Chinese model bursts on scene in Detroit" in its 1/12/06 issue, complete with a photo of a compact sedan on display at the Detroit Auto Show, now in progress. The car, Geely (which, in Chinese, means Good Fortune [my translation]), seems to be able to meet safety and anti-pollution regulatons "more quickly than anticipated," according to John Harmer, COO of Geely-USA; he plans to ship the first 2,000 Geely cars to Puerto Rico next year. The story continues by saying that "Chinese vehicles will be a threat to established U.S. auto sellers because vehicles from China are likely to be cheaper than those from Europe, Japan, or North America." However, a couple of days ago, I read that the sale of GM cars in China increased by 25% (over 2004), and that, in so doing, GM has replaced VW as the most popular auto manufacturer in China. Indeed, as a result of this piece of good news, the price of GM stock was up by $1.61 on Monday, 1/9/06, and helped the Dow Jones industrial average (of which GM is one of 30 components) to close above 11,000 for the first time since June 2001. So, it seems to be a win-win situation on both sides of the Pacific.
Posted at 11:00 pm, Thursday, January 12, 2006

"China's eating America's lunch in Asia" (#24; Topic F)

One of the advantages of living in the Washington DC area is the abundance of cultural events that are both world class and free of charge. Today, I was privileged to attend a seminar on "Power Shift: China and Asia's New Dynamics" at the Brookings Institution, offered to launch a book with the same title. As the book's editor, David Shambaugh, Director of China Policy Program at George Washington University, overviewed it and the seminar by saying that, when he first approached experts for contributions to this volume, many commented that the subject matter might be rephrased as "China's eating America's lunch in Asia." Hearing this, I thought to myself: What is wrong with that? Isn't it axiomatic that, China, with Asia as her home, takes her lunch there? Conversely, why is USA, which is domiciled in North America, has her lunch in Asia? At the end of the first panel discussion, I rose to suggest that the panel failed to discuss the psychological dimension -- countries in East Asia and Southeast Asia have been humiliated over the last century and half; it is time that they stand up and declare: We are second to none; I also stated that Confucian thought is indeed second to none. Professor Jonathan Pollack, of Naval War College, a panelist, concurred by saying that the case under discussion is not China's rising, but China's re-rising. Well said, professor.
Posted at 9:59 pm, Thursday, January 12, 2006

As GM goes, so goes the nation (#23; Topic B)

When I began graduate studies at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, back in 1949, a course on Industrial Management I took had a couple of sessions on the steel industry. US Steel, the dominant player, had a Basing-Point Pricing -- all steel prices were to be set at FOB Pittsburgh, where US Steel had and still has its flagship plant, regardless of the producer or the actual delivery point. And there was a saying: As USS goes, so goes the nation. Later, General Motors took over, and the saying became: As GM goes, so goes the nation. After I had earned a PhD and worked for two or three years, I saved enough to buy my very first car, a brand-new 1956 Chevrolet Bel-Air. Later, I had an Oldsmobile station wagon; and, still later, an Oldsmobile F85 -- all GM products. This week, the Detroit Auto Show began its run, but the news were not favorable to GM. First, there was the speculation that GM might seek bankruptcy protection. Then, it was predicted that, for 2006, Honda would replace GM as the world's most popular automobile producer. Further, GM's stock was at a four-year low, and there was some concern that its dividend might be cut. Let's hope that the company can survive and return to prosperity -- after all, "As GM goes, so goes the nation."
Posted at 11:50 pm, Wednesday, January 11, 2006

"I aim low" (#22; Topic: D)

In 1/6/06's The Boondocks (a 3-panel carton) by Aaron McGruder, Caesar, the protagonist, makes his New Year's resolution (in panel 1), switches to soy milk by adding it to his bowl of cereal (panel 2), and then says: "I aim low" (panel 3). No, no, no, Casesar. Never aim low; always aim high. In any case, in this instance, by switching to soy milk, you are actually aiming high -- soy milk is much better, both nutritionally and environmentally. In his 2005 best-selling book, The World Is Flat, Thomas Friedman repeats a similar misguided sentiment among U.S. businessmen: in competiton, China and India aim low (low-cost labor, etc.); in Friedman's view, the two countries aim high (better service, higher-quality product, etc.) In 1/16/06 issue of Business Week, Roger Martin, Dean of U of Toronto's School of Management, offers a similar wake-up call: "There is a romantic notion in North American business that its future lies in design and innovation, while India and China will be the home of less skilled, lower-paying operations churning out the products and services the U.S. comes up with."
[Correction: Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic's book, Chinese America, is published in 2005, not, as misstated in #21, in 1995.]
Posted 8:17 pm, Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Is "white" a color? (#21; Topic A)

Practically every day, one reads in the media the phrase "people of color". The phrase is supposed to be used as a polite term in opposition to "white." This begs the question: Is white a color? Does a palette have a space for a paint known as "white"? If the answer is yes, then "people of color" = "people of all colors", and the restrictive use of this term makes no sense. If the answer is no, then the opposite of "people of color" must necessarily be "people of no color" -- or, for short, "colorless people." These options are unlikely to be appealing to those who fall into this category. Is "European-Americans" an alternative? The answer is also No; the reason is that it would exclude ethnic groups such as Jews. Jews in the USA are, at least for statistical purposes, grouped as "white." Why? To boost statistics on years of education and on per-capita income for "whites" -- Jews, as do Chinese-Americans and Asian-Americans in general, have better data to show on these fronts. In actuality, what constitutes as white is but a legislative action away. In Peter Kwong and Dusanka Miscevic's 1995 book, Chinese America, in early days in USA, at least in Louisiana, Chinese were classified as "white" for census purposes. Indeed, in the early 1970s, I met a Japanese businessman in Sydney, who proudly stated to me that, in Australia, Japanese were, by law, grouped as "white." At that time, Australia still had the "White Australia" policy -- so, this is readily understandable: in a capitalistic society, in the name of the mighty Australian pound or whatever, anything is negotiable.
Posted at 9:08 am, Friday, January 6, 2006

Teaching accounting to All-America footballers (#20; Topic E)

The 2005 Rose Bowl, played last night between #1 Southern California and #2 Texas, brings back fond memories of being on SC's faculty in 1956-60. As an assistant professor, my teaching assignments generally included basic accounting courses -- required by all students in the business school but feared by many. About 25% of students who played football were enrolled in the business school, meaning that they must take a year's course in elementary accounting (3 quarters). Accounting is known as "the language of business;" I thought it was best if it were indeed taught as a foreign language: small but unrelenting increments, frequent reviews. For the latter, I devised a plan of giving 4 tests (in addition to the final) in each quarter -- a test every other week. As incentive, I stipulated that only the best 3 scores out of these 4 tests would be used in determining a student's final grade. (For me, this scheme eliminated the need to give make-up tests.) In the fall quarter, footballers, with their busy schedule to practice and play, had the most difficult time. They generally had tutors, and the coaching staff regularly inquired about footballers' performance in the class. Many of them were on scholarship; I had to sign their attendance record. In general, these footballers, despite their heavy schedule, worked hard; their dedication was admirable. My 3-out-of-4 plan apparently made life easier for them, as I, despite having standards I considered unbending, attracted my share of footballers (and, in other semesters, other atheletes) in my class.
Posted at 10:40 pm, Thursday, January 5, 2006

Engineering graduates around the world (#19; Topic E)

An ab0ve-the-fold article in today's Investor's Business Daily gives a list of engineering graduates around the world in 2002 (the latest year of data by the National Science Foundation). Leading the pack is China with 219,563 and 21% of the world's total. This is followed by EU-15, at 179,929 and 17%; Japan, 104,478 and 10%; Russia, 82,409 and 8%; and India, 82,107 and 8%. US ranks 6th, with 59,536 and 6%. The article's subheading says it all: "Top students [in USA] shy away from the hard sciences; tech firms fear impact." Earlier, in Thomas Friedman's 2005 best-selling book, The World Is Flat, he gave similar statistics and sounded similar concern. On the other hand, these percentages are reminiscient of the distribution of world wealth during Zheng He's time (early 15th century), when China controlled about 29% of the world's wealth and Europe 19%. (These data are from my continuing research in the world economy in Zheng He's time.) Is the world returning to the good old days?
Posted at 9:47 pm, Thursday, January 5, 2006

Topics A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and H (#18; Topic 0)

Perhaps due to a beginner's overeagerness, I did not realize that, in just one week since I posted my very first blog on 12/29/05, I have done no less than 17. So that I would not wander afar from the objectives stated in the masthead ("The focus of this space will be on US-China relations, Chinese culture, and Chinese Americans"), I need to identify topics I think I am qualified to comment, and to add a numbering system to each posting. The following is a categorization of postings I have done so far and the number I need to add to them at this time:
A - Attitude (affirmation, discrimination): 6 - Manassas Va defines "Family"
B - Business and economics: 7 - Quote in One Billion Customers
C - Chinese culture; classics: 3 - Confucius on making contribution; 5 - Sun Tzu's Art of War;
11 - Sun Tzu's saying on New Year's Day
D - Daily life: 1 - Taxi service in Shanghai; 4 - Chinese America by Kwong; 9 - Firecracker for
the New Year
E - Education: 2 - Teacher reverence in China; 10 - New Year resolution: Learn something new;
15 - Teaching Chinese in US schools
F - Foreign and international affairs: 17 - Hong Kong tops in "Index of Economic Freedom"
G - Games and sports: 12 - Football and soccer; 13 - Computer as western chess champion;
16 - Big 10 Conference and Rose Bowl
H - History: 8 - 2005 - 600th anniversary of Zheng He's first voyage; 14 - 350-year Rock
Posted 9:59 am, Thursday, January 5, 2006

Hong Kong Tops in "Index of Economic Freedom"

In today's Wall Street Journal, 2008 rankings of "Index of Economic Freedom", among 157 countries and jurisdictions, are presented by Mary O'Grady, co-editor of a 422-page book with the same title. In it, Hong Kong leads the pack, while USA is ranked 9th. Factors used in grading include property-rights protection, regulatory environment, tax rates, fiscal policy, government intervention in the economy, monetary policy, black markets, and trade policy. For two years, 1967-69, I was a Ford Foundation Visiting Professor to the Chinese University of Hong Kong, helping to set up its Graduate School of Business Administration and serving as CUHK's Dean of the Faculty of Social Science and Commerce. While there, I could not help being impressed by the government's hands-off policy -- no subsidies of any kind; one must sink or swim with one's own ability, a true test of the"survival of the fittest." The income-tax rate was/is a flat 15%, with few deductions and no provisions for tax-shelters. In 1996 and 2000, Steve Forbes, of the Forbes magazine fame, advocated a flat tax as his main theme in running to become the Republican Party's Presidential nominee -- and produced excellent results at first. His early success and eventual withdrawal is a case study in my bilingual book The Art of Leadership by Sun Tzu (2000, 272 pages): "Republican Party Presidential Nomination Process for 2000 - The Iowa Caucus - The Forbes Candidacy" (at pp 38-41). Would USA be ranked higher than 9th were a flat tax been in effect?
Posted at 11:42 pm, Wednesday, January 4, 2006

Big 10 Conference and Rose Bowl

Tomorrow, the Rose Bowl will be played. When I was a graduate student at the University of Illinois (1950-53), the Rose Bowl pitted the champions of the Big 10 conference and the Pacific 10 conference -- and played on January 1. In the '50s, the Big 10 conference was probably the strongest conference in USA, as evidenced by having UCLA Bruins -- a strong team in later decades -- as the season's opener in 1950. During that season, Illinois had a home game against Ohio State, which was then ranked #1 -- Illinois was ranked #8. On the way to the stadium, there were scalpers wanting to have my ticket to the game (which, as was the case at Penn the preceding year, was a season ticket good for all home games); the going price was $8 -- the entire seaon ticket cost me but $10. I was tempted (after all, for one cut off from the family in China, every cent was precious) but declined, for two reasons. One, I was unsure whether selling tickets above the face value was legal -- I did not want to take any chances. Two, I did not know how to get my season ticket back -- I probably would never see my season ticket again. So, I resolutely walked into the stadium. Illinois won that game -- it was more tense than exciting. At the season's end, Illinois was the Big 10 champion and played in the Rose Bowl, to which we were offered tickets. But, being cut off from from our families, only one Chinese student, who served as a lab assistant in his department, had enough resources to go. Upon his return, we persuaded him to give us a slide show (TV was not available then). He also took orders so that we could have duplicate slides (such as one showing the entrance to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena) for our memory. Many years later, when I was on the faculty of the University of Southern California, was I then able to attend the Rose Bowl when SC won the Pacific 10 championship.
Posted at 10:21 pm, Tuesday, January 3, 2006

Teaching Chinese in US schools (#15; Topic L)

Today's Washington Post, datelined Portland OR, has a long article on teaching Chinese in US schools. The article begins by saying that, while there are 3 million students studying Spanish, there are but 24,000 students studying Chinese, most of them in high schools. However, with a $700,000 grant from the Defense Department to the Univeristy of Oregon, the Oregon program will be the first in USA that "track[s] students from kindergarten to college." Marvellous. The article also says that the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee is "considering a proposal to allocate $1.3 billion to boost classes on Chinese language and culture in public schools." Bravo. This is exactly the aim of this space, and I shall do my share of contributing to a better understanding of Chinese culture and language in the USA.
Posted at 12 noon, Tuesday, January 3, 2006

European colonists laid claim to 350-yr-old Rock

In yesterday's Washington Post, there is a brief story on a 350-year-old 7,000-ton Cochegan Rock, to which "European colonists laid claim." Exactly how these colonists claimed title to it is not mentioned, as the story merrily does a "Fast-forward a few centuries" and makes the Boys Scouts of America of East Hartford the Rock's owner. Now, the Scouts offer it to the Mohegan Tribe for $50,000 -- the Rock sits on a "sacred site"; buying the Rock "allows the tribe to recover" that sacred site as well. What a story. What a good deal.
Posted 8:12 pm, Monday, January 2, 2006

Computer as western chess champion

In today's Washington Post, chess columnist Lubomir Kavalek summarized 2005 activities. One segment deals with "Incredible Machines." It seems that, in June 2005, Hydra, a computer program, beat UK's grandmaster Michael Adams Kavalek with a score of 5.5: 0.5 -- the computer had 5 wins and a draw out of six games! In November, Hydra and two other computer programs (Fritz and Junior) defeated three FIDE world champions (Ponomariov, Alexander Khalifman, and Rustain Kasimdzhanov) by a more respectable, but still one-sided score of 8-4! These news, astonishing as they undoubtedly are, are to be expected. Indeed, back in 1994, in the preface to my book Kriegspiel: Chess Under Uncertainty (Premier Publishing, 144 pages), I stated that: "In a few years, and certainly by the end of this millennium, a computer, endowed with a gigabyte memory to store all past games and nanosecond speed to retrieve winning moves from these past games, will be the World Chess Champion." I then said: "For humans to play chess in the 21st century at a level far above a mere showing of mechanical prowess, we need to add an attribute the computer is not expected to possess, even in millennia to come: intelligence. This is where Kriegspiel comes in." (Kriegspiel is a game based on western-chess rules but played with logic instead of regurgitation. Amassing asymmetrical information using techniques commonly known as game theory now made famous by two Nobel Laureates, including its 2005 recipient Thomas Schelling, it is a favored pastime of information workers such as cryptoanalysts at Bletchley Park, London, during WWII, and Nobel Laureate in Biochemistry Sir John Robinson of UK). Luckily, computers are still unable to play a dominant role in Xiangqi (Chinese chess, which preceded western chess). Computers programmed to play Xiangqi are still second-rate. Perhaps a grant from Levano, which took over IBM's PC business early on, might stimulate more interest in making Xiangqi programs more respectable.
Posted 11:21 am Monday, January 2, 2006

Football and soccer

With this season's football reaching its climax (the pros in playoffs and only three college bowls remaining), I cannot help being reminded of my very first football game in the United States. It was September 1949, shortly after enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School as a graduate student. The tuition for the entire academic year was $500 (a large sum at that time, particularly for one coming from abroad); in return for my $10 activity fee, I received a season pass, good for all Penn's home games. A few days later, there was the season's first home football game. I played "football" as a youngster in China, so, with the Franklin Field within walking distance, I decided to see how "fooball" fared in the USA. The big field and big crowd impressed me, but I was surprised at the strange ground markings and the lack of goalposts. When players came out of the tunnel (I was sitting next to one), I was astonished by their size [later on, I was advised that their shoulders were heavily padded]. When play began, I quickly came to the realization that this is a different brand of football -- the "football" I knew was/is known as soccer in USA. During the game, I did not know what "First and ten" meant, nor why the crowd encouraged contact with "Hit him harder" -- the "football" I knew treats unneeded contact as violations. Apparently a Penn player scored, because the crowd roared, but how he did it escaped me. And, why six points? Why the frequent interruptions ("huddles")? All in all, I thought it was a boring game. After enduring it, with a busy academic schedule ahead of me, I spent other Saturday afternoons at the library; I graduated with an MBA a year later, left Philadelphia without ever walking to the Franklin Field to attend another football game.
Posted 10:10 am, Monday, January 2, 2006

Sun Tzu's saying on New Year's Day

Amy Joyce, in her article in today's Washington Post (see my musing immediately preceding), also mentions that each year begins with a clean calendar; good advice, well said. It so happens that, during the holidays, my two grandchildren (Maxwell, 10; Veronika, 5) gave me "A Year 2006 Daily Boxed Calendar: The Art of War - Ancient Military Strategy for Modern Business" as one of many gifts I received; for each day, the calendar provides a saying from Sun Tzu. For today, it says: "Complete means having both ability and intelligence. When a country has generals that are thoroughly able and intelligent, then that country is safe and strong. This means that generals have to be completely capable and completely knowledgeable in all operations." The saying is said to be from Chapter 3 of The Art of War, but the calendar's publisher makes no mention of who the translator is -- and I cannot relate the "translation" back to the original. The closest I can find is the following (my own rendition, from my bilingual translation published as The Art of Leadership by Sun Tzu, in 2000): " The commander assists the state. Proper assistance strengthens the state; inadequate assistance weakens it." (p 43)
Posted at 2:22 pm, Sunday, January 1, 2006

New Year Resolution: Learn Something New

In Washington Post's Business section for today, New Year's day, Amy Joyce has a beautifully written article, intended for readers with office jobs, on "Some Promises You Should Keep;" it leads off with Learn something new. This is clearly excellent advice, even to retirees such as myself. Indeed, Chinese Americans, as a group, are receptive to learning -- regardless of setting, regardless of age. I recall a saying, from a book in three-word groupings intended for school children in China from age 3 onward: "Learn till old-age; learning is inexhaustible." (my rendition, intended to mimic the 3-word groupings) In front of my monitor at which I am typing this musing, I have taped a clipping (with words in calligraphic form), from a Chinese-language newspaper published in major cities around the world (including NYC, San Francisco, and Los Angeles in USA), of an 8-word saying attributed to Ha'n Yin, a scholar of the H`an dynasty (206 BCE - 23 CE): "Learning has no end; one stops when encased [in a coffin]." Perhaps it is not good omen to talk about being encased in a coffin on New Year's day, but it reflects my sentiment perfectly, regardless of the occasion.
Posted at 1:50 pm, Sunday, January 1, 2006

Firecracker for the New Year 2006 (#9; Topic: I)

This morning, New Year's Day 2006, awakened by NPR's world report at 7 am, I heard reporters on how revelers around the world greeted the new year -- in Moscow, in New York City, in Chicago, and in other cities in the USA. The common ingredient in all these and other gatherings, it seems, is firecrackers. Last night, over CNN (its 10 pm segment was anchored by Carol Lin, one of my wife's cousins), I was similarly impressed by the colorful role firecrackers play on festive occasions. Indeed, gunpowder, a key ingredient of firecrackers, is a Chinese invention. In China, gunpowder was initially used solely for that purpose. However, to the western mind, which somehow can think more creatively -- "outside of the box" -- though, in the present context, the word perversely comes readily to mind -- gunpowder became the ingredient for gunboats. In one of my musings yesterday, I mentioned that, over the last century or two, China was longing to learn western methodology in science and, perhaps, on how, in western hands, gunpowder became gunboats to humiliate China until the middle of last century.
Posted at 11:54 am, Sunday, January 1, 2006