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In July 18th’s The New York Times article, ” Silent Hands Behind the iPhone,” the article
describes that the iPhone, along with a lot of today’s modern technological conveniences, are manufactured in Taiwan. Not only the iPhone, but broadband modems, next generation of high-speed wireless gear, as well as for some time now - mice, laptops and monitors:
“Companies on the island have captured 87 percent of the global market for wireless modems, 84 percent of the D.S.L. modem market and 70 percent of the market for personal digital assistants.In the competitive cellphone business, Taiwan companies made 12.4 percent of the world’s handsets last year, up from 9.8 percent in 2005…In all, Taiwan companies produced $31.5 billion in communications equipment and services last year, more than 50 percent above the total the year before, according to the institute, which expects production to reach a value of $46 billion by 2010. Less than a quarter of that was manufactured on Taiwan, with the bulk made on the Chinese mainland.”
So as much as China may want to invade Taiwan if Taiwan declared its independence, China would be hurt economically. That’s not to say that the Taiwanese want to tempt the mainland Chinese!
No Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Observations, Technology
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Comments continue to pour trickle in regarding Mister Wong, the Offensive Social Bookmarking Portal. One commenter seems to be offended by the “PC BS” we “Amerians” [sic] are spreading all over the world. Various people have chimed in, stating that Mister Wong is not racist.
As Ernie mentions on his personal blog, context counts.
Earlier today, there was a brouhaha (emphasis on the “haha” part) at blogging.la over a supposedly racist billboard seen on the Westside. LA radio station Power106 ran some billboards featuring their morning show host, Big Boy, on a billboard with the words “Big Boy’s got GAS!” and in smaller type “Win gas and cars all summer!”
The author of the original post is Jim Bursch, Editor of WestLAonline.com said the following:
Racist billboard not welcome on Westside
Context counts, and in this case, the context is a predominantly non-black neighborhood where referring to an adult black man as “boy” is wrong and racist. Also, there are contexts in which fart jokes are funny, but not on a public street where you see the same offensive “joke” every day, day after day.
This is just wrong.
What’s wrong is Mr Bursch calling out this billboard as racist, because the adult black man pictured is not being referred to as “boy” but “Big Boy,” a stage name and professional name he has used for years.
(Continued)
4 Comments | Posted in: Discrimination, Observations
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Picture this: you’re born in Asia, move to the US when you’re two, graduate from a US college, then have to take a $5.50/hr off-the-books job and live in fear of deportation because you’re not a US citizen.
If you’re having trouble picturing it, Jason Coe of Hyphen Magazine does a great job painting one. He documents a day in the life of Jake*, a Taiwanese college graduate whose green card status has forced him to back-burner his dreams of a PhD in psychology in favor of pizza delivery. It’s a woeful picture, done with swatches of humor. Like:
(I think he should sign up for match.com and search for a nice U.S. citizen looking to marry a pizza delivery boy. I volunteered my younger sister, but both were lukewarm to the prospect. You’re not interested are you? Jake scored 1500+ on his SATs, so your babies would be super smart.)
7 Comments | Posted in: Food & Drink, Lifestyles
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“Most things go in and out of style - that is with the exception of war of course.” –Johnny Wong, Hardboiled (1992)
A couple of months ago, I reported that Chow Yun-Fat was returning to John Woo’s Chinese epic BATTLE OF RED CLIFF in an unspecified role after having previously dropped out as the lead.
CHUD.com reports today: CHOW YUN-FAT AND JOHN WOO ARE QUITS
Imagine if Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro suddenly decided they hated each other and would never work with each other again. In my mind, the apparently now-permanent break-up of John Woo and Chow Yun-fat is that catastrophic.
Producer Terence Chang is quoted as saying, “Chow is definitely out. His dropping out of our film caused us tremendous scheduling problems … If he rejoins us, I am afraid he might create ill feelings among all the crew and all the other main actors.”
I still have high hopes for the project… if it ever gets done with the casting musical chairs, that is.
And who knows… if the project is right (I guess it’s not this one), maybe we will still see a collaboration between Chow Yun-Fat and John Woo again.
(I can hope, can’t I?)
6 Comments | Posted in: Entertainment
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Andrew Lam of New American Media has an interesting article on Alternet about the self-esteem movement that could be considered kind of a counterpoint to J. Peter’s recent post about the sometimes insanity-inducing pressure some Asian kids feel to be academic superheroes. I think both Lam and J. Peter make some good points about two extremes and their consequences. The academic pressure-cooker felt by many an Asian or Asian-American student has seemingly led to incidents of violence, suicide and fraud (see links in J. Peter’s post). Meanwhile some researchers in Lam’s article point to the American self-esteem movement for creating a “MySpace generation” of narcissists (also capable in my opinion of horrific behavior).
I’ve lived a little of both worlds but not under any one extreme. I did feel like it was my obligation to do well in school and I’ve only been told once in my life (by my dearly departed Tita P), “I’m proud of you.” I admit it felt both very gratifying and very foreign. Because such direct praise was novel to me, I often wondered why my white friends sometimes got paid (on a sliding scale - B’s were still worth something!) for good grades. Paid for good grades?! When I told my family about this phenomenon, laughter ensued. I mean, serious, belly shaking laughter as well as head-shaking and talk of those crazy American parents. I wonder, do those friends of mine now suffer from narcissistic tendencies and hideous myspace layouts? I know that I still suffer from sometimes overwhelming guilt over not having exactly followed the traditional college-degree, profiteering route, but I’m not about to go psycho (any time soon). Nor do I resent my family for not lavishing me with praise for the times I did do what was expected of me.
What do you think? Did you grow up under either extreme i.e., impossibly high academic expectations or constant praise for merely existing?
6 Comments | Posted in: Lifestyles
4 Comments
The New York Times (along with every other major media outlet) reports that China’s former food and drug regulator Zheng Xiaoyu was executed today, after being convicted of accepting bribes to approve untested medicine. According to the article, the sentence was handed down on May 29. May 29. Just a little over a month ago, one month. I have some food in my fridge that is older than that date. Does China suddenly have a highly efficient judicial system or a highly efficient bad publicity response team? I believe…neither. You’re invited to discuss this in the comments section, 8a readers.
(Read John’s related post from last month here.)
4 Comments | Posted in: Current Events
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“I am convinced that if it had not been for 9/11, we would be in a military showdown with China today.”
Wow, um, WHAT??
That’s a quote from Gary Hart, in reference to a discussion raised by Lynne Cheney, wife of current Vice President Dick Cheney. At least, according to James Fallows’ blog (I feel like I’m playing a game of Telephone here).
5 Comments | Posted in: Current Events, Politics
8 Comments
so not too long ago i was riding the #3 train south out of Harlem, staring into my ipod the way all new yorkers do, when i was rudely interrupted by a scuzzy frizzy-haired hobo screaming at the top of his lungs.
“PENNEEEZ NICKELS QUARTERS DIMES!” he snarled as he shuffled through the train. “I’LL TAKE ANYTHING! PENNEEZ NICKELS QUARTERS DIMES!”
it didn’t take long for him to traverse the length of the car, and i was a little startled when he came upon me and paused. “PENNEEZ NICKELS QUARTERS DIMES!” he said before giving me a once-over. he looked me coolly in the eye and seemed to pause for a moment before turning to shout at his larger audience. “I’LL EVEN TAKE FORTUNE COOKIES!” he said before shuffling on.
you know, it’s times like this that i love modernity. i mean really really love it, SO MUCH SO THAT WERE IT TO PRESENT ITSELF IN ANTHROPOMORPHIC FORM I WOULD IMMEDIATELY KICK IT IN DA’ NUTS.
just sayin’.
8 Comments | Posted in: Discrimination, Observations
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