First Chinese Spacewalk

On September 27, 2008, Zhai Zhigang, wearing a Chinese-developed Feitian space suit, conducted a 20-minute spacewalk, the first ever for a Chinese astronaut. It is a great achievement for the Chinese. To me, the space project is a measure of science and technology know-how, as well as the ability to carry out large-scale logistics planning and process. The tolerance for errors is extremely low and it is a risky business to be in. Aside from these general observations, I, as a nobody civilian, do see two strikingly different features between the space programs run by the US and by the Chinese.

First, the Chinese space launch was not broadcast live and was quite secretive. Pictures and video footage were shown after the fact. In the wiki URL listed in the previous paragraph, you might find it interesting to see things live regarding the Associated Press' article on September 25, "China space mission article hits Web before launch". Some friends told me that not broadcasting live was to prevent possible mishaps and embarrassments. I assume that one would have enough time to come up with a reasonable explanation if any accidents happened. I suppose that more transparency will come later when the Chinese perfect the space mission projects some more. The fortunate part is that the spacewalk was broadcast live, although no one knew for sure until the very last minute. As far as I know, all US launches in the past were broadcast live. Once people got bored with the space program, the broadcasts were on lesser-known channels.

The second striking difference to me is that the operation is very much a military one, as opposed to a civilian or quasi-civilian operation - from the selection of the astronauts, the briefing and debriefing, and the homecoming ceremony. Supposedly, the astronauts were to be quarantined for two weeks for fear of viral or bacterial infections reported in the earlier news. Yet, they were paraded through part of the city in open-air caravan after they returned to Beijing Xi-Jiao military airport. Contradictions and inconsistencies are everywhere in China. You have to live with it.

It is my view that the Chinese space station and space shuttle projects are barely economically justifiable, other than from the political and military vantage points. The transfer of technology from space research to the improvement of people's daily lives is not easy to see. With the current infrastructure, I have serious doubts on how this can take place quickly without reasonable transparency and civilian counterparts in the development and transfer of space technology. Lot of work has to be done to make space station and space shuttle projects economically viable.

On a more serious note, I do think that the moon project is very questionable economically other than to show off an ego of a nation or a party. I recall that many physicists were out driving cabs in Houston in the early 1970's after the moon landing project was over. Economically, there were no foreseeable benefits to continue on any project focusing on the moon itself.

During the cold war, the moon project was an important and visible milestone for the space race between the US and the USSR. It was probably essential to win the race for the US, otherwise we probably would have a Big Brother watching over us like that of "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by George Orwell. Some felt that the space race caused a serious drain economically both in the US and in the USSR.

What's in Common between Coal Mines and Sanlu Milk Products?

I don't watch TV or read the newspaper regularly. I get free cell phone news briefs twice a day with my subscription from China Mobile. It is a distilled version of news that always comes with four pictures, one in politics/military/international, one in sport, one in entertainment, and the last one is the same logo picture. Presumably it is the best sanctioned view of the current events as they are known or supposed to be known all over China. This is my daily information and education directly from the mobile source. I get to read simplified Chinese comfortably now.

About every two to three weeks recently, I have read about coal mine explosions and accidents. The safety condition must be pathetic. These Chinese mining enterprises manifest themselves as the money-grabbing apparatus taking advantage of the poor in the society who take the most deadly job in China to make a living. It appears that every coal mine operation is the same, that which coal mine is next in line to have accidents is random. When that happens, investigations will begin, responsible parties will be jailed, and party chiefs and government officials will be removed. For many, it is worth the risk since there is no faster way to get rich, and gambling like this is not a bad deal in China. This reminds me of the Junk Bond King Michael Milken. Many wish that they have a chance to do the gambling. Many people, including me, still feel that it is not right to get people killed or buried alive 1 mile below the earth's surface.

By the way, the immediate removal of party membership of the involved officials alwaysis accompanied by scapegoat-hunting exercises as a form of political excommunication. Those doing the scapegoating hope it would indemnify them from any wrongdoing or prevent the tarnishing of their perfect image.

Another recent news item was the recent SanLu (Three-Deer) baby milk scandal, in which many infants were exposed to melamine and suffered kidney damage. Fatalities occurres in many parts of the country including in several cities. It is an industry-wide practice to enhance profit margins by adding melamine while the raw milk is diluted to pass the test for nitrogencontent, and thus protein content. Soon after the government started the test, very few brands test negative for melamine contamination. Many countries are more aggressive in testing and publishing the test results, and the importing of food products from China is seriously curtailed.

This is another case of corporate greed and lack of business ethics. The corporate China is making profits by cutting corners putting the health of the general population at risk. Again, the punishment pattern is similar to other scandals and it is worth the risk to get rich fast in this country.

On a sad note, a friend from Taiwan told me that similar scandals took place there about 20 years ago. He suggested that this phenomenon might be natural for any developing country. Is this truly a predestined phenomenon that as a society we all have to suffer and learn together from? I mean that the greed and the suffering part is a necessary part of the development. If so, some societies will learn fast and will gradually move to a new and civil level of playing field, while some stagger and never move forward. What moves things forward and what leaves us fumbling, never to become a civilized nation that treats its citizens as individuals and not as targets for profit-making?

Imperfection is Just As Beautiful

Imperfection is just as beautiful if not more beautiful than perfection.

I was more inspired by the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing than the "regular" Olympics. The XXIX Olympics was a great event, but simply a good show in some ways. The Paralympics had some sadness to it. One taxi driver mumbled to me that it was heart-wrenching for him to watch the Paralympics competition. I felt the pity and the "why bother" attitude in his tone. Many of my friends here were inspired by the physically challenged athletes; but, for the most part, Chinese society needs to open its arms wider to accommodate better the marginalized and the disadvantaged.

Relatively speaking, Chinese society and infrastructure is not friendly to the disabled population. A wheelchair-bound individual cannot move about in Beijing, let alone in other cities in the country. I would never haul two suitcases from the airport to my apartment using the subway unless I were desperately poor and could not afford other means of transportation. Escalators are not guaranteed to be there, and you have to walk up and down the stairways. Elevators are there sometimes, and they are often locked and not available. When you have two 20 kg suitcases to deal with, you can be considered physically challenged. The sad fact is that I do see poor people transport their luggage in the subway. Some of them don't have suitcases, just two big tote bags.

To see and hopefully to accept imperfection is good to begin with. Only people with confidence are comfortable with their shortcomings and handicaps. Chinese have yet to get used to this new notion and to love themselves deeper in the face of imperfection. There are good examples, although the media and society don't show them often. Parents in China are as dedicated to their disabled children as parents in other parts of the world. But the media and society shun away from them and rarely shine a positive light on this group of people. Some Chinese even believe the traditional idea that imperfection stems from the wrong-doings of a person's previous incarnations. A sense of guilt and shame is quite common. The Paralympics is good for Chinese audiences; the Games made it easier for the disabled population get out of their isolation and to push the envelope a little.

Chinese are obsessed with perfection and that's not heathly. This burden is unbearable and is not sustainable. Chinese have to learn to accept the reality of imperfection, and have the spirit to overcome, not to overcompensate, for it. Politically, it is also good to accept imperfection; that is the hallmark of democracy. Mediocrity is a fact of life, and we are making a conscious decision to trade this for the long-term stability of the society. An error-free, austere political machine is just a facade. It is inherently unsustainable and there is no breathing room in it.

The Paralympics was a good thing for China. Many of us should be thankful for not feeling challenged in any perceivable way. One day, we will all become disabled as we get older and by then we should be able to realize the need to provide equal opportunities to the disadvantaged. I like the 1997 Academy Award winner for Documentary Short Subject, "Breathing Lessons: The Life and Work of Mark O'Brien" that says "sooner or later, we'll all become handicapped." It is a 35-minute film. Watching it will be good for you spiritually and philosophically. :-).

Reflections on the 2008 Beijing Olympics

The Beijing Olympic Games were "truly exceptional Games," said International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge at the Games' closing ceremony staged in the National Stadium in northern Beijing on Sunday night, August 24, 2008.

This is a fair overall assessment of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. A few reflections are in order since I was in the city for the last two years and attended three events, men's gymnastic, women's skeet shooting, and men's boxing.

[China's Favorite Sporting Son]

China's favorite sporting son, Liu Xiang, had to pull out of his defense of his 110 meter hurdles title due to an Achilles tendon injury, leaving his legions of fans heartbroken. He is a man who could be more influential than the PRC President in what he says and does. He is now depicted as a cartoon character in one TV show I happened to glance at recently; every child in China will probably recognize him. I hope that a hero like him can do more for China beyond the 110 meter hurdles event.

[Nationally Organized Sport Promulgation]

China has a national-level office, the State General Administration of Sport, to promulgate sporting events and training and to win medals in many venues. This is another good example of Chinese efficiency in execution when action is needed. A news report last week mentioned that 800 million RMB was spent for the 2008 Olympics in athletes training; and with 51 gold medals, each cost about 15 million RMB (about 2.2 million US dollars).

As far as I know, there is no counterpart in the US. Almost all sports organization are grass-roots organizations. Rules and regulations are defined and run by these non-profit organizations. I am familiar with high school level wrestling and swimming, as these are the sports my children participated in. I think that reaching the grass-roots level should be the aim for China to be sustainable in medal counts. A healthy and fit population should be the eventual goal of any government-sanctioned effort.

[Handing Over the Olympic Flag to New Host City London]

London Mayor Boris Johnson received the Olympic flag from Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong during the closing ceremony on Sunday, because London is hosting the next summer games in 2012. To the Chinese, it might seem odd to see the Beijing Mayor having such an honor. Mr. Guo is not even listed in the CCP page, which lists 30 or so names as members of the Politburo of the CCP Central committee. If you want to count "status or standing" in Chinese politics, that is where you should look first.

The tradition of having a city, rather than a country, bid to host the Olympic Games is something novel to the very centralized Chinese system in the first place. Mr. Guo, as the mayor of the host city, was the one to do the job, and not anyone else, which was refreshing and food for thought for the Chinese during the closing ceremony. Incidentally, it was the first time I saw him on TV in the two years I have spent in Beijing.

[Extinguishing the Olympic Flame]

I was quite sentimental about the extinguishing of the flame. It signaled an end and put a period at the time horizon. Chinese are not used to, and often are reluctant and sometimes even superstitious in, talking about and facing end games in many social and personal circumstances. Facing it in front of a billion of viewers in China was a good experience and a good mental exercise. No rationale, no explanation, no thing required for this. An event to accept and to reflect upon is a simple and beautiful thing.

[Collateral Damages in the Last Stretch of the 2008 Beijing Olympics]

There were so many accomplishments in completing projects and construction on time for the Olympics. The pleasant surprise of fast clean-ups on streets and subways in the early summer was a clear indication of the can-do spirit around the city and probably in the country as well. The question, then, is when and where the government is going to take action.

In the preparations for the Games, there was much collateral damage. The "undesirables," including migrant workers, were moved out, and visas for foreign students were not extended for the summer. For the sake of not getting embarrassed or having to be bailed out, I acquired a "temporary residence permit" and always carried it along with my passport in my backpack.

Torch relay crowd control tactics were all very raw and rudimentary in the Chinese style. This is often offensive to non-Chinese and is in bad taste in general. Speaking of the torch relay, there were about 8 hours of torch relay with 800 runners in Beijing. This equates to 36 seconds per runner, which is pathetic to me. It was a "who's who in Beijing" event to me, an attempt to balance out demands from all corners of the society and government.

My barber shop owner complained about slow business and many restaurants were not packed at all for the summer. All these temporary alienations hopefully can be well compensated by the great success of the Games and will be forgotten hopefully after a few years.

Obviously, what I have just said is all officially false information from the government's point of view. For me, I am a stubborn donkey and I like to think and observe myself without being told and fed of any truth.

A taste of Northern California from my viewfinder

[High school students traveling to USA at the Beijing Airport]
My UA flight on July 12, 2008 was fully booked. Among the passengers, about 120 high school students were on board. I sat next to a couple of teachers/chaperons. They were excited and they had long shopping lists. One of them said to the other philosophically, "Let's not buy America to go." Travel and seeing things firsthand without hindrance is a first step to understanding and communication among nations. This is something good to see and I am hopeful to have a peaceful global village.




[The famous BlackBox at Sun's MPK campus]

Well, this might not be the original. It is in front of the MPK12 building, and I suppose that it is for the executive briefing tour. The future of networking, storage, and computing power are all packed in this box, with electricity and network cabled in, and information and heat out. I heard that the Pentagon liked this idea very much.






[Forced Tour at IKEA East Palo Alto]
I just needed to buy a gift certificate for my nephew's LA wedding. And I went in one way and had to quickly do a tour of everything. Here is a shot of a beautifully designed information post. I had to follow the winding road to reach the check-out counter at the end.














[Kaiser Hospital and my annual medical check-up]
I did my blood work and ultrasound a few days before I saw the doctor so that everything would be ready for his assessment. It was good for him to declare that I was good for another 6 months. This shot was at the women's ultrasound floor. Because of "load balancing," I was moved from the regular location to this one. Felt a little out of place at the beginning until I found a few other men there later. Kaiser Hospital at Santa Clara was part of the HMO network I still subscribe to.





[Pruneridge Golf Driving Range, my rare ritual these days]

You must be rusty only doing this driving range practice every 3 or 4 months. I don't even bother to go on the course, because we would hit the balls everywhere and be chased by the next group.














[LA Wedding, all in the family]

Driving down from San Jose to LA is about 6 hours. It was good to see my two sons and my mom again. It was an excuse to have a family reunion. My nephew John got married, the first in that generation. I found my position as uncle was well respected in the scheme of things.







[San Jose RHV airport: biannual flight review]

I did not look too thrilled. I wonder why? My private pilot license requires a biannual flight review to be current. It was one hour of ground instruction and review, and another hour or more air work with a required minimum number of takeoffs and landings. I took this shot in front of the at the RHV airport. It was a lot of mental and physical work to recover from installs and to simulate emergencies.





[Gate of Heaven: my dad and my mom]

My mom is living with my younger sister in Taiwan for the time being. It is her wish to visit the grave site of my dad at Gate of Heaven, a Catholic cemetery in Los Altos, every time she is in northern California. We cut the flowers from our backyard; Michael did a nice job in arranging them.







[Robin and Family in our backyard]

This was a great shot seeing a mother or father robin feeding the young chicks. Our family had a great time seeing this robin family doing their thing in our backyard.









[Century 22 Movie Theater]

I heard in a Toastmaster speech that not having reserved seating for movie tickets in the US was a surprise to Chinese natives. I refreshed my memory on this trip. This dome-shaped structure is a common for movie theaters in the US. We watched "The Dark Knight." This Batman sequel was entertaining and has some interesting philosophical thoughts in it.






[California Living: Castro Street in Mountain View, luncheon in outdoor cafe setting]

This Castro street is becoming a symbol of California living these days. California has nice weather with beautiful blue skies most of the year. It is dry, and outdoor living is feasible and enjoyable. Although California is lagging behind in terms of East Coast high culture and sport teams, and is not well known for public education K through 12, the weather has attracted many new immigrants in the last two centuries. In the boom days of the Silicon Valley, many domestic transplants came to this state as well.



[Police riding Segway in Mountain View, California]

I saw this in LA airport, but I did not have chance to take a picture. This time I used my iPhone to record the scene. It is like child's play to me. A little wild and unthinkable 10 or 20 years ago. The cops need to work more efficiently, I suppose. It is probably more acceptable than seeing them riding on scooters?

Align Your Expectations in Beijing and China

If you are in Beijing in an organized tour group, you'll be ushered around in an air-conditioned bus; you'll be pampered well. You probably won't run into any expectation alignment issues.

This alignment of expectations is a must for people who come to Beijing and China for a longer period of time. First of all, looking like a foreigner could be a double-edged sword. Don't play your foreigner card too hard. As a foreigner, extra courtesy might be extended to you. Yet, you are clearly a target to be ripped off.

The following is a list of my observations after two years in Beijing.

• Taxi driver - Generally, there is no tip expected. Don't expect him/her to come out to open the trunk for you. Load and unload the luggage and suitcases yourselves. Once a while, they do help you. You are in luck when that happens.
• Crossing the Intersection - Don't expect the bus or the car to yield to you even when you have the green/walk signal. Cars can turn right on red, and the drivers normally push their way through whenever they can. Remember that there is no notion of "right of way." You are a meat ball and they are metal; don't insist on this.
• Lights beaming - When a car/bus beams lights at you, especially with increasing speed, it means that you should get out of the way as soon as possible. This is *not* to signal you to go first.
• Using horns - When a car/bus is rushing through, horns are applied generously. Don't get annoyed. Horns are often used to show the displeasure of the drivers as well.
• Cutting in front of you - It is not uncommon in subway/bus lines for people to cut in front of you. You have to adjust a bit; and at the same time, be a little aggressive, otherwise, you might have trouble getting on.
• Let people out first? - Normally, people having no such courtesy of letting you out first before they barge in. This applies to elevators, buses, and subways. If you are the last one or close to the last one, be aggressive to move out early. Position yourself in a crowded situation when you are reaching your destination; you might have trouble getting out in the last minute. "Excuse me" does not help much in the last minute, and it is all right to move close to the door when the bus/subway is approaching your destination. Signal that you wish to swap positions, and stop when someone tells you that he/she is getting out too. Sounds like a bubble sort algorithm?
• Yielding their seats to you - If you have some gray or even some signs of aging, some youngster might yield his/her seat to you. In the city bus, sometimes the bus attendant would point and ask some young person to yield a seat to the senior or needy. He/she sets the civil code in the bus! At times, some young people shamelessly ignore the request or pretend to be ill. Some Americans might be a little offended as they are not ready to be seen as needing special treatment in their 50's. This is quite a contrast between today's Americans and Chinese in their 50's and 60's. Psychologically, many Chinese accept the notion of old age and fragility while their American counterparts perceive themselves completely otherwise.

  It is a pleasant surprise, isn't it? It is a pretty complicated society, you might think, given all the other things you have read so far.

• Crowd control - If you travel during peak weeks of the major holidays, you might be able to witness multi-level queues in and out of train stations. This is unique to China to make sure that people can get out of the stations, and can get into the stations as well. The system is designed not to let people in too early to block others who might need to get in. Chinese do have the expertise to manage and do crowd control during peak weeks of the transportation infrastructure.
• Rushing to get in and out - Going in to a music hall with assigned seating or on a upscale train, people still jostle. There is no real reason to get ahead. People are unconsciously insecure, and want to be ahead of everything habitually. One Tsinghua professor I knew told me of this analogy: When you are hungry for too long, you cannot stop eating when seeing plenty of good food on the table. It is probably a transitional phenomenon from a resource-poor economy to a plenty-for-all economy.

English with a Chinese characteristic - 005

English with a Chinese characteristic - 005
This is the "005" installment of this series.

This one is dedicated to the pronunciation difficulties experienced by many Chinese software professionals I am personally acquainted with.

From my old American housemate Dave in the 1970's, "If you cannot hear the difference, you cannot say it correctly." Find a native speaker or someone with good command of spoken English to work with you on the following examples. Listen very hard for the differences and then try to pronounce them so that you can reflect the differences you heard.

• [Long vowels]
  Try these pairs: Keith and kiss, feast and fist.
  
• [R versus L]
  Try these pairs: liver and river, world and word, war and wall.
  
• [Th versus S]
  Try these pairs: face and faith, think and sink.
  
• [Missing counterpart; there is no v sound in Chinese]
  Try these: very and vibrate.
  

Unlearn these pronunciations that are due to the Pin-yin imprints. Pin-yin is the most common standard for representing Standard Mandarin in the Latin alphabet. The correspondence between letter and sound does not follow any single other language such as English. Many Chinese have to anglicize the Pin-yin alphabet in their early learning to pronounce words accurately in the English language.
For example: c as in cang and cong, q in qing and que, x as in xiang and xue, r as in ren and rang.

I found that the college-educated group manages well the different pronunciations in English and in the Chinese Pin-yin.