Digressions on various subjects
Sorry that this is the same article on Xanga with slight modifications.
Find that there is so much to do! Trying to finish two grownup books I found in our local college library – they’re both on society, which I find awfully absorbing. I did start a letter earlier but accidentally erased it in a moment of absentminded file-cleaning (warning to self, never do any cleaning when one is distracted). The first book is called “A public betrayed” by Adam Gamble & Takesato Watanabe on Japanese media atrocities and their impact on their culture. It’s intended to be a warning to Western media’s general degradation. Shocking – how some magazines report articles without any concrete proof. In our national standard English test I took more than a year and half ago I had to write this essay showing my views on the liberty the media is given (which was a controversial topic at the time because the government was closing off a network that had been opposing it’s new reign), I did not make a stance on the issue and failed by a point (which I found unfair at the time but now can understand why my essay was so horrible – I tried to take both sides (which by the textbook is a big no-no), I deviated from the topic (one moment I was trying to say maybe the media should be restricted in some areas and the other moment I was soliloquizing on the sewer problem in Kaohsiung) and I wrote out of line.
Hey, at least I learned something.
Did I digress again?
Yes, I’m still on Chapter one in that book, but am learning a lot. Maybe I should give up novels altogether and start reading practical books – not really, but in truth there is so little time for me to learn everything there is in the world to know!
The other book is called ‘Chinese etiquette & ethics in business’ by Boye Lafayette De Mente. I borrowed it to read up on how Westerners view Chinese culture – and hopefully for revelations on behavior in Chinese culture that I somehow find so upsetting and frustrating but cannot figure out why. It’s wonderfully enlightening and deliciously detrimental towards bad PRC policies, which gets my youthful patriotic blood heated up – fun! My mom would be horrified if she knew what info I’m collecting in my brain, she considers it suicidal to become an activist in human rights, attract the wrong people and bam! You’re fried. But really, someone has to do it, we can’t all be ostriches. I’ll just be as ambiguous and unobtrusive as possible, to keep on the safe side. The thing is, if I keep going on anti-PRC websites and backing their view there will be a time (if I have to go to mainland china or when Taiwan is under it’s control) that I’ll have to flee, it’s rumored all over the net that the commies employ internet police and they might – well, not very good thing to dwell on. But man, you have got to check out the atrocious things they do to individuals who don’t just keep their head down and lead a drudging unsatisfactory life. It makes me sooooo mad. There is this story about a Chinese diplomat in Australia who defected the first chance he got on account of his feeling displeased with the system – they persecuted a kung-fu society because it had gotten so big they feared it would be powerful enough to stage a successful revolt and torture their members to death, beating them up so both their legs are broken and everything! That’s what I call evil, not Count Olaf’s pseudo wickedness, which mostly consists of vulgarity, bad acting, and nefarious demented genius activities. By the way, love the movie, had the black humor and beautiful orphans thing down pat, Violet’s dress was stunning – though I seriously doubt their parents only bought them black clothes. The scenery is absolutely awesome.
Heard this radio program on a noble peace winner from Kenya who planted trees; wonderful to learn about people like that. They said that if the greenhouse problem gets really bad, Africa is going to suffer ultimate losses. She said that if people owned the land they were planting trees on, they would have more enthusiasm for nurturing because they can be assured of the trees’ destiny – not to be chopped up for houses in the future – and be able to establish a relationship with the land. That’s cool. I mean, how many people in civilized American (or Taiwan) develop relationship with the land? Look at ‘Grapes of Wrath’! but I realize that I wouldn’t enjoy being a farm girl that much, maybe when I’m old with rheumatism I’ll garden.
Find that there is so much to do! Trying to finish two grownup books I found in our local college library – they’re both on society, which I find awfully absorbing. I did start a letter earlier but accidentally erased it in a moment of absentminded file-cleaning (warning to self, never do any cleaning when one is distracted). The first book is called “A public betrayed” by Adam Gamble & Takesato Watanabe on Japanese media atrocities and their impact on their culture. It’s intended to be a warning to Western media’s general degradation. Shocking – how some magazines report articles without any concrete proof. In our national standard English test I took more than a year and half ago I had to write this essay showing my views on the liberty the media is given (which was a controversial topic at the time because the government was closing off a network that had been opposing it’s new reign), I did not make a stance on the issue and failed by a point (which I found unfair at the time but now can understand why my essay was so horrible – I tried to take both sides (which by the textbook is a big no-no), I deviated from the topic (one moment I was trying to say maybe the media should be restricted in some areas and the other moment I was soliloquizing on the sewer problem in Kaohsiung) and I wrote out of line.
Hey, at least I learned something.
Did I digress again?
Yes, I’m still on Chapter one in that book, but am learning a lot. Maybe I should give up novels altogether and start reading practical books – not really, but in truth there is so little time for me to learn everything there is in the world to know!
The other book is called ‘Chinese etiquette & ethics in business’ by Boye Lafayette De Mente. I borrowed it to read up on how Westerners view Chinese culture – and hopefully for revelations on behavior in Chinese culture that I somehow find so upsetting and frustrating but cannot figure out why. It’s wonderfully enlightening and deliciously detrimental towards bad PRC policies, which gets my youthful patriotic blood heated up – fun! My mom would be horrified if she knew what info I’m collecting in my brain, she considers it suicidal to become an activist in human rights, attract the wrong people and bam! You’re fried. But really, someone has to do it, we can’t all be ostriches. I’ll just be as ambiguous and unobtrusive as possible, to keep on the safe side. The thing is, if I keep going on anti-PRC websites and backing their view there will be a time (if I have to go to mainland china or when Taiwan is under it’s control) that I’ll have to flee, it’s rumored all over the net that the commies employ internet police and they might – well, not very good thing to dwell on. But man, you have got to check out the atrocious things they do to individuals who don’t just keep their head down and lead a drudging unsatisfactory life. It makes me sooooo mad. There is this story about a Chinese diplomat in Australia who defected the first chance he got on account of his feeling displeased with the system – they persecuted a kung-fu society because it had gotten so big they feared it would be powerful enough to stage a successful revolt and torture their members to death, beating them up so both their legs are broken and everything! That’s what I call evil, not Count Olaf’s pseudo wickedness, which mostly consists of vulgarity, bad acting, and nefarious demented genius activities. By the way, love the movie, had the black humor and beautiful orphans thing down pat, Violet’s dress was stunning – though I seriously doubt their parents only bought them black clothes. The scenery is absolutely awesome.
Heard this radio program on a noble peace winner from Kenya who planted trees; wonderful to learn about people like that. They said that if the greenhouse problem gets really bad, Africa is going to suffer ultimate losses. She said that if people owned the land they were planting trees on, they would have more enthusiasm for nurturing because they can be assured of the trees’ destiny – not to be chopped up for houses in the future – and be able to establish a relationship with the land. That’s cool. I mean, how many people in civilized American (or Taiwan) develop relationship with the land? Look at ‘Grapes of Wrath’! but I realize that I wouldn’t enjoy being a farm girl that much, maybe when I’m old with rheumatism I’ll garden.
posted by Mignon Chang at 9:51 AM
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