Guanxi Master

Past and Present Hollywood Stereotypes and Archetypes of China

One of the great movies of the 50’s is the legendary Around the World in Eighty Days, and part of the charm of the 1956 movie adaptation of Jules Verne’s classic novel is in its exaggerated stereotyping of the characters. It’s a surprise feast for the eye and delightfully flooded with incidental cameo appearances of almost fifty celebrities alive at the time. Directed by Michael Anderson and produced by Michael Todd, the film starred the stately Larry Niven as Phileas Fogg. Nominated for eight Oscars and winning five, it was a late part of that era in which Hollywood “took itself seriously.” Todd’s movie is an affectionately tongue-in-cheek “seriously epic” send up of 1930’s -1950’s Hollywood. Read the rest of this entry »

An Omen of the Middle Kingdom’s Rise in Middle America

In the last few years, fishermen in the United States have started to notice that the old bluegill, sunfish, bass, and catfish of the Illinois, Mississippi and the Ohio rivers have been disappearing. In their place a new kind of fish is gobbling up resources, feeding on the other species, and reproducing at an astonishing rate. The problem has become so intense that officials are now afraid that the Great Lakes are doomed to fall in the onslaught. They call these ferocious invaders “Asian carp”. The Chinese call them “Li Yu” (鲤鱼), “Black” or “Silver” carp, and have cultivated these breeds for their amazing reproductive vitality and hardiness for thousands of years. Read the rest of this entry »

Does the commencement of Shanghai’s World Expo mark a bid for the passing of the scepter?

China has spent vast amounts on preparing for the World Expo this year, spending billions more than it did even on the 2008 Olympics. There is no aspect of the city or the surrounding areas that has remained untouched by the grand expectations of the event. People are told to be good examples of civilized behavior for the Expo. Old buildings have thin plastic veneers tacked on to make them look like Old Shanghai Longtangs, and plastic bags have been outlawed to make the Expo “Green”. This is quite a lot of trouble for a country that is still “developing” and “should resist the siren song of ‘Big China’.” Read the rest of this entry »

Looking at Business Week’s list of the Top 100 Companies in China, it struck me that many of the names we see every day here in China are either “pinyinized” into English, or abbreviated in their official English translations. Why don’t they translate the full names? It’s an interesting study, and here are three that stuck out to me: Read the rest of this entry »

How the West overlooks the positive requirements for constructive critique

In a recent blog at The China Beat, the Association of Asian Studies’ annual conference in Philadelphia expressed dismay that Beijing had prevented its Chinese featured speaker Cui Weiping (崔卫平) from attending. Ms. Cui had been scheduled to participate in the conference’s round table discussion “Against Amnesia: History, Memory, and the Role of Public Intellectuals in 21st Century China,” and while her work commitments were cited as the reason for refusing her exit from China, the title of the session itself may have been enough to raise concerns in Beijing. Control of an intellectual who may potentially be critical of China has a long historical precedent.

In China, artists and intellectuals have been fostered in an atmosphere of an almost religious awe for authority that must be scrupulously maintained in order to keep harmony and prevent dissent from breaking out into social unrest and chaos. When it comes to pointing out flaws in the ruling system, class, or person, the Chinese have a saying: Read the rest of this entry »