Haiwang Yuan: Providing China news and notes since June 2008

A seemingly fraud-ridden election prompted a protest of a million strong with sporatic violence and bloody crackdown by the incumbent government that claimed victory in the election. The situation is so 捉摸不定 zhuó-mó-bù-dìng), meanging uncertain or volatile, that we had better 静观其变 （jìng-guān-qí-biàn）or quietly watch it change. For, sometimes the best strategy is 一动不如一静 (Yī dòng bù rú yí jìng). For the last proverb, visit this link to hear its pronunciation and annotation.

I became one of over two million fans on Jackie Chan’s Facebook, a profile he helps market the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. I love the song and for the sake of his fans who don’t read Chinese, I have transcribed its lyric and translated it into English. It is an effort, to use a Chinese proverb, “to cast out my bricks to invite jade (better translation) from others.”

The sky is home of the stars,

And a home ne’er void of love,

Bright light awakens the moon,

Across the distance far and near.

Stars form the sea in the sky,

A sea of fire lit by love that shines

So we’ll ne’er lose our bearing in the dark.

An astronomic chase after imagination,

The vast sky, mother of sunlight,

Where’s the shore of love,

As sky and sea are mingled into one?

There’s no wall of barrier in our hearts,

Wings of dream carry the ideals of multiple languages,

Our hearts and the city,

Resonant with the rhythm of the starry sky,

Travel through the paradise of our dream.

Life loves light.

Our hearts and the city,

Rising with the bright moon of aspiration,

Get over the clouds of walls.

Hope gives us strength.

[intermezzo]

Yao Ming (soliloquy): The city gives us a better life. The World Expo makes Shanghai more magnificent. You and I can make the Expo more successful.

The sky is home of the stars, and

And a home ne’er void of love,

Bright light awakens the moon,

Across the distance far and near.

Stars form the sea in the sky,

A sea of fire lit by love that shines,

So we’ll ne’er lose our bearing in the dark.

An astronomic chase after imagination

In the vast sky, mother of sunlight.

Where’s the shore of love,

As sky and sea are mingled into one?

There’s no wall of barrier in our hearts,

Wings of dream carry the ideals of multiple languages,

Our hearts and the city,

Resonant with the rhythm of the starry sky,

Travel through the paradise of our dream.

Life loves light.

Our hearts and the city,

Rising with the bright moon of aspiration,

Get over the clouds of walls,

Hope gives us strength.

Our hearts’re the stars of the city;

The city’s the bosom of our hearts.

Our hearts and the city,

Resonant with the rhythm of the starry sky,

Travel through the paradise of our dream.

Life loves light.

Our hearts and the city,

Rising with the bright moon of aspiration,

Get over the clouds of walls.

Hope gives us strength.

Traveling through the paradise of our dream,

Life loves light.

Our hearts and the city,

Rising with the bright moon of aspiration,

Get over the clouds of walls,

Hope gives us strength.

When I turned on my TV today, CNN reminds me of the 20th anniversary of June 4th. CNN news crew on the Tiananmen Square jostling with Chinese with unbrellas was quite a scene, which, to CNN, was the kind of “man-biting-dog” news material. And no mistakingly the anchor made a big fuss about it.

Twenty years? To a nation of 5,000 its nothing. But to a China that changes so much that a city map has to be updated on a monthly basis, it is almost a generation long. The millenials born immediate before and after the incident have no idea what it is. Do the Chinese trust CNN? Or does CNN have any credibility in China? Yes, twenty years ago. Certainly not today, especially after its what the ordinary Chinese conceived as lopsided coverage of the Tibetan riots last year. By the way, a riot that involves arson and killing of innocent lives are not to be condoned by any country with whatever form of government. CNN and some of the Western media lost the Chinese on that through some misteps caught by the Internet-aware Chinese. “Don’t behave like a CNN” （做人不要太CNN）has become a buzz word, in which CNN becomes a synonym of something the Chinese dislike. So much so that some built an anti-CNN Web site.

I am not young (but not too old) and can’t help calling back the lingering memory of “Who lost China” debate in the U.S. when Communists ran the Nationalists out of mainland China in 1949. That was history (and soon June 4th will become history, too). Looking back, people may ask the same question: Who lost the Chinese youth who used to look to the Statue of Liberty as their model? CNN didn’t help in gaining them for sure.

Recently a message was sent to a mailing list of Chinese faculty on a college campus inviting the first few who replied to the email to a FREE dinner in honor of a visiting scholar from China. Yes, the dinner was Free, that is, it would be paid by the hosting party. Two days passed but still no one answered the call. OK, here’s the quiz. Why did the Chinese faculty remain so “modest?”

April 12, 2009, I was wakened up by the vibration of my cell phone on the bed table. It was only 5:15 am! When I saw the text message that caused the vibration, my vexation immediately turned into delight. It was a colleague of mine asking me to add him as a friend in Facebook, which I did on my cell without hesitation.

Then, I went back to sleep again, where I dreamed a strange dream. After accomplishing some tasks that I can’t remember I was dining with my colleagues and friends to celebrate. I had just gulped down a cup of Maotai liqueur when a female student worker from the Department of Modern Languages came to remind me of a test already going on that I was about to miss. My adrenalin spiking, I left my friends for the test. As if I could hear the clock ticking, I embarked on a race against time.

In my rush, however, I ended up in a dead alley. I cast about for a way out, but none of the people I asked for help proved helpful. Finally a young father carrying his child on a bicycle led me out to an open terrace, an elevated ground similar to the terrain of my Western Kentucky University campus on a hill. Pointing at the distance with sunset, he tried to describe the direction to me. Before he could utter a word, I had already found myself in a busy street down the highland on a staircase laid with slates. Now I could only see the young father gesturing wildly on a bridge in the distance.

In the street, I suddenly thought of taking a taxi, believing that taxi drivers always knew where to go the best. But to my horror and dismay, I found the streets all blocked for a carnival-like parade! I had to hit the road on foot. After winding through a narrow and crowded business street full of shops and quaintly attired foreigners, I came to the muddy country road, which was a reminiscence of a similar experience as I trod to a Yi community in China a couple of years ago.

When at long last I reached what I thought to be my destination, it turned out to be Nankai, my university in China. The huge gate seemed wide open, with a towering misty looming not far from its background. At the gate, translucent wild animals roamed about on high alert. I found myself in a situation like a hero in a fairytale or a virtual world of a computer game faced with the final but life-and-death test. Not a gamer at all, I chose to quit and, as what I used to do in my childhood, I shook myself awake from the nightmare with cold sweat.

Having the dream interpreted is not my purpose of posting it on the blog. What is revealing is the mixture of the Chinese and Western cultures to which I have been exposed as an immigrant. Although I speak very good English compared with many of my “compatriots” in the real world of an American campus life for almost a quarter of a century, the setting of my dream is still predominantly Chinese! There is not without change, which is really significant: I have long begun to speak English in my dream, but what was new to this and some other dreams I have had recently is the setting. The demarcation of my Chinese and American locales is beginning to blur. Finally I have come along way on my mental and psychological naturalization as an American.

I just saw this: a virtual tour of the famed Forbidden City in Beijing, China. If you have been there, it’s worth a revisit in the Cyberspace. If not, you’ll see why so many people feel drawn to it. If you have some experience with Second Life, you’ll find the navigation very easy. If you register, which is free, you can even find a tour guide to show you around. Give it a try. It needs quite some download though, just like what you do when you install Second Life. The URL is http://www.beyondspaceandtime.org/FCBSTWeb/web/index.html#link=download.

A few months before the end of the Bush Administration, it finally made good the promise it had made years before to sell Taiwan defensive and offensive weapons worth of 6.5 billion U.S. dollars. This action will surely anger the Chinese Government and its military. To them, more advanced weapons in the Taiwanese hands will prolong the process of an ultimate reunification. The Chinese may be mulling over some measures of retaliation at a time when the U.S. is struggling in the quagmire of a financial crisis. The Bush Administration may have reckoned that as U.S.’s second largest creditor, China would be a loser if it decided to use its multi-billion funds as a weapon. It may be good calculation, but I think the Administration has failed to understand the historical dimension of China with regard to its territorial claim and national sovereignty. Historically, China has gone through many periods of division and reunification, with reunification being the mainstream. Take the Three Kingdoms (三国) for an example. They could have very well minded each of their own businesses and become three different countries when they were equally strong. The fact, however, was that each tried to get the upper hand of the others and attempted to reunite what they regarded as the one country under the reign of a nominal monarch or “Son of Heaven (天子).” The Chinese urge to reunify its “motherland” or “Land Bequeathed by the Common Ancestor (祖国)” is akin, as it were, to the instinct of the salmon that defy all odds to come back to their birthplace to spawn. Sales of weapons can only serve to encourage the Chinese to develop and produce more advanced weapons. But in the end, whether the two sides of the Taiwan Strait will be reunified or not depends more on their bilateral exchanges and mutual understandings. Despite their quality and quantity, weapons may eventually not be used at all. Certainly, it all depends on China’s growth. As it becomes stronger and stronger economically and militarily the way it progresses, the Taiwan issue will become increasingly marginal. I really hope for a peaceful solution of the China-Taiwan issue, with no weapons ever employed on either side, and I’m very optimistic about that.