Embarassing moments in speaking Chinese in foreign land (#166, Topic L)

With Confucius Institutes being established around the world (#165), speaking Chinese to your companion in public in foreign land may produce unexpected results or embarrassments. An essay in The Washington China Post 3/3/06 has several amusing incidents. One, a female Chinese student in Paris, seeing a black person walking toward her, said to her companion: "She is so dark." Hearing this, the Parisienne responded: "You are so pale." Two, an Indian student was once asked: "I heard that you can speak Chinese. Is this so?" And he answered, in fluent Chinese: "Are you sick? Can't you see that I am an Indian?"; with that, he left. Three, the essay's author, while in Frankfurt's subway, said to his companion: "That fellow's legs are so long." The Frankfurter retorted: "How tall are you?" They began to converse in Chinese. And the Frankfurter then commented: "You Chinese are not afraid of the heaven, nor of the earth, except barbarians speaking in Chinese," which drew a laugh. Upon leaving, the Frankfurter even bid them farewell in Shanghai dialect "再會". Four, a friend of the essayist, at an airport in USA, commented on an obese Euro-American female passenger to his companion: "I wonder what food did she eat that made her so fat." Turning her back, she answered, in Shanghai dialect: "吃飯啊! [I ate Rice, of course]" Perhaps I need to learn another language?

Confucius Institute around the world (#165, Topic C)

People's Daily Overseas Edition 6/21/06 reports that there are now three Confucius Institutes in Africa; the first one was established in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2005. Beginning with 20+ students, the one in Nairobi now has 60+ students, with more on the waiting list. Enrollees include, in addition to university-level students, the secretary to Kenya's vice president and UN officials stationed in the country. On reasons for studying at the Confucius Institute, Lucaca Neocasa, the student-body president, says it well: "China, in addition to her rich heritage and culture, is developing fast, and playing an important role in the international community. I have a very strong interest in China; this is the reason that I decided to the Confucius Institute to learn Chinese." According to China's Statistical Bureau, 75 Confucius Institutes in 35 countries around the world are in operation as of June 30, 2006, with more than 100 by the end of the year. During President Hu Jintao's visit to USA in April, he participated in the opening ceremony of a Confucius Institute at the University of Maryland, which is but 20 miles east of Washington DC.

Zoellick and "Responsible Stakeholder" (#164, Topic F)

Wall Street Journal 6/20/06 reports that Robert Zoellick, State Department's No. 2 diplomat and lead voice on China policy, will leave next month. Last summer, before an economic forum, he delivered a major speech on US-China relations in which he called on China to become a "responsible stakeholder" in international system. As befitting a senior finance person in US government (witness former Fed chairman Alan Greenspan), Zoellick, in his long speech covering some nine pages in handout, never bothered to define what is meant by a stakeholder, let alone a responsible stakeholder. He wanted to keep China in the dark, while encouraging her to keep guessing -- at her own peril. Sure enough, several academicians and government officials in China took the bait and offered their views, complete with several versions of Chinese translation of this phrase. These interpretations were duly reported, Chinese translations and all, in long WSJ articles. I felt that these interpretations are unnecessarily rosy as bordering on self-delusion. To understand what a stakeholder is, one must, of necessity, understand what a stake is. As an example of calculated ambiguity, which US officials have perfected to a high science, the word stake has several meanings; take your pick. The closest to what Zoellick has in mind might be the following: sum of money offered the winner of a contest or race; prize; purse (Dictionary: Macmillan). Inferring from this, any one with a horse in a race is a stakeholder -- in the world arena, every country is a stakeholder. A race can have only one winner, and the winner takes the purse -- in the world arena, the winner must necessarily be the strongest contestant, the sole superpower, and the superpower takes the purse. Thus, a responsible stakeholder is a country who allows the superpower to take the purse without complaint. Q.E.D.

Mah-Jong (#163; Topic I)

A report in Washington Post 5/26/06, on a group of 6th graders at Thomas Jefferson Middle School in Arlington VA playing Mah-Jong during lunch hour, complete with two photographs, is most interesting -- and brings back fond memories. Introduced by their teacher, Sandy Tevelin, at the beginning of each scholastic year, some classes did not seem to care for it, while other classes, including this year's, enjoy it so much that they readily give up their lunch block of 35 minutes to play it. Good for them. While westerners consider Mah-Jong a difficult game to learn, it is not so. In any case, once Mah-Jong rules are learned -- which takes but an hour or two at the most -- one can play the game the rest of one's life; it is, thus, a most cost-effective investment of time, and Ms. Tevelin is entirely correct in stressing this point. In China, youngsters (about the age of Ms. Tevelin's pupils, 10 or 11) learn the game most likely through osmosis -- one can learn how to play by simply observing how grown-ups play. Learning Mah-Jong is a simple 4-step process: (1) differentiate among five suits (A = Amounts; B = Bushels; C = Containers -- each with designs showing numbers 1 through 9; collectively, basic suits; Primes and Winds -- collectively, super suits); (2) undestand the difference between 3 of a sequence (e.g., 4-5-6) and 3 of a kind (7-7-7); (3) appreciate that a 3-of-a-sequence can be formed only with basic suits (since only basic suits have designs showing numbers 1 through 9), and that a 3-of-a-kind can be formed with the use of any of the five suits; and (4) know that a winning hand consists of 4 sets each composed of either a 3-of-a-sequence or a 3-of-a-kind plus a pair (any 2-of-a-kind). That's it. If one can follow (1) through (4) above, one is ready to play. No memorization is needed -- Mah-Jong rules are both simple and unchanging. (The WP story talks about "memorizing", suggesting that the rules being taught by Ms. Tevelin are by the American Mah-Jong Association, which (1) sets rules for play among its members, (2) changes these rules annually, and (3) summarizes these rules on a card for sale at around $10 per card.) I regret to say that these rules are unrecognizable to people from China. I first saw such a game in the 1960s, on the beach of an oceanfront hotel in Miami Beach (I was attending a conference). To set the record straight, I had to wait three decades -- after my retirement, with time on my hands, I wrote The Happy Game of Mah-Jong, published in 1994. Being authentic, it is doing well, thank you.

"Management reserves the right to refuse service [for not ordering in English]" (#162, Topic L)

If Father's Day is to bring joy, today's Washington Post delivers a one-two punch in sadness. I read that, at home, one must not hoard, lest one might be evicted or declared mentally incompetent(#161); when ordering cheese steak sandwiches from a certain fast-food restaurant in Philadelphia, one must "speak English," lest one would be refused service. Since I lived in Philadelphia during my first year in USA; since I like fast food, including cheese steak sandwiches that make Philadelphia famous; and since I always want to learn more about how English is spoken in USA, I read on. Well, according to the story, when ordering at the said restaurant, if one wants onion in addition to cheese and steak, one is to say "Cheeze wit" or "Cheez Whiz" -- presumably, these are examples of "standard" English. While reading it, I ask myself: how one is to order if one is mute? On this front, I think McDonald has a good solution -- all food combinations are illustrated and clearly labeled as "1", "2", "3", and such. One can simply order using sign language, regardless of whether one is mute or not. McDonald does have another menu -- the "Dollar menu" -- in which items are listed in plain English without photographic prompts. Since I like the double cheeseburger in MCD's dollar menu, my poor English is put to test every time I go to a MCD restaurant. Luckily, I have yet to be refused service. For this, presumably, I shall "know how lucky [I am]." So, there is an uplifting message for Father's Day after all. Come to think of it, I was at a huge MCD restaurant (covering almost a block) in Paris last July. If it had a policy of refusing service unless the order is in French -- I presume that is the language Parisians speak, not English -- I probably would have to leave with an empty stomach. What a depressing thought -- let's perish it for Father's Day's sake.

"Hoarding task force" (#161, Topic D)

Today is Father's Day, but the front-page story in today's Washington Post, on a resident being evicted from his own condo for junk he accumulated therein, brings no joy. My children label me a "pack rat," so the story is of particular interest to me. While reading, my first question is: How did the fire marshall find out? Is there a sophisticated surveillance program on what people do or keep in their residences -- much like wiretapping of their telephones and remote-controlling of their computer files -- that I am unaware of? Relax; not quite. In this particular case, it was found out by a social worker who reported it to the authorities. Why was the social worker in the house? The story does not say. What it does say is that "Only a 15-inch path ran through the two-bedroom condomimium." So what? It is passable; what difference does it make whether the passageway is 1'3" or 3'1"? Using this as the sole justification for condemning the condo as "Unfit for Human Habitation" is really overstating the case; no wonder that resident filed suit, against Arlington County officials, "claiming that the eviction violated his civil rights." The fire marshal is said to be concerned with "whether firefighters and paramedics can get into a home ... and then, more importantly, set out." The article also cites Montgomery County's Working Group on Hoarding, on its residents' hoarding "rotten meat, roaches, organic waste, mice, rats and bateria that can become airborne." Granted that these substances cited by Montgomery County (in this county I am a resident) have public-health implications, there are so different from inorganic matters such as boxes (WP has a color photo of empty boxes in the evictee's condo) and old newspapers. In any case, task forces find hoarders -- me and 1.4 million others like me -- are likely to have "mental illness, brain dysfunction, and obsessive-compulsory disorders." What an uplifting story for Father's Day. Cheers.

Index to entries #121 - #160 (#160X; Topic O)

A Attitude - "from which country did you come?" 121, "can we be friends?" 123, 666 and silence 148, "unconvincing apologies" 156
B Business - US firms operating in China 125, revaluing the yuan 126, opium trade 140, multi-millionaire with a 3-ideogram vocabulary 142, "Ah, American capitalism" 144, "China ... No. 1 economy ... in 20 years" 145, insurance agent Tsufa Lee 155
C Classics - Ancestor worship and honoring thy parents 134, you too can be a "translator" 135
D Daily life - memory loss 131, making a contribution to the world before leaving it 146, "Bus Uncle" 149, marriage longevity 152, "I need to embarrass someone" 160
E Education - cultural identity 122, "why are Asian-Americans good at school?" 129, Xiangtu Chung Qing Primary School 147
F Foreign affairs - Presidential visits 124, "China's past and present" 127, "only three Chinese were killed" 128, "live and let live" 132, "foreign aid has flaws" 154, "中国: Sign of the Times" 158
G Games - World Cup 153
H History - FDR's maternal grandfather an opium trader 139, B.C. vs B.C.E. 157
I Innovation - Three Gorges dam 130, operetta of Kunshan 136, Poincare conjecture 151
J Sino-Japanese relations
K Customs - "nin guo jiang le [您過獎了]" 159
L Language - three principles of translation 137, symbolism in Chinese ideograms 138, Commissioner Lin Zexu as man-of-letters 141, spelling bee 143, "in plain English" 150
M Money matters - losing [輸] and losing [虧] 133
N Nostalgia
O omooc blog-management - index #121-#160

"I need to embarrass someone" (#160; Topic D)

In the midst of a 90-minute session on "Internet Marketing" I attended Thursday evening, 6/15/06, the presenter suddenly said "I need to embarrass someone. Please raise your hand if you don't mind being embarrassed." Earlier in the session, he talked about characteristics of an entrepreneur, so I gathered that he wanted to find out something from the attendees. He also talked about a 4-step action plan, so I thought I should apply it to the challenge at hand. (I did not have time to go back to what I jotted down, so I simply improvised.) One, knowledge (what do I know?) -- I know myself well, but I know nothing about the presenter until tonight. Two, assessment of the situation at hand -- I am too old to be embarassed; the presenter seems to be a nice fellow and not mischievous; whatever embarassment he dishes out would, in all likelihood, be manageable. Three, conclusion -- with cost almost zero and benefit positive, a quick cost-benefit analysis suggests raising my hand. Four, action -- raise my hand. But, before I raised my hand, a thought suddenly occurred to me: would I be viewed as being in cohort with the presenter? In attending a no-assigned-seat performance, I prefer sitting reasonably close. When I showed up for tonight's session, I took a front-row aisle seat -- over the objection of one of the presenter's associates serving as usher, who wanted my wife and me to sit elsewhere. Indeed, at the very moment when the presenter asked the question, he was standing next to me. Another thought occurred to me: Am I sitting at a seat reserved for the presenter's cohort? (This brings back a very amusing incident some years back; I hope to write it up someday.) So, I did not raise my hand after all. Interestingly, among 200+ attendees, only one hand was raised, one far back in a very big room. I did not see nor hear what embarrassment was administered, but I learned, from the presenter, when he returned to the front row, that that brave young man received a $10 bill for his action. Well done. And I certainly learned a good lesson.

"Nin guo jiang le [您過獎了]" (#159; Topic K)

At one point in her essay in Newsweek 5/1/06, on China (#159), Anna Quindlen made reference to an exchange with her American-born translator: "If [he] is told his Chinese is excellent, he learns to reflexively reply, 'Nali, nali, nin guo jiang le [那裡，那裡，您過獎了].' Loosely translated, that means 'Please don't, please don't, you overpraise.' To acknowledge ability is considered arrogant. What could be less American?" Upon reading it, I have mixed feelings. In China, it is indeed expected that one on the receiving end of a praise be modest and offer a disclaimer (那裡，那裡 in the above). To avoid being viewed as unappreciative, the addressee then adds a short phrase to soften the negative connotation. The final four words above, which serve this purpose, are used more frequently in Beijing -- residents there are invariably more diplomatic and more cultured. People in Shanghai -- and I consider myself being one, having lived there some 18+ years -- are likely to be more blunt and less circumspect. Were I on the receiving end of a praise such as the above, I probably would blurt out: "Not so, not so, my enunciation is not good" or similar denials to this effect -- which, as may be seen, only compounds the negative connotation of the first four words. In any case, after being in USA, it took me a long time before learning to respond with a simple "Thank you" -- and certainly not reflexively. Still, I have a problem. True, saying "Thank you," being shorter and simpler, is also more direct. But why is being modest considered as "less American" or even "not American"? I don't have a good answer.

"中国: The Sign of the Times" (#158; Topic F)

Going through dated magazines at the beach earlier this week, I came across an essay, with an eye-catching bilingual title (shown above), by Anna Quindlen (Newsweek, 5/1/06). Though it made reference to President Hu Jintao's visit to USA in late April, the essay was clearly based upon a trip the author made some time ago. At times, Quindlen was worried: "... the percolating issue ... was whether, given its [China's] size, its economic clout and its increasing dominance in the world today, it will someday eat our lunch." Well, there is a Chinese saying: 天下沒有不散的筵席 [There is no banquet under the sun that does not end]. So, having lunch at someone's backyard must necessarily end -- the issue is not whether, but when. At times, Quindlen conveniently glossed over some unpleasant history: "Many Americans came to know it [China] only vaguely, as a nation to which Christian churches sent missionaries to supplant ancient religions with a more modern one." No, no, no. No #1: Americans such as Warren Delano (#139-140) first came to China as opium traders. No #2: China has no native religions -- teachings of Confucius, mislabeled as Confucianism in the west (that is, as if it were a religion), are moral directions, not religious dogmas. All religions in China were imports -- Buddhism was from the near west (India) in the 1st century; Nestorians, persecuted in the middle west, found safe harbor in China in the 7th-8th centuries; Jesuits, from the far west, entered China in the 16th-17th centuries as unauthorized aliens and evicted, in toto, following an imperial edict, in 1707. Even its label, 宗教, is an import, from Japan. No #3: after being defeated by Britain in the Opium War in 1842, China, through unequal treaties, had no choice but to open her doors, thereby allowing British missionaries (and American counterparts riding on Britain's coattail) unrestricted right to proselytize. These missionaries had nothing to supplant -- most Chinese are not followers and view all religions with equal disdain.

B.C. vs B.C.E. (#157, Topic H)

No sooner have I done an entry on Kentucky (#156), it makes news again. Over WAMU, an AM radio station licensed to the American University in DC, I heard, this morning, that Kentucky becomes the first state in the nation to enact laws requiring, in textbooks used in the state, that designation of B.C. [= Before Christ] be changed to B.C.E. [= Before the Common Era], and A.D. [= Anno Domini] to C.E. [= Common Era], thereby rendering references to historical dates a secular matter, devoid of any religious connotations. This is very much to my liking. This issue first came to my attention when I started to translate Confucius's (551-479 BCE) Analects. Translators with western-language as mother tongues invariably use phrases such as "before our era" to refer to Confucius's time. In invoking "before our era," the impression those translators wish to leave is that there was no history "before our era," where, in fact, there was great civilization in China -- unrivaled anywhere and, indeed, any time, whether before or after western civilization began to materialize. Thus, in my translation of the Analects, BCE is invariably used to identify historical dates. Later, I saw an exhibition of Dead Sea Scrolls at the Library of Congress; scholars responsible for assigning dates invariably use BCE, underscoring, emphatically, that there was history, culture, and civilization centuries or even millennia earlier.

"Unconvincing apologies" (#156; Topic A)

THE WEEK, an innovative new weekly, excerpts magazine articles around the world in the past week (not unlike Readers' Digest for books). In its 6/9/06 issue is a 2-page spread on "Unconvincing apologies," containing selected samples from a book by Paul Slansky and Arleen Sorkin, My Bad. One entry is from editors of Lexington's Herald-Leader. Since my wife was graduated from a women's college in nearby Louisville, anything related to Kentucky is of great interest to me, particularly since I never had the occasion to visit Louisville. (We met in LA; she was an intern in a hospital in Pasadena, and I was a lowly assistant professor at USC.) So I paid special attention. The entry reads: "It has come to the editor's attention that the Hearld-Leader neglected to cover the civil-rights movement. We regret the omission." The entry was dated 7/4/04; according to the two compilers, the then-separate papers had "40-year-old policies ... to relegate coverage of sit-ins, marches, and the like to brief mentions in a column called 'Colored Notes.'" I ask myself: Were I a student at U of Ky, in Lexington, would I miss the coverage? Probably not -- a frugal student would have neither the money nor the time to read a town paper, so whatever was included or excluded would mean absolutely nothing. I was a student at U of Illinois; the paper I could afford to read is the Daily Illini, a student-edited gown paper free of charge. Still, I find the Herald-Leader notice surprising -- not for the omission, but for taking 40+ years to bring this omission to the editor's attention. In this information age, when reporters vie for 40-second advantage, can anyone afford a 40+ year wait?

Insurance Agent Tsufa Lee (#155; Topic B)

At the beach last few days, I brought with me some dated issues of magazines to go through. With so much ground to cover, I could find time to read only selected stories; rarely would I stop to read an advertisement. However, last night, I was stopped by an a full-page celebrating 100 years of Occidental Life Insurance Company, established in 1906, and acquired by Transamerica in 1930. Included in the ad are three photographs: one, the company's organizer (Karl Kennedy); the other, the company's first office building -- both are to be expected. But the third one, a passport-format photo of Tsufa Lee, is a surprise. Back in 1906, with people of Chinese ancestry unwelcome (the Chinese Exclusion Act was not repealed until 18 years later, in 1924), I could not imagine that Lee would play any role in founding the insurance company. And he did not. The story says that, at one time, Lee was the company's general agent in Shanghai, where the company had an office since 1933. In 1941, the Shanghai office was closed. "To protect the financial well-being of policy holders, ... Lee buried thousands of policies. After the war, Lee dug up the documents ... For several years, he tracked down beneficiaries of policy holders who had died during the conflict so Occidental Life could honor the claims and obligations..." Great story. No mention was made whether Lee was following specific orders from the home office (and no other agents were named in the ad), so, presumably, Lee acted on his own volition. This judgment was not only sound, it is worthy of celebration 65 years later. Chalk another score for a great mind influenced by Confucian teachings.

"Foreign Aid Has Flaws" (#154, Topic F)

Under the above heading, Nicholas D. Kristof comments on a recent book by William Easterly, formerly a World Bank economist (thus, technically, a former colleague of mine) and now at NYU, in today's New York Times. (I resist mentioning the book's title, as it is offensive and bears no relationship to the subject matter Easterly writes.) One point made (probably by Kristof) is that "countries that have succeeded best in lifting people out of poverty (China, Singapore, Malaysia) have received minimum aid, while many that have been flooded with aid (Niger, Togo, Zambia) have ended up poorer." This is superficially so, since it confuses cause and effect. First, a distinction needs to be made between loan and aid -- the latter is a free gift and requires no repayment, while the former is an obligation and the WB expects repayment. A self-respecting country prefers loans, the granting of which is also WB's reason of existence -- in the pursuit of which WB follows specific procedures. However, there are instances where, in the WB's judgment that the probability of loan repayment is low (or where WB has been specifically requested to make grants) would grants be offered, where procedures to follow are simpler and, thus, less time-consuming. In short, a poor country receives grants simply because it can hardly be self-supporting. Indeed, many infrastructure projects (such as river blindness cited by Kristof) are so important that they have to be undertaken whether financed by loans or by grants.

World Cup (#153; Topic G)

World Cup 2006, in progress in Germany, brings back fond memories. In elementary school and high school in China, I was a forward. Though I could run reasonably fast, I was not good at heading, nor did I master the goal-scoring kick. Thus, at best, I was a so-so footballer -- as the game is called in China and around the world, except USA, where it is known as soccer. Though not known for its interest in soccer, World Cup 1994 was nevertheless held in USA. Several early-round games were played in DC's RFK Stadium; I was there along with my wife. The final was held in Pasadena's Rose Bowl, between, if my memory serves me, Germany and Brazil. With my wife still working, and with our son showing great interest in attending finals of major sports (Final Four in basketball, Grand Slam tennis tournaments, etc), he was able to take a few days off and join me. The stadium was not full (admittedly, it was/is a huge one, with seating capacity in excess of 100,000), and the game was mundane, lacking electifying moments such as those generated by Pelle in his heydays. Talking about Pelle, he actually made an appearance in the same RFK Stadium in the 70s, and the stadium was full; we had a hard time exiting. For that occasion, in addition to our son, my brother-in-law, visiting us from Hong Kong was there as well. At that time, my two-seater was perhaps a year or so old. While unable to proceed due to bumper-to-bumper traffic, my car suddenly indicated an overheated status (due to the air-conditioning); I had to turn off the air-conditioning unit and managed to drive home safely.

Marriage longevity (#152; Topic D)

On June 7, Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), during a Senate debate, offered the following (as reported in Washington Post, 6/8/06): "[M]y wife and I have been married 47 years. We have 20 kids and grandkids. I'm really proud to say that in the recorded history of our family, we've never had a divorce ...." The senator certainly has our congratulations. As to being "proud," suggesting that marrying for 47 years is rare -- it may be so in USA, it is commonplace among people of Chinese ancestry. Indeed, my wife and I have been married for 49 years; there is no divorce in our family either, though our sample size is, admittedly, much smaller, since we have but 4 kids and grandkids. Looking around, in the retirement community in which we live, with over 100 persons with Chinese ancestry, at least a dozen couples have been married longer than we. While there are about that number of persons with a widowhood or widowerhood status, I know of no one who is divorced. (There was a couple who wished to separate; the wife first moved to a continuous-care retirement facility; the husband followed suit and moved to that same facility, but in a separate unit altogether.) Among local alumni graduating from the same university in Shanghai, of which I am one, all couples have been married longer than we. A few have widowhood status; one has a second wife after his first one passed away -- but no divorces.

Poincare Conjecture (#151, Topic I)

The top story in 6/5/06's People's Daily Overseas Edition, received yesterday, is on two Chinese professors' solving a century-old math problem in topology, known as the Poincare Conjecture. With a headline covering 3 of 4 columns, on two lines, 龐加萊猜想獲得完全証明 中国數学家破解世界百年難題, along with a photo of the two (Zhu Xi-ping 朱熹平 of Zhongshan University, Quangdong, and Cao Huai-dong 曹怀東 of Lehigh University, PA), the story accorded academicians the deserved recognition I have never seen in US newspapers in my 56 years in this country -- not even to Nobel laureates. Curious, though a rank layman, I nevertheless did a Google search, which brought me to an abstract of this 334-page paper. (How does one do a Google search in English, when the subject is given in Chinese? Good question.) The paper in its entirety is in the June 2006 issue of Asian Journal of Mathematics, pp. 165-498. Another link led me to a 6/6/06 essay, in Guardian Unlimited; the author poohpoohes the two professors' accomplishments. Another link, mathworld, has an entry dated 2004. (Late last evening, I sent its editors an e-mail asking for their reaction to the Zhu-Cao paper.) Another link, by the Clay Mathematics Institute, also in 2004, notes that, as to its earlier offer of $1 million to the solver of this conjecture (there are 6 other million-dollar prizes to 6 other math problems), Grisha Perelman seems to have "substantially" solved it. According to PD's side-bar, the conjecture, proposed by a French mathematician, Henri Poincare, in 1904, states that, in a closed 3-dimensional space, as each curved line is reduced to a point, the empty space must necessarily be a sphere. (My translation; a formal description is in the mathword webpage.) The PD article ends with the following, quoting another Chinese mathematician, Yang Le 楊樂: "If contributions are allocated on a percentage basis, US mathematician Richard Hamilton's is more than 50%; Russian mathematician Grisha Perelman's, about 25%; and Chiu Cheng-dong 丘成桐 [Cao's dissertation supervisor], Zhu Xi-ping, Cao Huao-dong, and others', about 30%." (The sum of these three percentage figures is more than 100%. Oh, well.)

"In Plain English" (#150, Topic L)

I generally skip reading columns by Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post . Last evening, after reading everything I brought with me while waiting for a 6 pm meeting in DC, I was left with nothing but the back-inside-cover essay of the 6/12/06 issue of Time, which is by Krauthammer. Thinking that the topic (with caption shown as the title to this entry) is on culture rather than on politics, I decided to read it (after all, I did read William Safire, on English, in New York Times for a long time). "Growing up (as I did)," the essay began. I have a very bad habit of jumping to conclusions while reading -- and, as soon as I read these five words, I stopped and said to myself: Is there an option for not growing up? I read on; the next five words are: "in the province of Quebec." Now I understand: the issue is not physical (whether growing up or not growing up) but cultural (growing up in French-speaking Quebec rather than in English-speaking provinces). This being so, I felt that the first 10 words would make better sense, at least to me, were they rearranged to the following sequence: "Growing up in the province of Quebec (as I did)". The essay's 3rd paragraph begins with the following 37-word sentence: "One of the major reasons for America's great success as the world's first 'universal nation,' for its astonishing and unmatched capacity for assimilating immigrants, has been that an automatic part of acculturation was the acquisition of English." After reading it dozens of times, I must confess that I did not get it. Let us set aside the "first 'universal nation'" argument, which is, to me, unfounded; let me also concede that USA has an "astonishing and unmatched capacity for assimilating immigrants," though "accommodating" would be more descriptive than "assimilating." Regardless, I at least understood what the essayist has in mind. But what is meant by "an automatic part of acculturation was the acquisition of English"? I don't get it. And this is said to be "In Plain English"!!!

"Bus Uncle" (#149, Topic D)

A cover story in today's Wall Street Journal, complete with a color photo, is on an incident in a Hong Kong bus. It seems that a middle-aged man (later identified as Roger Chan, 51 years old), while riding a bus, was talking on his cellphone, perhaps in a loud voice. This prompted Elvis Ho, a 23-year-old sitting immediately behind, to tap Chan's shoulder, calling him "uncle", and asking him to lower his voice. Not only did Chan not comply, he turned around and berated Ho, intermixed with obscenities. Using such statements as "I've got pressure," and questioning Ho for provoking him, Chan went on and on. Ho, unusually polite in my view (calling someone about a generation older than he is, by itself, evidence of his politeness), merely pleaded "It's over" without any protest. This only encouraged Chan to rage on. Saying "It's not over" repeatedly, Chan continued his tirade for almost six munutes (all caught on tape by a bystander in the same bus, posted on the web, and is viewable at WSJ.com/Online Today). Upon reading, I thought readers' sympathy would be with Mr. Ho, who behaved extremely well, calm and collected -- unless one views his tapping the loud-voiced Chan an uncalled for intrusion. But, as it turned out, it was Chan who caught Hong Kong residents' fancy -- perhaps they can commiserate with Chan's "I've got pressure" outbursts. In any case, Chan became a celebrity; he is now the spokesman for a Hongkong steakhouse chain. Conversely, Ho received nothing but scorn. Such is life. Personally, I can identify with Ho. Indeed, on many occasions while riding bus in Washington, I was tempted to do exactly the same thing as Ho did. I imagine, were I to do the same, I would be less polite -- I would probably address the offender as "young man" or "young lady". Still, I cannot imagine how I would be treated in return. So, it is better to do this entry and stop imagining.

666 and Silence (#148, Topic A)

When I turned on to NPR yesterday, there was a spirited discussion on pregnant women's inducing premature births to avoid having to give births on June 6, 2006, which is today. I could not figure out what was going on. Now I know, as there is a front-page article in today's Washington Post (Style section)headlined "Date With the Devil" on this topic. "According to the King James version of the Book of Revelation, 666 [the 6th day of the 6th month of the millennium's 6th year] is 'the number of the beast.' Some interpret Chapter 13, Verse 18 as referring to the coming of the Antichrist, who will receive his power directly from Satan to establish a kingdom on Earth that will be the beginning of Armageddon." Interesting. Today's WP, in its op-ed page, there is also an essay by Richard Cohen, , on Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Auschwitz last month. At the memorial on the site where 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, were put to death during WWII, the pope said: "In a place like this, words fail. In the end, there can only be a dread silence -- a silence which is itself a heartfelt cry to God. Why, Lord, did you remain silent? How could you tolerate all this?" After interpreting what the pope meant, somewhat sarcastically, which I fully understand, Cohen continued -- and I could do no better than simply quoting him (longer than I should, for fear of misrepresenting him) -- "I know Holocaust survivors who are religious. I don't understand it. I know others who feel that Auschwitz is proof that there is no God. I understand that." Profound.

Xiangtu Chun Qing Primary School (#147, Topic E)

My brother-in-law, Charles, sent me a fax this afternoon, giving me details of the proposed building of the Xiangtu Chun Qing Primary School 象圖純卿小学, in Xiangtu district of Jianchuan County in Yunnan Province. Charles, through his church headquartered in Texas, has built, over the last dozen or so years, some 30 schools in remote areas of China. Funding for building these schools came primarily from Charles's solicitation -- in exchange for their contributions, donors have the opportunity to name schools in honor or in memory of their loved ones. A while back, I subscribed to one such school, but the location has just been identified. The school will be in memory of my mother, who passed away in her early 30s when I was only 10. Xiangtu is situated in one of the remotest districts; it is also one of the poorest. Difficult to reach, it took one of Charles's colleagues three hour of travel time from the county seat -- an hour through sealed roads along the Yushi river valley (which becomes Mekong as it crosses the border to Laos), then 75 minutes on winding roadways with altitude over 12,000 feet amid clouds. The site's remoteness and steepness mean that all building materials must be carried over the mountain -- and, thus, at higher-than-usual cost. By the same token, the need for a serviceable school is also that much more urgent. Since the Jianchuan Education Bureau has agreed to pick up about one-half of the total cost, it is certainly a most meaningful undertaking. In memory of my beloved mother, this is the least I can do. Thus, without a second thought, I called Charles back almost immediately and asked him to proceed. Contract signing will take place Monday, June 12, with contruction to begin next month. Assuming fair weather (snow might make roadway not passable), construction will be complete by December. The school (which seems to follow a standardized design) will have six classrooms (for grades 1-6) and two administrative offices, accommodating some 422 students and faculty. It is hoped that I would have a chance to visit the campus after completion. I must also look into ways to allow these students additional educational opportunities beyond Grade 6.

Making a contribution to the world before leaving it (#146; Topic D)

This afternoon, I attended a memorial service for a lady, a fellow vice president of a local organization serving seniors of Chinese ancestry. In 1944, while a freshman at Xiamen University, with the Japanese closing in on Chongqing 重庆, China's wartime capital, she decided to leave school to join the army, responding gallantly to the following recruitment ad (in couplet):
一寸山河一滴血，
十萬青年十萬兵。
An inch of the motherland is a drop of blood,
A hundred thousand youths equal a hundred thousand soldiers.
Her enthusiasm did not turn out well; she later returned to Xiamen University and completed her studies, graduating in 1948 with a BS in chemistry. Moving first to Taiwan and later to USA, she earned an MS from U of Maryland and worked at the National Institute of Health until retirement. Realizing that she was more fortunate than most of her former classmates in China, she was generous in sending money to relieve their unexpected medical or other needs (a heart bypass, a knee replacement, etc.) Indeed, one of the many moving accounts this afternoon was by the son of one of her former classmates -- visiting the former classmate on his deathbed in China, she promised that she would sponsor any of his children to USA to study. This promise she delivered, and his young man, perhaps in his late 40s by now, came to USA to study in 1984 -- and flew in from San Diego today to attend the memorial service. Another speaker talked movingly of the unselfish service our deceased rendered, in her capacity as the director of sightseeing for another organization serving retirees of Chinese ancestry, over the last 15 years. During this memorial service, I kept asking myself: What contribution have I made to the community? Indeed, Confucius has said, unequivocally: A gentleman would regret for not making a contribution for which his name may be remembered beyond his life time (15.20, my translation). A most sobering thought.

"China ... No.1 economy ... in 20 years" (#145; Topic B)

The cover story in the 6/5/06 issue of Barron's, headlined "Last Laugh" with a subtitle of "Time to buy commodities?", is an interview with Jim Rogers, a one-time co-founder (with George Soros) of a widely successful hedge fund that notched "a return exceeding 4,000% over the remainder of the [70s] decade." His other claims to fame (duly acknowledged in Guiness records) include a 3-year 116-nation 152,000-mile trip in a 2-seat Mercedes. Hey, a fellow Mercedes owner is worth a listen. According to Rogers, "China is now the No. 1 consumer of copper, steel and iron ore, and No. 2 in the use of oil and energy products." No argument there. "Rogers thinks the price boom will soon spread to 'soft commodities' (like cotton, sugar, coffee and wool), rubber, lumber and -- perhaps most telling -- grain oilseed." Since his premise [that people in China are entitled to improve their living standard] is sound, I have no argument with those observations either. More interesting is Rogers's plan to sell his $15 million home in New York and move to Shanghai or Singapore (the latter is generally considered a bastion of overseas Chinese wealth). Hey, while I cannot match Rogers in practically all areas, in at least one I am slightly ahead of him -- our father left us (my siblings and I) a small house in Shanghai, and I bought a small condo when was in Shanghai as an Asian Development Bank consultant in early 90s. Rogers's 3-year daughter is being taught Mandarin by her nanny because "China will become the No. 1 economy in the world in 20 years or so, and that knowledge of Mandarin will be indispensable for any child of today." Well said. Rogers, let's hope that, one day, we'll meet in Shanghai and allow me to introduce our 5-year-old granddaughter, who is also learning Mandarin.

"Ah, American Capitalism" (#144, Topic B)

The 6/5/06 issue of Barron's has a brief mention of the preceding week's IPO of shares of the Bank of China, which raised US$9.7 billion, "China's largest and the biggest worldwide in six years." In the stock's first day of trading, it jumped 15%. This would be a success story in any publication -- except, perhaps, in Barron's. To show the editors' disdain, the story is headed by "Ah, Capitalism." So be it. According to the People's Daily Overseas Edition, the populace in Hong Kong, among other places, queued for hours for the privilege of buying the stock -- the stock was oversubscribed by about 10 times. It is interesting to note that, during this very same week, there was a well-publicized IPO by a well known US company, Vonage Holdings (VG, a provider of internet telephone service). It offerred 31 million shares at $17 each, raising some $530 million -- about 5.5% of BOC's. The stock, after moving up to $17.25 on the initial trading, promptly turned south, dipping down to $11.52 before recovering to $11.98 at the close on Friday, 6/2, a drop of some 30%. About 4.2 million shares (13.5%) were spoken for (= committed to buy, but with payments yet to be made, perhaps via their monthly bills) by some 10,000 of Vonage's 1.6 million subscribers. These subscribers-cum-stockholders-to-be, on a technicality (they made a commitment to buy without having read the offering prospectus), are now trying to be relieved of this obligation -- and, to be free from assuming this huge loss. The outcome of this is uncertain. Ah, American Capitalism.

Spelling Bee (#143; Topic L)

About a year ago, our daughter brought a video, Spelling Bee, for the family to view when she and her husband and our two grandchildren came for a visit. A documentary, the video showed several pre-teen or early-teen contestants making intense year-long preparations for the forthcoming contests, absorbing relentless parental expectations in the process, and facing incredible glare at the contest. I felt that the pressure on these youngsters was not commensurate with their potential benefits in subsequent years. Why spend every spare moment memorizing freakish words seldom encountered in life -- words with obscure national origin, unusual character combination almost impossible to pronounce? Reading a front-page account of another National Spelling Bee contest, concluded in the DC yesterday, in today's Washington Post strengthened my disdain. There were 274 contestants, aged 9-14. A 13-year-old from NJ won the championship (along with some $40,000 in prizes) for spelling, correctly in the bonus round (after her last competitor was eliminated), ursprache -- a word not in 90,000-entry Dictionary: Macmillan (intended for high-school students). It refers, according to the WP reporter, "to a reconstructed, hypothetical parent language, as Proto-Germanic." Her last competitor, a 14-year-old (judging from her name, she appeared to be a Chinese girl adopted by a Canadian family) was stopped by Weltschmerz, meaning "sentimental pessimism." A 12-year-old from Fort Worth TX (his photo and name suggesting an East Indian), last year's runner-up, was undone by eremacausis in the 7th round -- the word is not even in Funk & Wagnalls New College Standard Dictionary. Other words that stopped other contestants include: siphonapterology, causerie, attrahent, Echt, khanate, cholinesterse, coscinomancy, novearcal, khanate, attrahent, entelechy, and haramattan. I am ashamed to say that, even though I am almost 79 years old, I have never encountered any of these words before -- and probably never again.

A multi-millionaire with a 3-ideogram vocabulary (#142; Topic B)

As a "pack rat," I keep old newspapers and periodicals until read. Yesterday, I came across a heart-warming story in the 3/3/06 issue of American Business Journal, a Chinese language daily published locally. It seems that an illiterate 51-year-old woman in Guiyang 貴阳, with but a 3-ideogram vocabulary, is the CEO of a company with sales of 300,000,000 yuan (= US$37,500,000) in 2000. In 1989, with scrap materials she salvaged and her meager savings over the years, she built a simple one-room eatery, naming it "Worthy Restaurant." It offered only cold rice noodles and spaghetti; for condiment, she concocted a spicy sesame sauce. Business was good. One day, she did not feel well and, thus, did not go to the market to buy peppers needed for her sauce. Many diners who came, hearing that the sauce was unavailable, left without eating. From this incident, she came to the realization that what attracted her diners was not noodle or spaghetti, but the sauce -- an extremely astute observation despite her lack of education. She then spent the next several years improving the sauce, and, in 1997, using sincerity as her guiding principle to attract both investors and employees, she formed a company. With 200 employees in 1997, the company grew to one with 1,200 in 2000. Paying 43,150,000 yuan (= US$5.4 million) in income taxes that year, the company is ranked #5 among privately owned enterprises in China. Her 3-ideogram vocabulary? 麻辣醬 (= hot spicy sauce) She is known not by her name, but by her nickname 老干媽 (= Old Mother Guardian), and her sauce is known as 老干媽麻辣醬, not unlike "Paul Newman's Own Sauce" in USA.

Commissioner Lin Zexu as man-of-letters (#141; Topic L)

An official in China, whether in olden days or now, was/is expected to be a scholar as well. Such a person was/is invariably proficient in prose and poetry, masterful in calligraphy and painting, and frequently good at playing music and board games as well. In my brother-in-law Charles's album on Lin Zexu and the Opium War (#139-40), there is a poem by Lin. In commemoration of the 160th year of the Opium War, 1990, then-President Jiang Zeming used a couplet from that poem to do his calligraphy. The two lines are

苟利國家生死以
豈因禍福避趨之

which may be rendered into English as

For the country's welfare, life or death are not considerations;
Against unsure consequences, declining or undertaking are not options.

The implication is that, regardless of the outcome, one is duty-bound and must do one's best.

Chinese poems, couplets in particular, are a high-level art form. Not only must the number of words in each of the two lines identical, each word or word-combination in each line must come from the same part or subpart of speech (a noun for a noun, an abstract noun for an abstract noun, a noun-noun combination in direct opposition for another noun-noun combination in direct opposition, etc) and in exact word position. In the above, I hope I have captured the essence of these requirements and met the three principles of translation (#137) as well.

Opium Trade (#140, Topic B)

After the Chinese emperor commanded Imperial Commisioner Lin Zexu to put the illicit British opium trade to an end, in 1839, Lin was able to gather, from a Chinese oficial account included as a clipping in my brother-in-law's album (#139), 20,283 cases of opium stored in warehouses in Guangzhou. (Another account gave the total as 2,613,879 pounds. Assuming both figures are reliable, a case of opium contains some 128 pounds.) Lin held a public-burning as a means of warning British and her US allies of China's determination to eradicate this scheme. Undeterred, under the cover of darkness, foreign vessels at the harbor continued to smuggle opium during the night. Lin was able to approach these vessels and their loads, destroying 23 in total -- the harbinger of the Opium War. Jacques Gernet, in his A History of Chinese Civilization (1972 in French and 1982 in English)shows that (pp 534-5) Britain, through the East India Company, began to smuggle opium into China as early as 1729, with 200 cases. It doubled to 400+ cases in 1790, grew by tenfold to 4,228 cases each year (on average) between 1817-19, to about 5,000 cases in 1820, 5,959 in 1821, 9,035 in 1823, and 12,851 (annual average) between 1826-28. In 1838, the year before Lin's public burninag of opium, "at least" 40,000 cases were smuggled in. After China lost the Opium War in 1842, the Treaty of Nanjing called for (1) paying Britain an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars,(2) ceding Hong Kong to Britain, (3) opening 5 coastal ports for trading, and (4) acknowledging opium as a legitimate item for importation. By 1850, the annual import of opium -- now legal -- jumped by more than 50% to 68,000 cases, and jumped by almost another 50%, to 96,000 cases, in 1873. According to another account (R J.C. Burton in Prologue, Fall 1999 (a National Archives & Records Administration publication)), Warren Delano's (FDR's maternal grandfather, #139) opium trade in China was about 10% of Britain's; his source was Turkey -- a lucrative transatlantic cooperation-cum-competition. Dave and Stefan, a pair of fellow bloggers residing in Hong Kong, in a 7/5/05 entry entitled "The US Opium Trade, Hong Kong and Taiwan," mentioned that, following Britain's lead in having Hong Kong, USA had considered "acquiring" Taiwan -- back in 1850s, by Peter Parker, a member of US's consular corp in China.