Check it out!
Cool!
Ritsumeikan has opened the first “Confucius Institute,” the Chinese government’s attempt to franchise mini propaganda cells otherwise known as “Chinese language schools” (more info on them can be obtained here) Anyway the statue was a present from the Chinese to reward the University for its collaboration!
From SFgate via Google News:
The Pentagon estimates that China could be spending as much as $90 billion annually on its military, three times the publicly released defense budget, making China the world’s third-largest defense spender and the largest in Asia. A large portion of the secret budget is spent on buying weaponry from nations such as Russia and Israel, the report concludes.
As we all know, the US recently succeeded in persuading Europe to extend a ban on selling weapons to China. How on Earth does Israel, a country who pretty much relies on continued US military aid for its very existence manage to avoid criticism for doing the same thing? Has there been any outrage about this in Congress?While some news sources covering this mention arms sales by Russia and Israel, some of them mention only Russia.
The Chinese military is buying new weapon systems _ including important purchases from Russia _ while developing new doctrine for modern warfare and improving training standards, the report released Tuesday says.
This this article from an India based news web site stresses
Chinese military build-up is not only targeted at India, but also at Taiwan, Japan and Russia.
Russia and China have a history of border disputes and are increasing competition for resources. Israel’s national defence relies on the US, whose potential interference in a China/Taiwan war is a primary for China’s military buildup. Why on earth do either of these two countries feel it is in their best interests to help arm China?
The article on the Malaysia Star website provides the most meaty information out of those that I’ve seen.
The NYT reports on a little known industry that has been outsourced to China.
Own Original Chinese Copies of Real Western Art!
At 26, Mr. Zhang estimates that he has painted up to 20,000 copies of van Gogh’s works in a paint-spattered third-floor garret here where freshly washed socks and freshly painted canvases dry side-by-side on the balcony.
A block away, Ye Xiaodong, 25, is completing 200 paintings of a landscape of pink and white flowers in another third-floor garret. And down the street, Huang Yihong, also 25, stands in an art-packed store and paints a waterfall tumbling gracefully into a pool, mixing the paints on an oval palette.
China’s low wages and hunger for exports have already changed many industries, from furniture to underwear. The art world, at least art for the masses, seems to be next, and is emerging as a miniature case study of China’s successful expansion in a long list of small and obscure industries that when taken together represent a sizable chunk of economic activity.
I was a little but shocked and amused to get to the middle of the article and find out that the seat of production had formerly been near my hometown.
Northern New Jersey used to have a small but thriving cluster of businesses with artists churning out inexpensive paintings for restaurants, hotels and homes across the country. But these enterprises have been switching to imports, like the Dae Ryung Company, which had seven painters two decades ago at a studio attached to its offices in Hackensack, N.J., and let the last one leave four years ago without finding a replacement.
“In the beginning it was better here, because we were able to tell them exactly what we wanted,” said Helen Cho, the company’s purchasing and accounting manager. “But after a while, the Chinese caught on.”
Should New Jersey residents be upset that outsourcing has moved yet more crappy, pointless jobs out of our state to a faraway land where people will appreciate them more?
Two days later, the Times printed another article on another industry that is now just beginning to boom in New Jersey.
TEN years ago, New Jersey had 14 wineries. Today it has 27, and within the next year or so the number is expected to reach 40.
Ten years ago, New Jersey made 873,000 gallons of wine (about 360,000 cases). Now it makes almost twice that much, more than 1.5 million gallons. In 1995, it was eighth in the nation in wine production; now it is fifth, behind only California, New York, Washington and Oregon.
But one thing hasn’t changed in that decade of extraordinary growth for New Jersey wine: hardly anyone knows a thing about it. Less than 1 percent of the wine consumed in New Jersey was made in New Jersey – not surprising, considering that few restaurants serve it and few liquor stores carry it. Even experts like John Foy, a consultant who writes a wine column for The Star-Ledger of Newark and assembled the world-class wine list at Restaurant Latour in Hardyston, confess ignorance.
Amazing. Is there really still room for vineyards in the nations most populous state amidst the chemical factories and urban sprawl? Will The Garden State earn its name?
Addendum: A second newspaper reports on a long established Newark, New Jersey based manufacturer whose entire production has been outsourced.
This green dome is built above a cave that is considered the holiest Muslim site in all of China. The Uyghur people who inhabit Xinjiang (or East Turkestan, as it was known during a brief period of independence during the Chinese civil war) were devout Buddhists before they converted to Islam many centuries ago.
According to legend, the king of Turpan, who was a Buddhist, felt threatened by Islam and sent soldiers to chase down the first three Muslim missionaries that came to the region. They were eventually cornered here and sought refuge in the cave. The soldiers thought they would wait them out, but they were miraculously transformed into doves, and flew out of the cave and over the soldiers heads to freedom.
Today, Chinese Muslims often take pilgrimage here, since it is difficult to obtain permission from the government to travel to Mecca.
New light thrown on origins of Chinese culture as lost civilization emerges
One of the world’s great cities once flourished here at Jinsha village in China’s southwest, the 1000 B.C. equivalent of New York or Paris, and then inexplicably vanished, leaving no trace behind in the historical records.
Until recently, locals had no idea they were living on top of a great lost bronze-age civilization.
Myanmar Woman ‘suddenly grows penis’
Medical doctor Aye Sanda Khaing put it in layman’s terms in a local journal: “Her penis appeared at the site of her clitoris,” the doctor was quoted as saying.
Regardless of the official findings, local villagers and other curious Myanmar nationals are flocking to the Aung Myay Thar Yar pagoda, in this new satellite township 19km from Yangon, to see Than Sein for themselves and make donations to him or the temple.
Up to 400 gather at the pagoda each day, often in a courtyard under colorful umbrellas to ward off the sun’s rays, waiting for the chance to talk with and touch Than Sein.
Japanese researchers invent promising new HIV drug
The drug’s main feature is that it shuts out the AIDS virus at the point when it tries to intrude into a human cell.
Current AIDS medicines can lose their effectiveness in a few days when the virus changes and develops a resistance to those drugs. But AK602 is different because it reacts to human cells instead of attacking the virus, Mitsuya said.
Developers and purists erase Mecca’s history
Sami Angawi, an expert on the region’s Islamic architecture, said 1,400-year-old buildings from the early Islamic period risk being demolished to make way for high rise towers for Muslims flocking to perform the annual pilgrimage to Islam’s holiest city.
“We are witnessing now the last few moments of the history of Mecca,” Angawi told Reuters. “Its layers of history are being bulldozed for a parking lot,” he added.
Angawi estimated that over the past 50 years at least 300 historical buildings had been leveled in Mecca and Medina, another Muslim holy city containing the prophet’s tomb.
Wahhabism, Saudi Arabia’s dominant doctrine which promotes a strict narrow interpretation of Islam, was largely to blame, he said.
When looking for an example of “krumping,” some kind of new dance style, I came across this interesting, if a little long, cell phone commercial from Korea (set in Australia apparently). While watching, try and notice:
1. The cool dancing — there’s a lag in the middle but when they dance it’s good.
2. The group of “black people” who try and shoplift merchandise from the supermarket where the heroine works and then later feebly chase and attack her for no reason (only to be heroicly rescued by the hero on a motorcycle — how daring!). Is black people stuffing duffel bags full of merchandise really a problem in Korean supermarkets in Australia? I was under the impression that there wasn’t even much of a black population there.
3. The random panel of white people she’s auditioning for at the beginning and the end of the video. I guess auditioning for the white people makes it that much more dramatic than if she were trying to get in a Korean music video or something.
I mean, I guess you can’t avoid the use of quick symbolism in a short, silent film such as this. But “blacks = thugs, whites = rich and powerful record executives” seems a little too convenient. (Thanks to Kancoma for the link)
TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan police captured a heavily armed fugitive whom they had been tracking for more than a year Wednesday after he exposed his whereabouts by playing online computer games.
Taiwan evening newspapers said Chang Hsi-ming, wanted for murder, illegal possession of weapons and multiple kidnappings, was found via his Internet protocol address after police found out he often played games online.
The head of Taiwan’s Criminal Investigation Bureau personally led the siege against Chang’s hideout in central Taiwan, with more than 130 police and two armored vehicles as he was known to be armed with assault rifles and hand grenades.
Chang was shot in the chest and shoulder during a gun battle and taken to hospital.
Police had offered a T$10 million (US$312,500) reward for information leading to the capture of Chang, dubbed the “evil dragon” by local press.
Today’s Taipei Times has this brief news item.
Two people were caught last Wednesday at the CKS International Airport trying to bring in beef from Japan, despite a ban on its import, the Taipei Customs Offices said yesterday. Japan is the only Asian victim of mad cow disease and has reported 20 cases since September 2001. The government has banned the import of Japanese beef since 2001. Inspectors seized nearly 20kg of frozen beef from the luggage of the two passengers, including a Taiwanese and a Japanese, when they arrived from Tokyo aboard a China Airlines flight. The smuggled beef was shipped to a quarantine center in Hsinchu where it will be destroyed.
It’s almost funny that Japan, which has had 20 confirmed cases of mad cow disease, has banned beef from the US, which has had no cases of human transmission in that same time period.
The Taipei Times buried this rather significant news item in their ‘Taiwan Quick Takes’ section.
Japan’s ruling coalition has decided to propose that the parliament make a special law to allow Taiwanese to enter the country visa-free after the Aichi Expo ends in September. Japan currently offers visa-free treatment to Taiwanese tourists during the Expo, which ends Sept. 25. At a meeting Wednesday, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito resolved to ask their lawmakers to put forward a special bill making such treatment permanent. Taiwan is the second-largest source of foreign visitors to Japan after South Korea. In February, a special law was passed to allow Taiwanese people to enter for 90 days without a visa during the Aichi Expo. The law went into effect March 11. According to the Taiwan Visitors Association, almost 740,000 Taiwanese visited Japan last year and the new measure is expected to boost that number.
President praises Dalai Lama as the `world’s greatest’
By Huang Tai-lin
STAFF REPORTER
Thursday, Jul 07, 2005,Page 1Two Tibetan monks from Gyutod Tantric Monastery in Dharamsala create a sand mandala yesterday at an exhibition featuring photos of the Dalai Lama and other exhibits presenting Tibetan culture. The exhibition was sponsored by the Tibetan Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and is a part of events celebrating the 70th birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama.
PHOTO: LU CHUN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday joined dignitaries and celebrities from around the world in sending a birthday greeting to the Dalai Lama, who turned 70 yesterday.Chen praised the Tibetan spiritual leader as “the world’s greatest religious leader” and expressed hope that the Buddhist icon would make a third visit to Taiwan to “allow an opportunity for believers in Taiwan to be showered in his wisdom and cheerful presence.”
Noting Taiwan and Tibet’s similar predicaments, in which both have suffered due to Chinese military expansionism, the president said “Taiwan can identify with Tibet’s experience, and is willing to step up efforts enhancing exchanges and cooperation between Taiwan and Tibet.”
[Read the rest of the article on the original site]
For some reason this article neglects to mention the rather interesting fact that the aforementioned exhibition is actually taking place inside Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall! As chance has it, I had lunch after class yesterday with two friends, and we decided to try the Tibetan restaurant near campus, where a non-Chinese English speaking Tibetan fellow patron told me about this exhibition, which started yesterday and will run for about one month. I decided to stop by, but I got there a bit too early and it was really in the process of being set up. Still, there were several lamas (Tibetan Buddhist priests around) and I spent a few minutes chatting with a couple of them.
Of course, while all of the visiting priests are Tibetan, none of them are actually residents of Tibet, but of Tibet’s government in exile, located in the Indian city of Dharamsala. Of the two I spoke to, one had actually been born and raised in Tibet, and only left for India at the age of twenty five, whereas the other had actually been born outside of Tibet. There is no actual Tibetan community in Tibet, and no real Lama Buddhist temples, but there is a “Tibetan Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” where they are based for their stay in Taiwan. I asked if they expected the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan again soon, but they seemed to think that he would be keeping away for the time being to avoid political friction, although considering he has visited twice in the past, and even visited Mongolia quite recently over extreme objections from China, I wouldn’t be surprised to see him.
For those of you who don’t know, here is a picture of the hall, built in the style of the Ming Imperial Tombs, so that everybody knew exactly how humble Chiang was.
The poster advertising the exhibition.
The two lama priests.
