Silence is Golden

What foreigners notice about some Mainland Chinese is how loud they talk on the phone. There is probably an official explanation for this, but here is mine: the louder you talk, the higher your status is in society. Notice when in a meeting with Mainlanders, the highest ranked person will always answer his phone during the meeting, continue to talk without leaving the room, and talk loud. Perhaps a lower ranked person will answer and talk quietly. The lowest ranked person will either not answer or leave the room to answer.

To add insult to injury, the higher ranked personel usually have the loudest, most annoying ringtones. Naturally, they have them on full blast during meetings. I'd be surprised if they even know how to use the vibrate function on their phone.

Outside of the office, pretty much everyone has their voice and phone on super loud mode. My guess is that it stems from the same reason: to show stature. The boss in public just acts as if he's in the office, by talking loud as usual. The subordinates talk loud in public perhaps to release their frustration of not being able to do it in the office, or perhaps to show that they are their own boss once the work day ends.

Anyhow, it is a nuisance and another stain on the international image of China.

Naked News

Haven't heard about Hong Kong's "Edison Sex Photos" incident? Surely you've been trapped under an avalanche while skiing, or have been lost at sea for the past month or so. Why? Because this so called front page news actually made its way to foreign news reports.

There are important issues involved, such as whether the police exercised fairness, and whether this case was given special treatment. Also, Hong Kong people seem to have finally realized the full power of the internet.

Yet... this story and related news is still on the front page of newspapers to this day! It has overshadowed multiple news stories that are without a doubt, of greater importance. Some include: the brutal weather making life extremely difficult (death and destruction) in Southern China, Ching Cheong freed from prison, David Li buys get out of jail free card for HKD6 million (relieves himself of government post yet plans for reelection in a couple months), et cetera.

You may ask how this is possible. How can tabloid level news consistently make it to the front page of major newspapers? Well... asking that question just proves that you simply don't know Hong Kong: where survey shows that most locals first turn to the entertainment news of a newspaper, before reading the A1 front page stuff.

I guess you can't teach culture. In light of HK's sillyness, here is fun video that I agree with:

It's about time...

Happy New Year.

Responsibility

The poor weather is causing all sorts of inconvenience, death, and destruction on the Mainland. Hundreds of people are affected by blizzards hitting the unprepared southern parts of China. The blame is mainly put on mother nature. How can man possibly control the weather? Sounds like a reasonable excuse. However, this only masks the reasons why this natural disaster got out of hand in the first place. It is China afterall, and the Central Government is again to blame. Is blaming the government unreasonable? Let's look at the facts.

January 10th, the Anhui province suffered its first blizzard which caused considerable inconvenince. Chinese officials did not see this as a warning. Fine.

January 21st, a 2nd blizzard hits Middle/Southern China. The heavy snow left 14 regions without power, some without water. Air and land travel (train and highways, not to mention many car accidents) were at a standstill in the affected areas. Somehow, the Central Government took zero action, and corrupt local governments as usual, didn't lift a finger. Excluding the deaths and inconvenience, 800,000 people were stranded at the Guangzhou train station. In need of food and water, they were being gouged by the local stores which tripled their prices for the essentials. People even had to pay to use the toilets. The situation was getting worse and worse. The trains were stuck because no one took the initiative to clear the roads and train tracks.

January 29th, the situation was only getting worse. The Central Government officials finally realised how dire the conditions had become. Premiers Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao visited the train station and the families of the dead. With orders from the Central Government, the PLA was finally mobilized, and the local governments finally took action; action that should have been taken nearly ten days earlier.

The weather was good last year before the CNY holiday, yet travel was still difficult and problematic. How could officials have not seen this coming?

China always wants to be number one. They have a booming economy, they have shot rockets into space, they are holding the most expensive Olympic games in history. However, once again, they have proven to be very low in the rankings when it comes to taking care of their own people.

Generating Energy: Matrix Style

Generating energy from humans used to be science fiction. It has since become science fact. Sweden is heating an office building from the train station below it. The BTUs generated by commuters passing through heats water, which will transform into 15% of an office building's heating energy.

Unless you have some sort of superpower, the only way humans naturally produce energy is throught bodyheat. To be able to harness this energy is brilliant. Next step is to learn how to harness the power of hurricanes and lightning.

Apple's Piece of the Pie

Apple is really trying to shake their global money tree by attempting to take 20-30% of China Mobile's iPhone service charge revenue. It makes you wonder how much their taking from the likes of AT&T by giving them exclusive US rights, thereby giving AT&T free reign to force two year contracts onto unfortunate users. Then again, AT&T was probably forced to push two year contracts in order to recoup the losses suffered from giving away a portion of their revenue to Apple. Apple in turn is forced to take a chunk from mobile service providers to make up for the iPhone's high manufacturing cost.

A vicious cycle where the consumer ends up footing all the cost. At least both distributors are up front about it. It'll be interesting to see how Apple alters its strategy to lock up different international mobile providers. Who will they choose for Hong Kong? Will they even take a shot at HK since unlocked iPhones are so easily accessible?

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

So last Tuesday night, I decide to do something I probably haven't done in years. I went to bed at 9:25PM. The plan was to wake up early the next day and go to the gym. Luckily, I fell asleep fairly quickly.

As expected, my body wouldn't let me sleep more than eight hours. I woke up at 5:30 refreshed, but I was shocked to discover that my solid eight hours was rewarded with a sore throat.

Whaddaya know... a good night's sleep yielded me the flu.

Corruption: Hong Kong style

Does corruption have to involve money? Perhaps. Since if money were involved in this cheap move by the government, there would be hell to pay. Instead, this politically motivated "rule change" is the typical Hong Kong style of "over the table" corruption that is often overlooked in the public eye.

Fanny Law, current ICAC Commissioner (think about it, an anti corruption officer involved in corruption-like acts), has announced that she's running for the National People's Congress elections. Law has resigned from her position as ICAC Commissioner. However, she has not officially resigned, as she is still using up her vacation days from that position. Therefore, it is completely inappropriate for her to run for the NPC. A government official still in office running for an election is a definite no-no, as it undermines fairness and equality. It undermines the fact that government officials have to be fair and non-partisan. Oh, and by the way,civil servants are banned from running for the NPC, rendering Law ineligible to run.

So what did the government do? They simply changed the rules at the last minute. Three days before the nominations began, civil servants can now submit for NPC nomination. There was no discussion, no consultation; the government just changed the rules right under our noses.

The silly thing is that all Law had to do was forfeit her vacation time and leave the position early. That is what civil servants running for office have done in the past. As to why she didn't choose this method is mind-boggling. Then again, Law's track records as Secretary for Education and Manpower and ICAC Commissioner have been pretty piss poor. Perhaps she's just not very bright.

(This all reminds me of how Jiang Zemin changed the retirement age for government officials to get rid of his rivals and promote his allies. Is Hong Kong becoming this way?)

Happy Belated New Year

It is one week after the new year. This last week felt like a month... and we only worked three days!

The days away from the office were nice, but no less stressful. I can recall churning out a couple extra work emails in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, as a friend next to me belted out some Eason Chan lyrics in a karaoke room no less.

For moi, last year was long and arduous mentally. I guess some growing up was in order.

This morning, the christmas tree in my house will be taken down. So soon, it seems. Perhaps it is a sign for me to move on, and not dwell on the past.

A Flick I Won't Be Watching

"Look at the cast: Cage and Voight and Helen Mirren and Ed Harris and Diane Kruger and Harvey Keitel and Justin Bartha and Bruce Greenwood. You could start with a cast like that and make one of the greatest movies of all time, which is not what happened here." --Roger Ebert, in his review of National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Yeah, in case you were wondering, I'm not seeing this movie. The first National Treasure movie came out shortly after DaVinci Code, but I still managed to catch it on the plane. It turned out to be crap anyways. From the trailer, this sequel seems as preposterous and boring as the first one; plus, Nicolas Cage is in it.

I'll pass.

The War on Sales

I mentioned a while ago how I used English to win in the meaningless war on sales. Well, I'm still winning, but I found that once in a while there's a brave soul who tries to fight the power by attempting to sell me something in English. Usually when these sales people discover I "don't speak Chinese", they pretend to have called the wrong number (kind of funny actually. Why would someone bother to ask if I spoke Chinese if they called the wrong number?).

One time, upon discovering I was a "foreigner", this guy responded by reading his sales pitch from a written statement. I decided to listen on and see how bad he butchers it. Normally, if you say you're not interested, these guys might make an attempt to convince you otherwise. This time, the guy read his pitch, and just politely hung up when I said no. It was like pressing the easy button.

Unfortunately, there is also collateral damage in the War on Sales. Sometimes I'll get a call from my bank, or my mobile provider, or a restaurant I made a reservation at. Though these calls are legitimate, they don't immediately identify themselves, so I naturally give them the "no Chinese" treatment. When I find out who they really are, its too late to turn back. I can't say "oh ha ha just kidding I actually do speak Chinese". So we both have to suck it up. The service rep has to use often broken English to try and convey the message to me, while I have to focus really hard to understand what he/she's trying to say. Collateral damage.

The Year in Review Meme

Includes invisible commentary. Highlight the commentary after the sentence to read it. This entry is John's idea.

January
January First Two Thousand and Seven marks the day Hong Kong banned smoking in most indoor public places. (Finally!)

February
My first time on the slopes was a blast. (This was to be the first of many vacations I took this year.)
March
Oscars 2007 came and went. (...and all I cared about was Al Gore's film about the environment.)
April
Doesn't it seem like so many of China's internationally recognized people are in prison? (The Chinese are punished for exposing their nation's flaws.)
May
Sports journalist Gary Thorne alleges that Curt Schilling's bloody socks in 2004 during game 6 of the ALCS and game 2 of the World Series were fake, meaning the blood was painted on. (...and Thorne does this for a living, how?)
June
6.4 不忘

July
Back from a relaxing weekend in Bangkok, followed by a hectic yet enjoyable week in Singapore. (Another vacation... unbelievable.)

August
First it was Randy Moss, then Kevin Garnett, and now Eric Gagne. (Yeah, Gagne turned out to be a really good acquisition, not.)
September
Just got back from a relaxing trip to Hokkaido. (I'm a bum... a bum that goes on vacation.)
October
I think its really dumb how Chinese people are superstitious. (How has superstition contributed to society? Ugly buildings? Unnecessary spending?)
November
It seems strange calling the Patriots underdogs in the match-up against the Colts just a couple hours ago. (Pats still going strong. I won't jinx them by announcing the record.)
December
I was shocked to discover last weekend that the "Ramen Street" in Causeway Bay has turned into an electronic shopping mall. (Even more shocking as to how this sentence has become the centerpiece for December.)

Alex Roy: Hero or Menace

Alex Roy just last month announced that he broke the record for travelling across the United States. He achieved this by using every bit of modern technology available to man (see video). This includes having a friend fly a plane above him to scout ahead for speed traps. Ambitious? Perhaps insane is a better word to describe this young, racing enthusiast. Enthusiast is perhaps the perfect word to describe Roy, as he is well known for participating in semi-illegal rallies such as the Gumball 3000. Roy is also known for his hilarious antics during the rallies. He is easily recognizable from his car (mostly the BMW M5), which he dresses with labels and paints and sirens identical to the elite traffic police cruiser of a certain country (different every time). He even dresses in full uniforms of the corresponding country's law enforcement to complete the look. Enthusiast indeed.

HSBC: Armchair Quarterback

The World's Bank? Maybe. The People's Bank? Certainly not. By attempting to raise the minimum ATM withdrawal limit in Hong Kong to HKD300 (almost USD40) last week, HSBC demonstrated that it is utterly oblivious to the lives of Hong Kong people. What they didn't understand is how much $300 is actually worth to the lower class of society. Furthermore, they didn't understand the value of $300 to the middle class.

For Hong Kong's low income workers, $300 could be 10% of their pay. Just think about it in that sense. If you made USD50,000 per year, would it be reasonable to ask you to withdraw USD400 each time at the ATM? You'd have to crumple those twenty $20s into a gangster roll and hope that you don't get mugged. As for the middle class folk, its not that withdrawing 300 dollars would inconvenience them, but they still value that amount as too much.

Despite all the information HSBC had (ATM records, bank account statements, credit card statements), they were unable to foresee the public strongly vetoing this move almost immediately. Why? Because it was a business decision to cut cost via shortening ATM lines (a higher minimum withdrawal = less withdrawing = shorter lines). HSBC probably never for one minute considered the thoughts, feelings, and habits of their most important asset: their customers.

Childish China

(Because of fools like Tsang, no one can take China seriously)

Indeed, the world has been forced to recognize and respect China as a superpower. Yet, despite all of China's success, why is she still looked down upon? Why can't the world take China seriously?

When China gets mad, it reverts to the behavior of a 13 year old. No kidding. Look what's happened in just the last two months. China turns away USS Kitty Hawk at the last minute for no apparent reason. Wu Yi storms off after Peter Mandelson criticized shoddy Chinese products. Tsang Tak-sing spouts rude nonsense during a legislative meeting because he's pissed off at anything non-China.

Why can't China hold her temper?

With the Kitty Hawk, it was rumored to be in retaliation for Bush meeting with and honoring the Dalai Lama. Why this pisses off China is a whole other story (I personally think China has bigger fish to fry than the friendliest, most famous Buddhist monk in the world, but oh well). However, punishing the US by not allowing the Kitty Hawk to dock at the last minute was an extremely childish behavior. This was not like a quarrelling teenage couple skipping out on a movie at the last minute. This was a nation rejecting the aircraft carrier of another nation after meticulous arrangements had been previously made. China decided to derail months of planning ahead because they were pissed at the US. The actions of a high schooler at best.

Wu had a spat with Mandelson because he criticized China's food safety issues. At the time, this seemed like quite a valid comment. Yet, whether it made sense or not, Wu shouldn't have pouted like a child. Being a top Chinese state official, she should have kept her cool. Instead, she acted like a whiny teenager.

After Anson Chan was elected to the Legislative Council, Secretary for Home Affairs (and extreme left winger) Tsang, decided to insult her during a Legislative meeting by calling her "suddenly democratic" and "suddenly caring about the people" in a snide and sarcastic tone. I don't know whether Tsang was bitter about Chan getting elected, or whether he was bitter about his imprisonment in 1967. Either way, his name calling during a Legislative meeting from someone of his stature was completely inappropriate. It caused an uproar among the Hong Kong people to such a degree that the media is still talking about it one week later.

I guess my questions are, what happened to China's composure? What's with all this immaturity? How does China expected the world to take them seriously when they treat international level issues with a child's demeanor? Someone needs to send out a memo telling the Chinese government to please grow up.

All Good Things...

I was shocked to discover last weekend that the "Ramen Street" in Causeway Bay has turned into an electronic shopping mall. The "street" is actually an indoor food court of some sorts. It had five or six restaurants. Most served ramen, and they all served Japanese food. Each shop had its own style of ramen. The most popular being the "pork toro ramen" shop.

Its disappointing how many restaurants that I feel comfortable going to are closing one by one. It is my own undoing, as I'm not very adventurous when dining alone. I'll find places I like, and simply won't go anywhere else... most of the time. Which is also why I don't look forward to people asking me where to eat. The answer for me is simple: I'll always suggest the places I like and always go to. However, that answer is unlikely to satisfy the person asking. "***** again?", is usually the response.

So all I'm left with are memories of some above average ramen and a now useless 20% off discount card, which I often forgot to use.

A Sad Day for Hong Kong

It is sad how pro-China politicians skewed Martin Lee's comments in hope of defaming him and the Democratic Party. What's even sadder is that they did it by purposely mistranslating his Wall Street Journal article. I won't bother listing the details at this moment. The "wrong" and real translations are all over the net.

Everyone thinks that Hong Kong's Democratic Party is a group full of radicals and activists, who just argue and don't reason. The reason for this misconception is all due to Liberal Party (don't let the word "Liberal" fool you) and DAB (don't let the word "Democratic" fool you either) propaganda. These pro-China lapdogs will try to smear the Democrats and democracy any chance they get.

The worst atrocity is them claiming Lee committed an act of treason. They also mistranslated his words to make it sound like he was saying "everyone should boycott the Olympics". By reading his original WSJ article, you'll discover that is far from the truth.

New Gym Character: Smelly Guy (you knew this was coming)

(On a lighter note...)

Yup, that's right folks. Every gym has to have its "smelly guy". There's always a guy in the gym whom you have to wipe down the machine after he uses it. My gym is no different. The smelly guy here is a pretty tall Asian dude who wears glasses. He looks kind of dopey. I don't know much about him. I don't even know what machines he uses. The reason is that when he heads toward my general direction, I sprint for the basketball court to shoot some hoops instead. I put my whole workout on hold because of this guy. That's some awesome power. With great power comes great responsibility... this guy needs some deodorant (or does he?).

What could be the cause for his stench? Let's take a look:

• Shower? I don't think this is the issue. I've seen him in the locker room, and I know he takes a shower. Unfortunately, he smells just as bad after the shower.


• Deodorant? Don't think this is the reason either. The guy uses a pretty strong smelling chrysanthemum deodorant (don't ask), but it doesn't work. It just doesn't.


• Laundry? I think this is a possibility. If you don't wash your clothes, or you let bacteria set in, its hard to get them to smell so fresh and so clean again.

I guess some people just naturally smell bad. But wouldn't he want to fix this?

Where are the Mythbusters when you need them.

In the Name of Progress...

We would all like to imagine that in this day and age, people would progress the proper way. Through science, technology, and experience, we'd like to say that we're doing the best we can for our people and our world. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In the name of progress (or shall I say in the name of the RMB), companies are transforming villages in order to build factories. Clearing out the vegetation is bad enough, but these factories kick it up a notch and carelessly dump their untreated waste. This has created these "cancer villages" that are spreading across China. The villagers have no choice but to breathe unclean air and drink toxic water. They complain to authorities, but they are given no response.

A woman at the village decided to write her own diary about the conditions in the village. This diary has slowly evolved into a "deathnote". It records all the people who have died in the village of various cancers. Their illnesses and deaths are a direct result from the surrounding pollution. Despite this obvious correlation, the corrupt government is doing nothing.

People are suffering right before our eyes, and there is nothing being done. In the name of progress, they say.

Thoughts on why "Chinese People Suck Again"

I was browsing through the blogger tools and came across one of my posts from April 2006 that had a whopping 11 comments. Turns out some people commented a month after I posted it, and another person commented just last month. Quite a surprise. I need to read those notification emails more carefully!

Here is the entry.

The reason it received these late comments is the touchy and direct title, "Chinese People Suck Again". I found it interesting because it seemed like the readers thought that I was not Chinese (despite me saying "my people" in the last line of the original post). Some boneheaded reader proclaimed that I was racist. That's quite intriguing to me because for the first time I'm pondering whether its possible for me to be racist against my own people. It was interesting to see people dismiss this as being a racist post, and assume that I was not Chinese. They then felt compelled to "educate" me as if I were an ignorant foreigner, butchering the Chinese way of life. Anyways, I'm going to respond to those comments here:



LOL, this guy's a winner. However, I must thank him/her for introducing the notion that I may be prejudice towards my own people.



I don't understand. Show some respect for whom? The family that bought a ton of souvenirs and attempted to take over my storage space? The two girls who violated airline rules to be the first to exit the plane? The people dumb enough to not be able to form a line? "These people live like that". Well, I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and let's just say that I have a little higher expectations for my fellow HKers. I certainly don't believe that this type of behavior is our "way of live". I was "bragging"? How so? Also, I fail to understand the analogy of people laughing at someone who walked barefoot. If you want my respect, please earn it.

I'm glad this guy agrees with me "portionally"(sic), but pulling out the "atrocities" card is a bit much. It has absolutely (and I don't use this word often) nothing to do with my post, except for the fact that there were both Japanese people and Chinese people involved (like WWII did). If this guy's excuse for Chinese impoliteness is WWII, then I have nothing else to say. There is no relation, and it makes no sense. We all know that Japanese people aren't perfect, but for the most part, they respect people, they respect cleanliness, and they respect their land. A majority of Chinese people have trouble doing that.

Finally, someone with a more civilized comment. He or she is Chinese, and that's fine and dandy and so am I. I'm going to assume this person was trying to say that because Hong Kong is overcrowded, so we should excuse them for pushing and shoving and not respecting the space of one another. As a Chinese person, I cannot accept that, nor can I respect people for acting this way. I also think that our friend, modo, has the wrong idea. I'm not asking people to say please or thank you or make small talk. I'm asking them to simply show some respect. If you want that job, you run instead of walk, but you don't break the rules. If you don't want to "lose a meal", wake up earlier, but don't cut in line.

I don't buy the idea that China is an "impolite country'. China is perhaps the oldest civilization in the world. I don't accept that they are so behind other developed nations in terms of politeness. China has such a rich cultural history, it is inconceivable that they missed the session on "how to be polite".

Here's the thing: being truly polite and respectful comes from the heart. Right now, most Chinese people are polite only when money is involved. If Chinese people want the world (or even their own people) to respect them, they have to adopt a positive mentality, not just play the role.