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ouyoumei

Listed below are comments made by ouyoumei between Saturday, 22nd November 2008 and Friday, 10th April 2009.

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Defining relationships 04:01am on 10 Apr 2009 I understand China have issues, but the French have alot of issues. I suggest Hu Jintao first exercise China's diplomatic might by making French cultural abrasiveness and arrogance illegal. Force this onto the UN constitution and carve it into stone at the New York Headquarter.
A five floor bronze monument should also be erected at the peace park, it should read, "From this day onward, humanity shall be free from the dark ages of French narcissism and egotistical disproportionality."
Communists turns to Confucius 05:34am on 22 Mar 2009 I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention an inherent bias within the English language. Ru, Fo, Tao are the three main religion/semi-religion (although distinction between theology/science/philosophy is a western thing, we're already falling into the linguistic paradigm trap!) within China, and they are respectively translated in English commonly as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. "Ru", by any means is not equivalent to the teachings of Confucist alone. The correct translation of "Ru", should be Chinese literarism. Misrepresenting the breadth of Chinese philosophies as "Confucianism," is like categorizing all of western philosophy as "Platoism". I also question the motivation of the English linguist whom adopted the Portugese word Confucist rather than Kung Tzu; perhaps they want to imply it is confusing and wanted to discourage its teaching of love in the west?
Communists turns to Confucius 11:58pm on 20 Mar 2009 As a Buddhist, I only find Neo-Confucianism such as Wang Yangming school of thought more appealing; it resonates more with Buddhism, and also with individualism. The old Confucist school's teaching developed based on China's environment two millenia ago, to emulate Confucist's saying literally is obsolette and misguiding. Rather, one should try to understand the fundamental spirit behind Confucianism, which is to love all humanity selflessly.
Old Confucianism deals much with behavioral conduct and social organization. I won't voice my qualm about it here, as the situation is, any kind moral certainty is desperately needed in China.
Saying sorry to the Chinese 11:45pm on 13 Feb 2009 Bu hao i su is used very often in the daily life. In the Japanese culture, sumimasen is also used frequently. Admitting wrong is a form of human affection for each other in the east.

Two thousand years ago, the Confucian humanist won the debate against the Legalist, while such social development never occurred in the west. Thus in the west, people apologize too little because there are penalizing legal implications within the system.
Chinese charm 7:16pm on 07 Feb 2009 A question that came to my mind is, have CCTV made broadcast availible to the west? I seriously do not no. If not, then I would say there is discrimination and deliberation to exclude the west by selectively choosing Russian and Arabic. If yes, then the misinformation in this essay by dismissing China's effort to reach out to the west will cause misunderstanding and misled people to think China is scheming to align itself with Russia-Muslim behind the west, and it will arouse unhelpful xenophobia.

But regardless of whether China have tried to reach out to the west or not, the essay does inherently suggest some how CCTV does not share the same privileges, lets say, to some British news agency.

Of course, it is understandable western journalist have their predisposition, standard of ethics, and Orwellian value and such. But so did the west when it invaded China during the 19th century (excluding Orwellian value, however the west was ideological and narcissistly self-arbitrate truth/justice anyways).

An underlying theme in James' essay is about the competition of moral values, which is more superior? Western assertiveness vs eastern passivity. Jesus said treat others as you do yourself; Confucist said do not do to others you will not do to yourself. The moral loophole of the west, is that it does not negate imposing one's own value on to others. An imperfection of the east, is social inertia.

Is the United states, which kill primarily non-Americans in the last half a century (through covert+overt operations), morally superior to China, which kill primarily its own citizens (through misgovernance and political turmoil) in the last half a century? In terms of absolute numbers of deaths, America did cause lesser deaths than China.

Although I really do not know how the result will turnout, on a personal level, I think the west have in the past offended too many nations. So on a global stage, they will probably enjoy lesser friends in the future with greater equality.
Apology by text message 6:22pm on 02 Jan 2009 Happy New Years, James.
What do people in China do with a day off? 04:19am on 02 Dec 2008 A sincere kudos to James, great article with adequate cultural subtlety. Critical enough to remind people to change for the better, yet without the explicit abrasiveness which pulls the Chinese face-saving nerve.

But hey, it took 150 years for Asians to gain wide acceptance in California like it is today. And look at what happend when the Olympic torch passthrough London.
Update: Wo Weihan 10:03pm on 28 Nov 2008 The execustion of Wo is an hostile and degrading act towards the supposed Taiwanese "tongbao" (fellow Chinese compatriots). Despite the fancy banquet with Taiwanese officials, the Communist government have proved itself to be an hostile government. Furthermore, Communist government's reluctance to sign a peace treaty with Taiwan signals its potential and willingness to derail into Fascism.

To clarify to some western audiences, the Three Principle of the People can be equated to democracy or republicanism.
Chinese Democracy 8:31pm on 25 Nov 2008 I'm sorry the Chinese official have vented his indignation caused by GNR at James. And thank James for presenting the Chinese band's opinion.

Sometimes Chinese social walls are build because westerners are either unaware or takes satisfaction for being threatening. Sometimes it's just xenophobia from the Chinese side.

But if one can speak Chinese, quote from historical figures, and demonstrate some knowledge about Chinese culture, usually those people are not walled against. Because it shows they have some degree of commitment, and are not just treating Chinese people as some dimissable object.
Does history favour freedom? 04:07am on 22 Nov 2008 James,

In John Garver's "Sino-American Alliance: Nationalist China and American Cold War Strategy in Asia," he made it very clear about the strategic thalassacrocy about the Taiwan island. Without Taiwan, PRC has no de facto access towards the Pacific. It will always intrude into water belong to other nations or creat great alarm in the Taiwan Strait if it attempts to penetrate into the Pacific.

And coincidentally or not (I believe not), Taiwan happens to be a democracy which is unwilling to reunite with PRC unless PRC is willing to show some signs of moderation. So there is an incentive there for PRC to democratize.

But of course, Taiwan could be drawn into the PRC without pulls from the west. And hopefully those pulls doesn't involve sexual harassment, exploitation and degradation of the Taiwanese people. There were two seperate news stories in Taiwan in the last few day. One involving a French exchange student, one, a Spanish journalist. The west really need to work on the pervading attitude of white supremacism, really!

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