a-Chinese-view

China will get most gold medals in 2008!

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-19 – 20:43:47

Historical statistics analysis tells us that China's number of gold medals will increase considerably as compared to the last time, i.e. 32 gold medals. China is predicted to win 40 gold medals at 29th Beijing Olympics.

I have done a search on the question,i.e. which country will get the most gold medals. The answer is normally still the USA, for example, timesonline.com.uk; some think China has a good chance as it has generally done very well and has improved a lot in some items over the last four years.

However, I will give a very definite answer: China will get the most gold medals or even the most medals in 2008 Olympics. The reason is based on historical statistics by comparing a hosting country's performance with that of its previous performance. The result shows that the host country's performance is considerably much better. The less the host country team got in the previous games, the more it gets as a the host. It has become an established rule.

The historical statistics are as follows:

23th Olympics, host USA 83 gold medals, previous 34 gold medals, increase by 144%;
24th Olympics, host S.Korea 12 gold medals, previous 6 gold medals, increase by 100%;
25th Olympics, host Spain, 13 gold medals, previous 1 gold medals, increase by 1200%;
26th Olympics, host USA, 44 gold medals, previous 37 gold medals, increase by 19%;
27th Olympics, host Australia 16 gold medals, previous 9 gold medals, increase by 78%;
28th Olympics, host Greece, 6 gold medals, previous 4 gold medals, increase by 50%;
29th Olympics, host China, ? gold medals, previous 32 gold medals, increase by ?.
(source: people.com.cn,bbs forum)

Based on the above comparative analysis, one can safely predict that China will be the first in number of gold medals in 2008 29th Beijing Olympics. China will win about 40 gold medals or even more.

Caution: Please do not use the above information to bet.

French President Sarkozy is also humain

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-17 – 15:03:41

On 30 June, French President Sarkozy stated that he would attend the Opening Ceremony of Beijing Olympic Games if the Chinese leader and Dalai Lama both think their dialogue was satisfactory. Following the media coverage of his linkage between his presence in Beijing and the Chinese internal politics for the second time since Tibetan rioting last March, Sina.com, a Chinese popular website and a number of other media sites conducted a popular survey on the Chinese people's attitude towards Sarkozy's presence at the Beijing Olympic sOpening Ceremony, nearly 90% answered that Sarkozy is not welcome in Beijing. Comments on Sarkozy immediately were full of personal attacks and bad language. The Chinese people only symbolically boycotted Carrefour in April following the fiaco of Olympic torch relay in Paris and Sarkozy veiled threat of boycott. However, people waited for Sarkozy to change his official stance before holding him personally responsible and attacking him. Such personal attacks are unprecedented in Chinese politics as normally the Chinese people are highly hospitable towards Westerner, even ordinary Western visitors, let alone a state leader.

Sarkozy has been put in a defensive position vis-a-vis China as France and the French leader have been perceived by the Chinese people as leading an effort to sabotage the Beijing Olympics Games. The French attempt to humiliate China on ground of human rights is even more unacceptable following a big commercial deal reached during Sarkozy's first state visit in Beijing at end of last year. He is seen by Chinese as a unscrupulous politician, one without any principle, one unreliable and untrustworthy. The diplomatic statements by other Western powers are irrelevant to Chinese perception of the French as the others' behaviors are within the Chinese imagination.

Immediately following the dialogue between Chinese central government representative and Dalai Lama's private representatives at beginning of this month, Dalai Lama side declared grave disatisfaction over the dialogue.

Secondly, in answering a media question relating to the invitation of foreign heads of state to attend the Opening Ceremony of Olympics, the spokeman of Chinese Foreign Ministry stated that the foreign heads of state are invited by their national olympics committee to attend the Opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games. The answer practically hints that nobody in China has invited Sarkozy to attend the Opening Ceremony of Olympics anyway. The Chinese government simply gives courtesy to him if he decides to show himself up to support his own team. It means he is not invited by Chinese government and therefore China does not care about his presence.

It was a tactical counterattack against Sarkozy who has suffered a serious damage of his reputation among the Chinese people. Nowadays, very few Chinese bloggers believe he is a mature politician, certainly not a good diplomat, but instead simply a womanizer, a rogue bureaucrat, etc.

Sarkozy apparently repented and saw his own mistake blown into disproportion due to his political miscalculation. He took several steps to correct his mistake: he took advantage of G8 to announce his presence at Opening Ceremony of the Games without any condition in name of France, but also under the cap of President of EU; he actively proposed the G8 club should be expanded to include a formal Chinese membership, at hearing "no" from the Japanese leader, Sarkozy was angry and left Japan for home before his pre-announced schedule, which has been perceived by China as an earnest desire to repair damaged relationship; he vehemently defended his decision at EU parliament that boycott of the Games was not something a state leader should contemplate, that no country can boycott 1.3 billion people.

After all, Sarkozy is a humain liable to commit mistakes.
Another lesson of this affair is the question of dividing line between international human rights and national sovereignty.

Big puzzles on Beijing Olympics ? ? ?

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-08 – 11:49:22

1. What would exactly the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics as designed by the Chinese great film director Mr. Zhang Yimou be like?

2. How will be the environment in Beijing under the microscopic examination?

3. Will the ceremonial clothing for medal awards resemble the clothing of Han and Tang dynasties, the two most prosperous dynasties in Chinese history?

4. How the Olympics games will affect the traffic in a city with 17.5 million residents?

5. Who is going to have the honour to set fire to the torch for the games?

6. Who is going to sing the theme song for such a historical event?

7. Is it going to rain during the opening ceremony?

8. Who are going to get onto the last bus to watch the games?

9. How safe will be the Beijing Olympics？

Chinese strategy: Mr. Hu Xueyan sold his cat

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-08 – 06:58:32

Mr. Hu Xueyan (1823 - 1885)was one of the most successful businessmen during the Qing dynasty (1636 - 12 Feb. 1912)in China. He was a talent in commerce and had original ideas, vision and strategy. One strategy he used in selling his cat is "trying to cover up something in order to make it more conspicuous" (欲盖弥彰，pronounced in Chinese "yugai mizhang"), fooling the opponent about your real intention.

Here is how Mr. Hu sold his cat.

Before Mr. Hu became rich, he lived a very hard poor life. He sold almost everything to scratch for a living. Finally, he wanted to sell the last object in his house: a cat he raised with all the care. However, the cat would not give him too much money. Then he came up with a marvellous idea. Every time he went out of his door, he purposefully called out to his wife and told her to take very good care of the cat: "my darling, take every care of our cat. Never allow anybody to touch it. Absolutely no stranger shall be allowed to see it. You really take this into your heart." As time went by, his neighbours all believed that his cat was something very precious.

Soon a very rich man searched and came to buy this cat. Mr. Hu firmly refused to sell. The more resolute he was, the more eager the rich man was to want to buy, offering higher and higher a price. Eventually, the rich man gave Mr. Hu 300,000 Yuan for the cat. In reality, the cat was just as normal as others.

Key message: the more you cover something up, the more it is conspicuous.

Tibet: Important progress achieved in talks

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-06 – 23:40:16

Xinhuanet on 6 July: China's Central Unification Ministry official has taken an interview with Xinhua news agency on the last talks with private representatives of Dalai Lama, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, held in Beijing 1-2 July.

An important distinction between this round of talks and previous ones is that this round has been held in Beijing ,the center of gravity in Chinese politics. Mr. Du Qinglin, the deputy chairman of China's Political Consultative Conference met the two representatives of Dalai Lama. This has been the highest level of talks between the two parties since 2002.

The two sides still have major differences of views. However, the talks have been described as candid and relaxed in atmosphere.

The official has stated that the following important progress has been achieved this time during the talks: Mr. Du has raised the demand of "four points of not support" on behalf of the Chinese central government for the Dalai Lama side, i.e. if Dalai Lama sincerely wishes to make a useful contribution to the Chinese state, the nation and Tibetan people during his lifetime, he should publicly and clearly commit with action that he does not support actions of disturbances and sabotage of Beijing Olympics, does not support planning and flaming criminal violent activities, does not support and effectively constrain violent and terrorist activities by the Tibetan Youth Congress, does not support any claim and activity pursuing "Tibetan independence" or splitting the motherland. The two representatives of Dalai Lama stated during the talks that this is a new spirit of the Central government and expressed to accept the demand from the Central government. The official said elaboration of the demand and the acceptance by Dalai Lama's side of the demand is an important progress achieved so far.

The two sides have agreed to meet again in October 2008.

However, it has been reported by Washington Post that the Tibetans in exile are disappointed with the talks. "We had hoped that the Chinese leadership would reciprocate our efforts by taking tangible steps during this round. On the contrary, due to their excessive concern about legitimacy, the Chinese side even failed to agree to our proposal of issuing a joint statement with the aim of committing both parties to the dialogue process," the envoys, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, said in a statement issued in Dharmsala.

Author comments:
1. There are indications that the current stage is set for the two sides to gauge each other's sincerity to resolve the issue. If the Dalai Lama side would honour its commitment to meet the Chinese central government demand, the latter will likely take further steps to move ahead with real substantial talks. If not, the next few months will be an opportunity lost.
2. On the one hand, Dalai Lama claims not to seek Tibet independence but real autonomy, which means he has to rebuild confidence and trust with the Chinese central leadership to achieve his aim. On the other hand,however, Dalai Lama still tries to act like a sovereign "king of Tibet" and relies on the Western powers to impose his views on his boss. In real life, he has nothing but some religious influence and some political utility for the West to exert pressure on China.
3. Any belief that external pressure on Chinese central government to give in to unrealist demands of Tibetans in exile before Beijing Olympics is illusory. Western pressure can backfire as it is seen as interference in China's internal affairs.

Calligraphy for ducks - a Chinese art history

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-06 – 20:13:21

Mr. Wang Xizhi ((Chinese: 王羲之, 303–361) 303 - 361 AD)is a very famous great Chinese ancient calligrapher in the Song Dynasty (960 AD - 1279 AD). One day, he was on an excursion by a small boat, fully immersing himself in the beauty of water landscape of Shaoxing, a city in Zhejiang province. A group of ducks were joyfully playing on the surface of river lined with green trees. They were chasing after each other in joy and virility. Mr. Wang appreciated the various pretty movements of the ducks with his eyes fixed on them and was very reluctant to leave the place. He asked the boatman about the owner of ducks. "The owner of these ducks is a Daoist master. If you really love these ducks, why don't you buy them?" the boatman replied.

Mr. Wang, the calligrapher, accepted the boatman's suggestion and found his way to the home of Daoist master. The latter quickly knew who was the visitor. He knew Mr. Wang was the famous calligrapher. He was secretly overjoyed to learn about the intent of his visitor. Concealing his joy, the Daoist master said: "I am sorry to tell you that my ducks are not for sale. If you really want them, I would appreciate if you cuold copy the Book of Morals (an ancient Chinese classic)to exchange for them." Mr. Wang was happy to consent to this deal.

Mr. Wang eagerly started to write with his brush word by word of the book on return at home. Several days later, his writing of the book was finished. He was delighted to get the ducks for exchange with this artistic work, now one of the most cherished masterpieces of calligraphy in Chinese history.

Sarkozy not welcome in China

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-06 – 15:22:09

French President Ninolas Sarkozy has become the latest target of Chinese nationalism. According to a popular survey conducted by Sina.com, 88% of of Chinese respondents have expressed opposition of Sarkozy's presence at the opening ceremony of Beijing Olympics. The similar believe the French president has beeen extremely on China.

Why "Sword and Shield" means contradition in China?

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-04 – 20:27:43

Do you know "sword and shield" (矛盾，pronounced as "maodun" in Chinese language)together in China actually means contradiction? Yes, it does. But why?

In ancient times, before the unification of the Chinese continent into one political entity,a merchant trading swords and shields was trying very hard to sell his stuff on the street. He took up a shield and shouted:"come and buy this shield, folks, my shield is the hardest of all shield. No sword in the world would be sharp enough to possibly cut through it." Then he took up a sword and shouted: "come and buy this sword, folks, my sword is the sharpest of all swords. No shield in the world would be hard enough to defend against it. The sword can cut through all shields."

The on-lookers felt his explainations very funny. One of them went up and asked: "Yes sir,what would happen if I use your sword to attack your shield?" The merchant felt embarassed and left the market immediately.

Since then, the Chinese have used the phrase to refer to contradictory situations.

Note from Lao: If you like the story, please leave a comment.

An ugly lady imitating a beauty

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-04 – 16:58:14

Here is a household Chinese story from the ancient history.

Legend goes that during the Spring and Autumn period ( 722 BC to 481 BC)in ancient China, a beauty named Xishi lived in the kingdom of Yue. She is known to be one of the most known Chinese beauties in history. However she decorated herself, she looked purely beautiful and pretty in every and any movement and gesture. Xishi suffered from an illness though, i.e. she had regular stockache. Every time she felt sick, she would put her hands on her stomach and she would nervously frown. Her posture in such an illness looked just as attractive in the eyes of others.

Among Xishi's neighbours was a girl named Dongshi, an ugly girl indeed. As she saw Xishi's beauty in such an illness, Dongshi tried to imitate her. Although Dongshi was not ill, she also put her hands on her stomach and she would also nervously frown. She believed she would look also beautiful, pretty and attractive. However, in the eyes of all others, Dongshi looked even uglier.

Moral: Each of us has our own merits and individual characters, we can not blindly imitate others.

A Chinese fable: Mr. She loves dragons

by yjldavid6670 @ 2008-07-04 – 11:31:24

Long long time ago there was a Chinese man named Mr. She. Dragon was his favourite animal. There were images of dragon everywhere he lived and everthing he used. His personal weapons were painted a dragon, his utensils carved with a dragon, on the walls of his bedroom were drawn dragons, on the columns of his house also dragons.

The real dragon in heaven was pleased at the bottom of his heart to hear about Mr She and was eager to pay a personal visit of him.

One day, the real dragon came to Mr. She's house, with his head extending through the window to take a look inside, with his tails spreading inside the guest room. At sight of the real dragon, however, Mr. She was almost frightened to death. He turned and ran away immediately, his soul almost lost, his face pale and his body shaking.

Mr. She's behaviours showed that he did not love the real dragon, but instead only objects resembling the real dragon but not the real thing itself.

In actual life, there are people who can offer oral support, express oral love towards something. However, when such a thing really happens or comes, they will be frightened.

Source: Chinese ancient book titiled "Xin Xu Zashi 5" (New catalogues, Story misallenous No. 5)