Today, I felt frustrated. I think I still have a lot of stuff to improve. These days I found myself easy to upset. This is not a good thing. I hope Thursday's travel can change my status.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Monday, April 23, 2007
Tulips in Beijing Botanical Garden
The Beijing Botanical Garden located in northwestern part of Beijing downtown. It is actually close to Xiang Shan. I did not expect any picturesque scenery there when I accepted the invitation from Oliver. I just want to have some opportunity to talk with him and relax my mind after several days staying home.
Nevertheless, I was amazed by the fantastic tulips there. Those flowers are just so intact and colorful that I am under the illusion that they are fakes.
Beijing Botanical Garden
Today, Olive, Henry and I went to Beijing Botanical Garden.
Tulip there is just so fantastic!
Tulip there is just so fantastic!
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Scorched Indian Cake
Today I grilled 2 Indian cakes for my breakfast. Unfortunately, the second one got fire. I scorched it!
Successful====>Scorched!
Successful====>Scorched!
Friday, April 20, 2007
Is It Necessary for Americans to Learn a Secondary Language?-As a Response to Dan
One month ago, my Caucasian friend, whose parents are respectively an Englishman and a French, told me that our new friend who just come to China from the U. S. is just a “typical American”. I can tell his definition about the phrase “typical American” was definitely not positive, according to his detailed descriptions. This had made me relate to other comments toward Americans from my other European friends, most of the comments concluding to two points - Americans don’t care about others (other countries) and Americans believe they are the center of the world.
I have to make it clear that I didn't feel this way before. In fact, I like Americans and the U. S. A. is my top priority among the destinations on my traveling list. However, when I hear these kinds of comments again and again, I can't help wondering what cause this kind of opinions and what is the so called “typical American". That is the background of article “The World knows about America, Whereas the America Knows Nothing about the World” I wrote a few days ago. In this article, my main idea is that the inability to master a secondary language impedes most Americans to get a deeper understanding of thoughts from other countries. My assumption is that few Americans learn a second language is a fact.
Dan gave me a comment on this topic, prompting me happily to give him a response. In his comments, he accepted my assumption - I hoped that I did not misunderstand -, introduced some background statements about the U. S. and explained his “opinion on why Americans seem to only care about themselves and display racial bias”. In my response, I just reiterated the language do play a key role in mutual understandings, even though it is not the only means for sure. Besides, I wrote that “As for other parts you mentioned, I would say that whether it is necessary to understand more about the world for American people would be another issue involved different value system. It is only a problem of choice," a part that confused Dan and that I would like to make it clear in the following.
It is the values, some beliefs in what deserves to do, that prompt people of a country to decide whether they need to learn another foreign language or not. For most Americans, they don't feel worthy of learning another language because they can use English, both in life and in work, to communicate with people in America and in other countries. They think that learning a secondary language has no pragmatic function. The choice they make just reflects their thoughts and attitudes about the world and themselves. And this choice may be another topic to discuss if anyone is interested in it. There may be nothing right or wrong.
I hope I express my idea unequivocally.
I have to make it clear that I didn't feel this way before. In fact, I like Americans and the U. S. A. is my top priority among the destinations on my traveling list. However, when I hear these kinds of comments again and again, I can't help wondering what cause this kind of opinions and what is the so called “typical American". That is the background of article “The World knows about America, Whereas the America Knows Nothing about the World” I wrote a few days ago. In this article, my main idea is that the inability to master a secondary language impedes most Americans to get a deeper understanding of thoughts from other countries. My assumption is that few Americans learn a second language is a fact.
Dan gave me a comment on this topic, prompting me happily to give him a response. In his comments, he accepted my assumption - I hoped that I did not misunderstand -, introduced some background statements about the U. S. and explained his “opinion on why Americans seem to only care about themselves and display racial bias”. In my response, I just reiterated the language do play a key role in mutual understandings, even though it is not the only means for sure. Besides, I wrote that “As for other parts you mentioned, I would say that whether it is necessary to understand more about the world for American people would be another issue involved different value system. It is only a problem of choice," a part that confused Dan and that I would like to make it clear in the following.
It is the values, some beliefs in what deserves to do, that prompt people of a country to decide whether they need to learn another foreign language or not. For most Americans, they don't feel worthy of learning another language because they can use English, both in life and in work, to communicate with people in America and in other countries. They think that learning a secondary language has no pragmatic function. The choice they make just reflects their thoughts and attitudes about the world and themselves. And this choice may be another topic to discuss if anyone is interested in it. There may be nothing right or wrong.
I hope I express my idea unequivocally.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
TS Ten-Day Conversations
Yesterday afternoon, I read a stunning excellent book by accident. It was after my lunch that I downloaded a old book from chapter one to chapter three - the other seven chapters were not available because this book will be published this year -– and then planed to browse several pages to get an idea of this famous works about application of oversea studying. However, once I begun reading the first page, I can't help keeping on reading it and, eventually, I spent all my afternoon on the first 3 chapters. The book is just a miracle. Usually, I am impatient to read too many words at one time. So this situation is very rare for me. Besides, I was shocked by the deep implications and inflection inside the book.
It is hard to imagine that a book talking about the process of studying abroad can become a legend in China. It has been written since 2005 and was published on a famous online forum. The content is about ten times conversation between an applicant who latter succeed in his application in Harvard University and a founder of above-mentioned forum and a CEO of a company which help students to apply overseas school. The author is clever to a frightening degree for many readers, including me. I guess the lead character is just a makeup role and the book bear the intention to advertise that company, touting more students to buy its services. But nobody can deny that the thoughts inside the book is such an attraction and an inspiration, that not only destroys most people's original thoughts about application for overseas studying, but also challenges everybody's attitude toward life, making the topic elevate to a philosophic level. Because of its outstanding writing, all the readers who hate advertisements turned out to become eager to read one episode after another - those articles are separated into ten times to publish in about a half year, making a sensation that a big number of people can't wait to read the latest content.
This practice by itself is a very successful marking approach, which not only promoted the brand name of the company, but also gave favor to students or its customers. This is a win-win situation.
It is hard to imagine that a book talking about the process of studying abroad can become a legend in China. It has been written since 2005 and was published on a famous online forum. The content is about ten times conversation between an applicant who latter succeed in his application in Harvard University and a founder of above-mentioned forum and a CEO of a company which help students to apply overseas school. The author is clever to a frightening degree for many readers, including me. I guess the lead character is just a makeup role and the book bear the intention to advertise that company, touting more students to buy its services. But nobody can deny that the thoughts inside the book is such an attraction and an inspiration, that not only destroys most people's original thoughts about application for overseas studying, but also challenges everybody's attitude toward life, making the topic elevate to a philosophic level. Because of its outstanding writing, all the readers who hate advertisements turned out to become eager to read one episode after another - those articles are separated into ten times to publish in about a half year, making a sensation that a big number of people can't wait to read the latest content.
This practice by itself is a very successful marking approach, which not only promoted the brand name of the company, but also gave favor to students or its customers. This is a win-win situation.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Chinese Knight from a Polish Friend
It is fun to get a picture from someone who drew it especial for me, especial in a situation that we have never seen each other. Both of us did not put our own photo with oneself on our respective blog. Before I got this picture, I wonder what would be the topic of the picture she – I am even not sure the gender of my friend before I got her works - might draw for me.
Now the answer is revealed - a Chinese knight. Of course, I am happy to have this special gift from another world. This is a really strange but exciting feeling that some person in Poland would draw something for me, a Taiwanese living in Beijing now. I guess this is why the Internet, or blog, fascinates millions of people. However, I can’t help to wonder why she decides to draw a "Chinese Knight” for me.
There may have many different reasons from the impression she get from my blog to her own understanding of the world. I don't want to further analyze the deeper rationale as what an artist psychologist might do. The only thing I want to mention is my strange feeling once I see the title the little painter gave the picture. I noticed myself experiencing a complicated feeling once I read the title- Chinese Knight. It is because the word “Chinese” or “China” has become sensitive in Taiwan. Just a few days ago, there is a controversial "de-Chinese” activity enforcing by the authorities in the society. The Democracy Progress Party, the ruling party of Taiwan, was changing the name of China Post Office into Taiwan Post Office, with the intention to remove all words of “China” in all the state-own companies and public organization. Their conviction is that Taiwan is not part of China so that it is necessary to make this idea clear in all the names of the relevant organization.
I don't think my friend understand so much about the complicated status quo in Taiwan. In addtion, I believe she doesn't know that the official name of Taiwan is Republic of China, instead People's Republic of China. Very few foreigners know about this, and, of course, they don’t have to care about this. Foreigners with deeper understanding about Taiwan would just call my country “Taiwan”, instead of official country name, which is a country name not recognized in international society, whereas Foreigners who don't care about Asian affairs would simply see Taiwan as the synonym of China. This is an unfortunate destiny of all Taiwanese.
Now the answer is revealed - a Chinese knight. Of course, I am happy to have this special gift from another world. This is a really strange but exciting feeling that some person in Poland would draw something for me, a Taiwanese living in Beijing now. I guess this is why the Internet, or blog, fascinates millions of people. However, I can’t help to wonder why she decides to draw a "Chinese Knight” for me.
There may have many different reasons from the impression she get from my blog to her own understanding of the world. I don't want to further analyze the deeper rationale as what an artist psychologist might do. The only thing I want to mention is my strange feeling once I see the title the little painter gave the picture. I noticed myself experiencing a complicated feeling once I read the title- Chinese Knight. It is because the word “Chinese” or “China” has become sensitive in Taiwan. Just a few days ago, there is a controversial "de-Chinese” activity enforcing by the authorities in the society. The Democracy Progress Party, the ruling party of Taiwan, was changing the name of China Post Office into Taiwan Post Office, with the intention to remove all words of “China” in all the state-own companies and public organization. Their conviction is that Taiwan is not part of China so that it is necessary to make this idea clear in all the names of the relevant organization.
I don't think my friend understand so much about the complicated status quo in Taiwan. In addtion, I believe she doesn't know that the official name of Taiwan is Republic of China, instead People's Republic of China. Very few foreigners know about this, and, of course, they don’t have to care about this. Foreigners with deeper understanding about Taiwan would just call my country “Taiwan”, instead of official country name, which is a country name not recognized in international society, whereas Foreigners who don't care about Asian affairs would simply see Taiwan as the synonym of China. This is an unfortunate destiny of all Taiwanese.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
My Favorite Host Cai Kang Yong (蔡康永)
I have adored Cai Kang Yong for, I guess, more than ten years. We may like some artists when we begin to know them, but afterwards we lose the feelings toward them. Sometimes there are some reasons we can analyze, while sometimes it just happened without any justifiable explanations. Both Zhou Xu (周迅) and Andy Lao (劉德華), for example, are the latter case for me. However, I didn’t mitigate my appreciation for Cai Kang Yong as time goes by.
The rationale may be his unique attitude of life and bizarre thoughts toward things that we have taken for granted since childhood. In his most famous talk show (真情指數), which always invited successful and influential celebrities to have one by one interview, he tried to take out the masks of some religion leaders, expose the true thoughts of those movie stars and singers who disguise themselves to grab more popularity in the market, and manifest the hypocritical faces of those politicians. In his another program (兩代電力公司) aimed at generation gap, he had the nerve to ask the adolescents an immoral presuming question – if the death of their parents in the air flight accidents could compensate them a great amount of money, would they choose to get the wealth regardless of the lives of their parents? Surprisingly, most of the adolescents chose to get the compensation from the insure companies. For Tsai, he thought that every body might have some immature, odd thoughts in their adolescence and it would be better to talk about it so that the parents and the children could get more chances to discuss about those developing thoughts. These above-mentioned TV programs somehow have been closed.
Admittedly, it is another talk show called The Advent of Kang Xi (康熙來了), a name combined one word of his name and another hostess, the small S, that makes he and small S to become well-known both in Taiwan and in China. This show is purely an entertaining program that bears no any educational purposes, making it suitable for stressful people living in the busy and fast-changing society. I was amazed how popular this program turned out to be in mainland China. One can buy the cheap DVDs of the program, of course they are pirated products, from every DVD vendors, or download each episode of the programs by Internet. Besides, recently I found that I can also satisfy my appetites for the program via Youtube and 6room, a video sharing website imitated from Youtube.
Yesterday, I found that Cai Kang Yong also begun writing his blog on Sina website and the click count easily reached more than 1 millions clicks in about half month. It is a brilliant idea to take advantage of Internet to reach his audience not only because he is good at writing – he have published several books – but also because there is very low possibility for him to host any programs in China with many TV programs regulations on the style, contents, etc. In addition, I learned that he will direct a movie with the investment of Chinese capital. I am looking forward to his works. His heyday will certainly continue for many years.
Related Info:
The rationale may be his unique attitude of life and bizarre thoughts toward things that we have taken for granted since childhood. In his most famous talk show (真情指數), which always invited successful and influential celebrities to have one by one interview, he tried to take out the masks of some religion leaders, expose the true thoughts of those movie stars and singers who disguise themselves to grab more popularity in the market, and manifest the hypocritical faces of those politicians. In his another program (兩代電力公司) aimed at generation gap, he had the nerve to ask the adolescents an immoral presuming question – if the death of their parents in the air flight accidents could compensate them a great amount of money, would they choose to get the wealth regardless of the lives of their parents? Surprisingly, most of the adolescents chose to get the compensation from the insure companies. For Tsai, he thought that every body might have some immature, odd thoughts in their adolescence and it would be better to talk about it so that the parents and the children could get more chances to discuss about those developing thoughts. These above-mentioned TV programs somehow have been closed.
Admittedly, it is another talk show called The Advent of Kang Xi (康熙來了), a name combined one word of his name and another hostess, the small S, that makes he and small S to become well-known both in Taiwan and in China. This show is purely an entertaining program that bears no any educational purposes, making it suitable for stressful people living in the busy and fast-changing society. I was amazed how popular this program turned out to be in mainland China. One can buy the cheap DVDs of the program, of course they are pirated products, from every DVD vendors, or download each episode of the programs by Internet. Besides, recently I found that I can also satisfy my appetites for the program via Youtube and 6room, a video sharing website imitated from Youtube.
Yesterday, I found that Cai Kang Yong also begun writing his blog on Sina website and the click count easily reached more than 1 millions clicks in about half month. It is a brilliant idea to take advantage of Internet to reach his audience not only because he is good at writing – he have published several books – but also because there is very low possibility for him to host any programs in China with many TV programs regulations on the style, contents, etc. In addition, I learned that he will direct a movie with the investment of Chinese capital. I am looking forward to his works. His heyday will certainly continue for many years.
Related Info:
Monday, April 16, 2007
How to Clean Downloader Virus?
I didn't know why I was in a bad mood yesterday. However, the notice from Symantec that my computer was affected by a Trojan virus, Downloader, prompted me to forget about my blues and frustration and turned to focus on the solution to rescue my computer.
I have searched for many data but none of them are reliable. Consequently, I went back to the official website of Symantec and follow its instruction step by step to clean the Virus. Earlier, the notice was increasing to thousands of prompting message, revealing that the antivirus software was unable to finish its duty. I don’t have any technical background about computer science. But in the moment, nobody can help me to do this thing, a task for which, in the scenario of office, a MIS technical person is responsible.
My computer is very old and thus it took me almost 4 hours to scan my hard drives. I was unable to wait for the accomplishment of the scanning in the safe mode so that I went to sleep this early morning about 1 o'clock. After getting up about 9 o'clock, I rushed to my desk and kept doing the following approaches. Eventually, I make it! There is nothing impossible for one who has the determination to conquer.
The instructions I followed on the webpage of Symantec
I have searched for many data but none of them are reliable. Consequently, I went back to the official website of Symantec and follow its instruction step by step to clean the Virus. Earlier, the notice was increasing to thousands of prompting message, revealing that the antivirus software was unable to finish its duty. I don’t have any technical background about computer science. But in the moment, nobody can help me to do this thing, a task for which, in the scenario of office, a MIS technical person is responsible.
My computer is very old and thus it took me almost 4 hours to scan my hard drives. I was unable to wait for the accomplishment of the scanning in the safe mode so that I went to sleep this early morning about 1 o'clock. After getting up about 9 o'clock, I rushed to my desk and kept doing the following approaches. Eventually, I make it! There is nothing impossible for one who has the determination to conquer.
The instructions I followed on the webpage of Symantec
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Work, Responsibility, and Trust define the Leadership
“Leadership as Work”, an article written by the well-known father of modern management Peter F. Drucker, points out that leadership has something to do with work, responsibility, and trust, rather than charisma or “personality traits”. Mr. Drucker's writing is elegant and to the point. I am delighted to read this topic because it makes me reflect my experiences in the past 5 years about my leadership.
Leadership has little to do with charisma, as what the author wrote that it is unnecessary to make every CEO “look like a dashing Confederate cavalry general or a boardroom Elvis Presley.” I cannot agree more than this description with a little bit of selfish consideration. In the highly developed media age, every CEO, it seems, are reported abundantly in all kinds of newspapers, magazines, business TV programs and radio show with a image of super star, who probably have published several books and won a band of fans. At times, I felt kind of frustrated because I am not so charismatic that I can attract eye balls of my audience. Instead, I even tend to avoid many public occasions because of my shyness, although I do know the importance of public-speaking in the demanding business world. Thus, when I read that the master overturned the idea of leadership which was thought of the equivalent of charisma by the public, I was more than happy with his concept.
So what is Mr. Drucker's concept of leadership? It is work, responsibility, and trust that count. The central idea is that the leadership is not something desirable. Instead, it is only a boring, unromantic means to achieve some goal. Under this definition, I think I can meet all the three criteria to become an excellent leader. Firstly, I always work hard. Secondly, I am responsible for my mission in any organizations I belong to. In fact, just several days ago, Ma asked for my home phone number and called me at midnight to express his willing to further cooperate with me because of my precious sense of responsibility, which is very rare among the work force of China. Last, all my former associates and subordinates not only in Beijing, but also in Shanghai, trust me very much. Especially in the last year in Shanghai when my company encountered financial crisis, all my subordinates believed in me and supported each decision I made. In contrast, they doubted the integrity and sincerity of my successor after I decided to leave the company.
In sum, this essay from Peter F. Drucker really encourages me to continue pursuing my business career. I know that I will have to conquer a lot of looming obstacles on the road I have chosen. However, I do believe what teacher Kang said, "You must do the thing that you think you cannot do" in your life. I choose it, and I would never regret it.
Leadership has little to do with charisma, as what the author wrote that it is unnecessary to make every CEO “look like a dashing Confederate cavalry general or a boardroom Elvis Presley.” I cannot agree more than this description with a little bit of selfish consideration. In the highly developed media age, every CEO, it seems, are reported abundantly in all kinds of newspapers, magazines, business TV programs and radio show with a image of super star, who probably have published several books and won a band of fans. At times, I felt kind of frustrated because I am not so charismatic that I can attract eye balls of my audience. Instead, I even tend to avoid many public occasions because of my shyness, although I do know the importance of public-speaking in the demanding business world. Thus, when I read that the master overturned the idea of leadership which was thought of the equivalent of charisma by the public, I was more than happy with his concept.
So what is Mr. Drucker's concept of leadership? It is work, responsibility, and trust that count. The central idea is that the leadership is not something desirable. Instead, it is only a boring, unromantic means to achieve some goal. Under this definition, I think I can meet all the three criteria to become an excellent leader. Firstly, I always work hard. Secondly, I am responsible for my mission in any organizations I belong to. In fact, just several days ago, Ma asked for my home phone number and called me at midnight to express his willing to further cooperate with me because of my precious sense of responsibility, which is very rare among the work force of China. Last, all my former associates and subordinates not only in Beijing, but also in Shanghai, trust me very much. Especially in the last year in Shanghai when my company encountered financial crisis, all my subordinates believed in me and supported each decision I made. In contrast, they doubted the integrity and sincerity of my successor after I decided to leave the company.
In sum, this essay from Peter F. Drucker really encourages me to continue pursuing my business career. I know that I will have to conquer a lot of looming obstacles on the road I have chosen. However, I do believe what teacher Kang said, "You must do the thing that you think you cannot do" in your life. I choose it, and I would never regret it.
Friday, April 13, 2007
The World knows about America, Whereas the America Knows Nothing about the World
Many reports are describing that the Americans are enthusiastic about learning Chinese language, making a big shortage of Chinese Teachers. One article comments that English as an international language can be both advantage and disadvantage for the American people. The good part is that they can be convenient and easy to travel around the world because most people around the world try to learn English. However, the bad part is that people around the world can understand every aspects of the U. S., while the American people can hardly understand what other countries are thinking of. The language is the key.
I have to agree with this point of view. Today, I watched some CNN breaking news about the radio host, Don Imus, who got fired by NBC because of his discriminative comments about some African-American young female athletes. I found it interesting that a racial issue is so sensitive in American society, a phenomenon that seldom to happen in Taiwan or in China. While I was observing the progress of the event occurring in the United States, I started to wonder if any American people know what the critical issues are in China, Taiwan, or other countries. I become to get a little idea why most of my European friends express their disparagement to the Americans unconsciously. One of them once told me that the Americans only know about themselves and most of them are just selfish. At that moment, I just think it is a bias and an attitude of imbalance derived from the status quo that the U.S. is the supper power country in the world, compared with the European countries.
Admittedly, many Americans learn their secondary languages, such as French, Spanish, and Japanese. Nonetheless, the portion of population mastering foreign languages is much lower than most other countries. For example, in China, billions of citizens are learning English using out-of-date textbooks and materials. Contrast to this, only about 50 thousand Americans are interested in learning Chinese and they even encounter a big problem of no suitable textbooks, according the article I read.
Related News:
Newly fired Imus meets with Rutgers players
I have to agree with this point of view. Today, I watched some CNN breaking news about the radio host, Don Imus, who got fired by NBC because of his discriminative comments about some African-American young female athletes. I found it interesting that a racial issue is so sensitive in American society, a phenomenon that seldom to happen in Taiwan or in China. While I was observing the progress of the event occurring in the United States, I started to wonder if any American people know what the critical issues are in China, Taiwan, or other countries. I become to get a little idea why most of my European friends express their disparagement to the Americans unconsciously. One of them once told me that the Americans only know about themselves and most of them are just selfish. At that moment, I just think it is a bias and an attitude of imbalance derived from the status quo that the U.S. is the supper power country in the world, compared with the European countries.
Admittedly, many Americans learn their secondary languages, such as French, Spanish, and Japanese. Nonetheless, the portion of population mastering foreign languages is much lower than most other countries. For example, in China, billions of citizens are learning English using out-of-date textbooks and materials. Contrast to this, only about 50 thousand Americans are interested in learning Chinese and they even encounter a big problem of no suitable textbooks, according the article I read.
Related News:
Newly fired Imus meets with Rutgers players
Thursday, April 12, 2007
A Lesson Learned from A Fake Mouse
Yesterday I went to Zhongguancun South, to repair my Logitech mouse, which I bought last month there. I went to the after-sales services department to test the mouse first because I was told that if it dose have quality problem, I can get a new one. However, the result was quite surprising, because the boy who even didn’t open my mouse concluded that what I bought was a fake and suggested me to argue with the merchant who sold it to me.
I returned to the 5th story of Hailong Building and intended to fight with the DIY shop, which sold me the counterfeit product. However, there are just too many similar shops in 5th story so that I can not recognize where I bought my mouse from. I then sent text message to Henry and Olive, whom I bought the mouse with last time. Unfortunately, none of them can provide me any specific information. In addition, I did not ask for any receipt from the seller when I bought the product so that even though I can find out which shop I bought my mouse from, the seller can refuse to admit the mouse was sold by her because I don’t have any evidences.
I would think twice next time if I plan to buy any brand product in China. There are just too many fakes and frauds all around China. Furthermore, I learn a lesson from the story that I can not fully depend on any friends to make any decisions, even they are sincere and knowledgeable. For instance, I believed Henry could help me to choose a good store and then to buy a mouse with good price because he is a local Chinese, so that I did not pay much attention to the purchasing process that time. That is why I did not ask for any receipt from the seller. Nonetheless, such a dependence rendered a miserable result that I paid 95 RMB, a price cut from 100 RMB, to buy a defective product and got no way to ask for refund.
I returned to the 5th story of Hailong Building and intended to fight with the DIY shop, which sold me the counterfeit product. However, there are just too many similar shops in 5th story so that I can not recognize where I bought my mouse from. I then sent text message to Henry and Olive, whom I bought the mouse with last time. Unfortunately, none of them can provide me any specific information. In addition, I did not ask for any receipt from the seller when I bought the product so that even though I can find out which shop I bought my mouse from, the seller can refuse to admit the mouse was sold by her because I don’t have any evidences.
I would think twice next time if I plan to buy any brand product in China. There are just too many fakes and frauds all around China. Furthermore, I learn a lesson from the story that I can not fully depend on any friends to make any decisions, even they are sincere and knowledgeable. For instance, I believed Henry could help me to choose a good store and then to buy a mouse with good price because he is a local Chinese, so that I did not pay much attention to the purchasing process that time. That is why I did not ask for any receipt from the seller. Nonetheless, such a dependence rendered a miserable result that I paid 95 RMB, a price cut from 100 RMB, to buy a defective product and got no way to ask for refund.
Sunday, April 8, 2007
Enemy of State – We Are Monitored!
My life in Beijing is very ordinary: I go surfing on the Internet every day, go swimming at times, and hang out with some friends on the weekend. Although I can not say that life here is better than in Taipei, I do feel satisfied with living conditions here expect for the chilling winter. However, this morning I turned into extremely uncomfortable and absolutely furious when , in the early morning, I found an stunning truth that all the civilian people in the country, including myself, are monitored on the Internet. All of the sudden, I have never demanded a freedom of communication more than the moment.
As my previous posts have mentioned, I can not access to my own Blogspot pages. I believed deeply that the Blogspot has been blocked by the country. Originally, I thought the situation will be changed very soon, because this blog services provider is well-known and thus gets some bargaining power to negotiate with the government. Nonetheless, couples of weeks have gone by and the frustrating situation remains. Eventually, I was forced to take some action to figure out a way to solve my own problem. In the process of solving the blocked issue, I validate the saying from some of friends that the government continues monitoring all the activities on the Internet. There is an ongoing X shield program, which designates to filter some key words transmit on the Internet and once probes those sensitive words, the page visits would fail in seconds. What related to this issue is that people in the country can not access to many services provided by Google, or at least would encounter some failure now and then, discouraging people to use Google and turning toward Baidu, a searching engine company which try their best to meet the requirements from the government. Google is not welcomed to the authority because it is unwilling to meet all the requirements about scrutiny of sensitive words typed by the public.
In fact, I am not a person who is eager to talk about politics and I don’t search those sensitive words on my daily online activities. However, the feeling of being monitored is very uncomfortable and annoying. I suddenly missed the freedom of speech in Taiwan.
As my previous posts have mentioned, I can not access to my own Blogspot pages. I believed deeply that the Blogspot has been blocked by the country. Originally, I thought the situation will be changed very soon, because this blog services provider is well-known and thus gets some bargaining power to negotiate with the government. Nonetheless, couples of weeks have gone by and the frustrating situation remains. Eventually, I was forced to take some action to figure out a way to solve my own problem. In the process of solving the blocked issue, I validate the saying from some of friends that the government continues monitoring all the activities on the Internet. There is an ongoing X shield program, which designates to filter some key words transmit on the Internet and once probes those sensitive words, the page visits would fail in seconds. What related to this issue is that people in the country can not access to many services provided by Google, or at least would encounter some failure now and then, discouraging people to use Google and turning toward Baidu, a searching engine company which try their best to meet the requirements from the government. Google is not welcomed to the authority because it is unwilling to meet all the requirements about scrutiny of sensitive words typed by the public.
In fact, I am not a person who is eager to talk about politics and I don’t search those sensitive words on my daily online activities. However, the feeling of being monitored is very uncomfortable and annoying. I suddenly missed the freedom of speech in Taiwan.
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