EVENTS: The Tainan May Jam Schedule is out at The Real Taiwan. Orville Schell is speaking at Monash U in Oz on May 7 on China-US relations:Enter the Tigers, who have become the 14th major league team to sign a Taiwanese prospect, according to the Taiwan baseball blog. Mark Forman videos the Central Taiwan Science Park. That's Impossible! blogs on Ma backtracking like the Road Runner before a cliff on his economic promises. That was inevitable. A-gu also blogs on the Lien-Hu LoveFest '08. The Taiwan Chronicles thinks blogs on lots of different things in Thoughts on Wednesday. Michelle Jada Wong, a local reporter, blogs in Anglais and Chinois on the Cows in the Legislature. Some priceless insight into local media storybuilding. Brian David Phillips blogs on his presentation on inspiring creativity in the classroom at Taipei First Girls High School. The Foreigner points out that the IOC withdrew the 1940 Olympics from Japan and awarded them to runner-up Finland instead. They were eventually canceled. Todd blogs on cosplay with great photos, should be entitled Hot Chicks of Cosplay. Todd's on tap at Taiwan Photographers too. Fili discovers more cool stuff about Tainan, a city rapidly becoming my favorite in Taiwan. And Hanjie finds a cheap B&B in Kaohsiung with nice harbor views. Jerome on Vincent Siew and the Boao Forum. Kerim has a nifty post on the KMT in Burma. Talking Taiwanese argues for linguistic zones in Taiwan. Pashan with more great hiking. Robert asks: Is the broken faucet a true story?
Seminar hosted by Monash Asia Institute and Asia Society AustralAsia Centre
Wednesday 7 May 2008, 9:30 am
Manton Room SG02, Ground Floor, Menzies Building (11) South
Monash University Clayton campus
"China-US relations in a time of great change"
Speaker: Dr Orville Schell
Orville Schell will discuss both those areas which divide the US and China and those areas where they can find common ground. The question that he will consider is whether or not there is a basis from a new Sino-US relationship under the next American president, and if so, what the basis of that new relationship would be.
Renowned China expert Orville Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Asia Society Center on U.S.-China Relations. He is the author of nine books on China. Formerly Orville was the Dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Orville serves on the boards of Human Rights Watch, the Sundance Documentary Fund jury, and the Social Science Research Council. He is also a member of the Pacific Council, the Council on Foreign Relations and a regular participant in the World Economic Forum at Davos.
LOCAL MAGAZINES: Highway 11, the East Coast expat magazine, is out with its new photo issue.
MEDIA: Taiwan Defense chief and legislators visit disputed island. That's what we need -- more sources of friction with our neighbors. Ike overruled nuking China, thank god. Jon Adams' excellent article on Chinese tourism here. Ma says he will attract capital and funds back to Taiwan. Taiwan leads Asia in media freedom. Speaking of media: ominous development in which Soochow University Blue donors want Soochow profs to STFU and toe the Blue line. Only the Green profs, of course. That's how our democracy will get hollowed out here.... Our local govmint oil company is eyeing those oil sands in Canada. The media rhetoric portrays newly appointed MAC chief as a "hardliner" because she wants to get tough with China and promote independence and democracy in Taiwan. Poor Lai! She should point missiles, slaughter Tibetans by the score, and threaten to plunge the region into war. Then people would say the problem is that she is misunderstood.
SPECIAL: Fili points to an article by Larry Diamond in Foreign Affairs on the decline of democracy around the world. Chalk up another area where the Bush Administration has been a total failure, both at home and abroad. And add Taiwan, in all probability.
[Taiwan]
3 comments:
Soochow professors, LOL.
Remember Soochow Poli-Sci prof. Emile Sheng (盛治仁) (anti-Chen Shui-bian), who was indicted along with Shih Ming-teh (施明德). He frequently appeared on CTiTV and terrestrial station CTV with Sisy Chen (陳文茜) on 文茜小妹大 ("Sisy Chen, Gangster Gal") and even guest-hosted the show. I don't know if he still does. I avoid it like the plague.
There was a caller (黃先生) on Talking Show Wednesday night (begins around the 1'57" mark of this video) saying he was worried that all Soochow students would get the image of being "DPP supporters" (2'50") because of people like Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) -- the caller's current teacher -- appearing on that show. Never mind the school's pan-blue (now ex-)president has been named premier under a pan-blue administration.
Interesting how it's only "pan-blue supporters" who are saying they want to stop giving donations to the university.
There's also a contradiction by a spokesperson from the university in that Taipei Times article [bold emphasis mine]:
- - -
"We constantly receive complaints from audiences that disagree with what the professors say," said Lee Kuei-ying (李貴英), the university spokeswoman.
The proposed restriction, she asserted, was not meant to infringe upon the professors' freedom of speech, but rather to ascertain whether the professors had sufficient time to concentrate on their academic duties.
- - -
Gee, Ms. Lee! Is it because you "constantly receive complaints" or because you must "ascertain whether the professors had sufficient time to concentrate on their academic duties"? If it's the latter, why even mention the former?
Tim Maddog
Michael, there was a good article in yesterday's Taipei Times that I think is worth linking to.
The dividing line between what makes West and East is blurry
It's written by a French professor and he briefly discusses what defines western values. I believe that the West is a mindset defined by three fundamental traits that cannot easily be found in the so-called Eastern civilizations:
-a passion for innovation
-a capacity for self-criticism
- gender equality
He also mentions the "Asian Values" we often hear about is a political discourse started in Singapore.
As a follow-up, this article may add some additional insight: Chinese Cars and Bubbles
There are three concepts that are almost totally missing from the Chinese language: Intellectual Property, Human Rights & Value for Money
I almost never dive into those controversies about the differences between East and West. My attitude is that those who know, know; and those who don't know can be corrected quietly over beer.
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