Sunday night was the finale for the 12th season of The Amazing Race. I had blogged about the Chinese-American father-daughter team of Ronald and Christina at the beginning of the season. Unfortunately, Ronald and Christina came in second place, although throughout the many legs of the competition, they did come in first. At the end of the day, The Amazing Race is a combination of luck and skill, and unfortunately Ronald and Christina came up short. You can read the recap of the finale here.
However, out of all the teams, one could really see that Ronald and Christina over the period of the season really grow closer. Ronald, the father, was a stereotypical overbearing Chinese father who would always be telling Christina what she was doing wrong and being impatient, as well as Christina being a little deferential to her father, even though at times, she needed to be more assertive because she was right. Ronald, to his credit, became quite self aware and began to change, becoming more patient and encouraging while Christina also took a little more initiative.
“…Then last month, the year-end best-seller tally showed that cellphone novels, republished in book form, have not only infiltrated the mainstream but have come to dominate it. Of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels, mostly love stories written in the short sentences characteristic of text messaging but containing little of the plotting or character development found in traditional novels. What is more, the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists, touching off debates in the news media and blogosphere. “Will cellphone novels kill ‘the author’?” a famous literary journal, Bungaku-kai, asked on the cover of its January issue. Fans praised the novels as a new literary genre created and consumed by a generation whose reading habits had consisted mostly of manga, or comic books. Critics said the dominance of cellphone novels, with their poor literary quality, would hasten the decline of Japanese literature. Whatever their literary talents, cellphone novelists are racking up the kind of sales that most more experienced, traditional novelists can only dream of.”
This research article, 
“Over the years, a handful of organizations struggled to shed more light on the atrocities of Japanese invaders throughout Asia. That hunger finally found its infrastructure in Silicon Valley. More than 15 years ago, employing database software and the nascent power of the Internet, a small group of engineers came together to build a network that eventually reached around the world. “I helped HP build its first relational database,” said Ding, a computer scientist who worked first for IBM, then for Hewlett-Packard. “That’s what we used, too.” But the breakthrough moment came when Chang, a writer who had already begun researching the invasion, found the group in 1994. With their help, she went on to write her book “The Rape of Nanking,” which lingered on the New York Times bestseller list for 10 weeks and lofted the tragedy back into the world’s eye….
“Independent centers of power, such as charities and advocacy groups, have begun popping up here in response to social problems. Beijing is gradually permitting nongovernmental organizations, but it restricts their scope. The country’s leadership worries that too much civil society could stir up conflict, challenge its grip and put at risk the stability that has underpinned 25 years of fast economic growth…Ms. Ma, however, began to tap into China’s new prosperity. The country’s economic rise has created tremendous wealth, but few outlets for charity. A handful of official charities exist, but are widely seen as arms of the government and excite little passion. Without a legal framework to allow private charities, philanthropy in China has been stunted…Ms. Ma’s group would like to tap more efficiently into China’s growing wealth. It hopes to set up a foundation where donations could be tax-free — an important incentive because China is starting to tax the wealthy. For now, a lack of legislation makes this impossible, although China’s parliament may take up a charities law at its annual session in March. It shelved a draft bill at the 2006 session.”
I’ll admit, I’m fairly out of the loop when it comes to North American television, however, Apprentice Series 6 runner up, 
