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May 27 The Dragon-Boat FestivalOne of China's biggest festival's—Duanwu Jie 端午节 or the Dragon-Boat Festival—will be celebrated tomorrow. It is perhaps third in rank after Chinese New Year and The Moon Festival. It is celebrated by the holding of dragon-boat races, hanging up mugwort, carrying perfumed sachets, and eating zonzi or glutonous rice dumplings with varioius fillings tightly wrapped in bamboo leaves. Some Chinese like to recite poetry on this day.
The Chinese government has changed its policies on holidays; whereas before it was not a public holiday, it is now. There are a number of stories related to the festival, the most famous of which concerns the first Chinese poet named Qu Yuan. Mr. Qu was a regal minister in the land of Chu (楚) during the Warring States period. He was very popular, renowned for his uprightness, and very loyal to the King of Chu. In the royal court, he argued for more just policies. But jealous court insiders slandered him and the king had him exiled. Qu Yuan was heartbroken and his faith in the nobility of humanity was shaken.
Depressed, he walked along the banks of the Miluo River reciting poetry. The legend goes that a fisherman saw him and asked if he was not His Excellence, Minister Qu. "What has put you in such low spirits?" he asked. Qu Yuan replied, "All the world is dirty and I alone am clean. All men are drunk and I alone am sober. And for this, I was banished." The fisherman said, "A true sage does not retreat aloof from the world but adapts to his environment. If all the world is dirty, then why not clean it up? If all men are drunk, then why not drink their dregs? Why get yourself exiled over deep thoughts and noble aspirations?" Qu Yuan replied, "I have heard that he who has washed his hair then cleans his cap. He who has bathed his body then launders his clothes. One does not sully his own cleanliness with filthiness. I would rather jump into the river and allow myself to be consumed by its fish than to suffer my own purity to be caked in the dross of this vulgar world." Hearing this, the fisherman smiled and began rowing away.
Qu Yuan, with a heavy stone tied to his body, plunged himself in the water. One story goes that dragon boats rushed to recover Qu's body before it was consumed by the fish. When his body could not be found, the villagers began to throw rice dumplings (zongzi) into the water, so that the fish would eat them instead of Qu Yuan. And so, the tradition of racing dragon boats and eating sticky rice dumplings was born.
I searched the net for English translations of Qu Yuan's poetry. I found one. It's called The Riddle and was translated into English by Yang Hsien-Yi and Gladys Yang. It's long so I'm just providing an excerpt. Enjoy!
Ere creation, who could tell
All the changes that befell?
What strange arts can be employed
To know what passed when all was void?
Ere light and darkness merged in space,
Who can fathom what took place?
Things impalpable that swarmed,
Who can tell how they were formed?
How can it be that day and light
Can be born of dark and night?
…
From the east rides up the sun,
In the west its course is done;
From pale dawn till all is black,
Who can measure out its track?
…
Whence come pestilence and bane?
Whence the air that keeps men sane?
Who binds up the sun at night,
Lets it out to shed its light?
…
How is it the whirlwind sprite
Races like a stag in flight?
…
Returning now with grief I sigh,
As lightning cleaves the evening sky.
No prayers to Heaven can avail,
If our self-respect should fail.
Proud kings are all on conquest bent;
If they repent, I'll rest content.
  May 20 20th Golden Melody Awards NominationsThe Golden Melody Awards are held annually in Taiwan to honour the best in Chinese music. The first was held in 1990. This year marks the 20th. The nominations are out. They are for works released between January 1st and December 31st 2008. Unlike western awards shows, winners, in addition to a trophy, will receive cash prizes: in an individual category (e.g. best male singer) NT 100,000 (a little over 3,000 USD) and for published works (e.g. best album) NT 150,000 (about $4,550 USD). If the award is shared by two or more persons (e.g. best band), winners will decide how to divvy up the dough. I believe the ceremony will be held on June 27th this year.
Update ... Find the winners here:
Album and Song of the Year nominations are below. I've included some notes about each of the artists.
For a more complete list of nominees in English, click here:
For the full list in Chinese, click here:
Nominees of the 20th Annual Golden Melody Awards…
Album of the Year Nominees
If One Thing Is Important (如果有一件事是重要的), Sandee Chen (陈珊妮)
Notes: Sandee is well-respected in Taiwan and is a composer and producer. She has written songs for other pop stars. She has won a number of Golden Melody awards in the past.
Don't Want to Let Go (不想放手), Eason Chan (陈奕迅)
Eason Chan, from Hong Kong, has grown continuously more popular over the years. He composes some of his own music and releases albums in both Cantonese and Mandarin.
100 Ways of Living (100种生活), Crowd Lu (卢广仲)
Crowd Lu is a Taiwanese newcomer and, with nerdy glasses, a bowl haircut, and unfashionable shorts, he is an unlikely candidate for superstardom. But this is what has made him so endearing to many music fans. He plays folky, grassroots acoustic guitar which has appealed to the younger student population.
We All Lay Down in the End (最后只好躺下来), Stanley Huang (黄立行)
Previously with the boy band L.A. Boyz, Stanley Huang went solo in 2000 and is considered one of the frontrunners of hip-hop in Taiwan.
Capricorn (魔杰座), Jay Zhou (周杰伦)
Though his actual singing ability has been called into question, Jay is currently the most popular male singer in the Chinese world. Perhaps he is respected because he is one of the few singers who composes all of his own music. Many of his fans have expressed grave disappointement with this album of his.
Song of the Year Nominees
"Hold You Tightly" (甲你揽牢牢) from Hold You Tightly, Jody Jiang (江蕙)
This diva is a veteran musician, having been in the industry for a whopping 27 years. She's been the recipient of Best Female singer four times at the Golden Melody Awards and is considered the Queen of Taiwanese music. Her style is more on the adult contemporary side, similar to Teresa Deng.
"The Next Dawn" (下一个天亮) from The Next Dawn, Claire Guo (郭静)
In contrast with Jody, Claire is a newcomer and is perhaps the most popular of the new female singers in Taiwan with her sweet voice, warm love songs, and baby doll looks (see photo below).
"100 Ways of Living" (100种生活) from 100 Ways of Living, Crowd Lu (卢广仲)
"You're Not Truly Happy" (你不是真正的快乐) from Poetry of the Day After, Mayday (五月天)
The male quintet, Mayday, is one of the most popular rock bands in the Chinese world and has been around since the mid-90s. In addition to Mandarin they have also recorded songs in the Taiwanese local dialect.
"South of the Border" (国境之南) from the Cape No. 7 Soundtrack, Van Fan (范逸臣)
This former pub singer rose to fame after performing Mandarin versions of mega hits of other languages. Cape No. 7 is his debut film.
"Fragrant Rice" (稻香) from Capricorn, Jay Zhou (周杰伦)
Last Year's Golden Melody Award Winners
Last year, at the 19th Golden Melody Awards, there were 10,632 submissions from 185 companies in the music industry, making it a big deal. And the winners were:
Album of the Year:
L!ve is...Karen Mok (拉活...莫文蔚) – Karen Mok
Song of the Year:
"Blue and White Porcelain" (青花瓷) – from the album On the Run (我很忙) – Jay Zhou
 (Above: Taiwan's Claire Guo posing) Hong Kong Music AwardsAs in English-speaking countries, the Chinese world holds awards ceremonies for excellence in music. Every country or region with significant Chinese populations holds such ceremonies: Singapore, Malaysia, Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc. As most of the popular singers reside in Hong Kong or Taiwan, the awards ceremonies of these two locales are perhaps the most highly regarded. A few days ago, Taiwan's most prestigious awards—The Golden Melody Awards—announced nominees for various categories in last year's music scene (2008). Before I get to those I want to first write about Hong Kong's music awards ceremonies.
Things are not as straight-forward in Hong Kong as in Taiwan, which, perhaps adds to the excitement. While Taiwan has one main awards show, the award ceremonies that recognize achievements in the Hong Kong pop music industry are held by their four main media outlets: Metro Radio, CRHK ("Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation"), TVB ("Jade Solid Gold Awards"), and RTHK. So, every year there are four major awards ceremonies.
1. Metro Radio Music Awards
Metro Radio's Music Awards show is normally the first of the four major music award ceremonies, taking place on Boxing Day (December 26th) every year. As the Golden Globes present a foretaste of the Oscars, the Metro Awards are considered "music's first report card". This awards show is the most generous; they give out the most awards. Last year (2008) they gave out 137 awards.
2. Ultimate Song Chart Awards Presentation
CRHK's music awards is usually the second major music awards ceremony of the year. Most of the awards are determined by charts and airplay on CRHK (FM 90.3). Once a song enters the Top 20, the station keeps track of the number of times it is played on the radio. These awards are normally held on New Years Day. There are a few awards not based on airplay but on votes from the public. Currently they can do this online. They are presented with a long list of nominees in the first round of voting. When the polls close, the Top 5 are determined. The for round 2, the public votes for one of the five nominees in each category to determine the winner. There are currently four categories of these "My favourite…" online votes: male artist, female artist, group, and song.
3. Jade Solid Gold Top Ten Songs Music Awards
TVB's music awards is usually the third of the four major annual music awards, being held sometime in early January. Some of TVB's awards are regarded as the most prestigious in Hong Kong.
4. RTHK's Top Ten Chinese Songs Music Awards
RTHK's music awards is usually the last of the four major Hong Kong music awards. The awards ceremony has the longest history out of four major awards, giving out its first awards in 1978. Among the awards given are the Top 10 songs of the year and the "Golden Needle" award which is like a lifetime achievement award. May 15 Cambodia Tribunal, Part 3 (Final)FALL AND SLOW DEMISE
In late 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stymie incursions of the Khmer Rouge into their country. In early 1979, Vietnamese troops captured Phnom Penh and Khmer Rouge leaders fled into the jungle. A new puppet government, under Vietnamese control and led by Heng Samrin, was created. The Khmer Rouge joined forces with two other insurgent groups, despite sharply divergent ideologies, to form the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK). Many foreign nations were opposed to the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia and sent millions of dollars in aid to the CGDK. These foreign countries were criticized for indirectly supporting the Khmer Rouge by aiding the CGDK. In late 1984, the Vietnamese military launched a major offensive overrunning most of the insurgent cells, but wound up withdrawing from Cambodia in 1989.
Despite the new government's policy of making peace with the Khmer Rouge, the latter refused to cooperate and kept fighting the coalition government. It tried to create disorder by planting thousands of land mines around the country. In 1996, the Khmer Rouge finally ran out of steam when troops began deserting or defecting. Pol Pot ordered the execution of his right-hand man, Son Sen, for attempting a settlement with the government. For this he was placed under lifelong house arrest. He died in 1998.
The Khmer Rouge, and the horrors they had unleashed on the nation, were tolerated, and their leaders never brought to justice, but allowed to live freely and openly in the land…until now.
ROAD TO JUSTICE
Cambodian-American Youk Chhang, who lost much of his family to the brutal oppression in the late 70s, worked tirelessly for a decade to compile a historical archive of the Khmer Rouge era. He hoped that this could serve as a vast source of evidence for prosecutions of Khmer Rouge ringleaders.
What inspired him were his encounters with fellow Americans who were always asking him whether the atrocities in Cambodia really happened. In 1994, the United States Government, under their Cambodian Genocide Justice Act, granted funding to Yale University to document the Khmer Rouge's nation-wide killing spree, and the university hired Chhang as its field representative.
The following year, now back in Cambodia, he established the Documentation Centre of Cambodia (DC-Cam), staffed by local volunteers and western scholars. Their first task was to establish a paper trail of accountability—Khmer Rouge meeting minutes, prison records, orders, execution lists and so forth. The job was daunting given that truckloads of documents had been destroyed and existing papers were damaged by heat, humidity, and insects. But the group was able to get their hands on an array of key documents, including a 100,000-page record of the Santebal (the Khmer Rouge's secret police) and a collection of a million thumbprints of those they executed.
In 1997, based primarily on Chhang's findings, a group of United Nations' legal experts concluded that enough evidence had been collected to bring the Khmer Rouge leaders to trial. Chhang began receiving threats from Khmer Rouge members and the U.S. State Department gave him funding for having his office fitted with bulletproof glass. Chhang spent the money instead on having filing cabinets storing records fireproofed.
Due to immense bickering and arguments over suitable trial personnel and who would foot the bills, the UN pulled out in 2002. Refusing to give up, Chhang wrote an impassioned plea that appeared in the New York Times newspaper and bombarded supporters with phone calls. This action raised enough voices to inspire the UN to resume negotiations.
Due to these events, Chhang realized that documents alone would not be enough to get the ball rolling. He crisscrossed Cambodia interviewing both victims and perpetrators of the horrors, gathering stories, oral accounts, and potential witnesses.
During their research, DC-Cam met Bou Meng. He is one of only 12 survivors out of 17,000 inmates of the notorious S-21 (or Tuol Sleng) prison camp. Bou was able to survive because he was a gifted painter. His story appeared in a Readers Digest article (January 2009):
"Bou's ordeal began in mid-1977 when he and his wife were taken to S-21. He never saw her or their two young children, who were taken to a separate facility, again. Months later, when guards asked if anyone could paint, Bou raised his hand. He was given a photograph of Pol Pot. S-21 director Kang Kek Ieu, commonly known as Duch, instructed him, 'Paint a picture of Brother Number One. If you don't get it right, I will kill you.' When the canvass was done, Duch approved and Bou was ordered to paint more. He was working on his fourth Pol Pot portrait when S-21 was evacuated ahead of advancing Vietnamese troops. Thirty years later, Bou is impatient to testify. 'If people are convicted and jailed, it will bring justice for my wife and others,' he says."
DC-Cam also wanted to educate the younger generation of Cambodians about what happened during the Khmer Rouge era. The government had done little to this end; in 2002, history textbooks had just five sentences about the era. DC-Cam assigned Khamboly Dy to produce the first textbook written by a Cambodian about the Khmer Rouge regime. The result, a richly illustrated book, was published last year and distributed to over 250 high schools.
THE TRIBUNAL
DC-Cam, the Documentation Centre of Cambodia delivered 400,000 documents to the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), a tribunal set up to try Khmer Rouge leaders. The tribunal formally charged five surviving leaders: Duch; Ieng Sary; his wife, Ieng Thirith; the regime's head of state, Khieu Samphan; and Nuon Chea, known as Brother Number Two. These have been charged with numerous crimes against humanity, including but not limited to murder, torture, and enslavement.
The trials began Monday, 30 March, 2009 with a five-judge panel, when Pol Pot's chief torturer, commonly known as "Duch", took the stand. For updates on the trials and related news articles, visit: http://www.cambodiatribunal.org. May 14 Cambodia Tribunal, Part 2THE KHMER ROUGE
On 17 April 1975, the Khmer Rouge, headed by Pol Pot, paraded into the capital and seized power. The regime's policies of degradation to human life, tyranny, and massacre were perhaps best summed up by a chillingly captivating segment of Roland Joffé's film, The Killing Fields.
In a hut at a re-education camp, a group is assembled and a Khmer Rouge member is speaking. Civilian journalist Dith Pran is making a mental translation for his American friend, Sydney, who has already left the country:
"They tell us that God is dead, and now the party they call the Angka will provide everything for us. He says Angka has identified and proclaims the existence of a bad new disease, a memory sickness diagnosed as thinking too much about life in pre-revolutionary Cambodia. He says we are surrounded by enemies. The enemy is inside us. No one can be trusted. We must be like the ox and have no thought except for the Party. No love but for the Angka. People starve, but we must not grow food. We must honour the comrade children whose minds are not corrupted by the past. Sydney, Angka says that those who were guilty of soft living in the years of the great struggle and did not care for the sufferings of the peasant must confess, because now is the year zero and everything is to start anew.
"I'm full of fear, Sydney. I must show no understanding, not of French or English. I must have no past, Sydney. This is the Year Zero, and nothing has gone before. The wind whispers of fear and hate. The war has killed love, Sydney. And those who confess to the Angka vanish. And no one dare ask where they go. Here, only the silent survive."
(Dith Pran, The Killing Fields)
For five years, the totalitarian regime, the Khmer Rouge, led by the notorious Pol Pot, led the country down the path of barbarism, chaos, and extinction. The whole country was converted into a giant detention centre and later, with executions, overwork, disease, and starvation, into a graveyard for twenty percent of the population. The regime had the cities evacuated, sending all on forced marches to rural work projects modelled after 11th century agriculture. They tried to make all ignorant by targeting teachers, doctors, and lawyers. With one fell swoop, the Khmer Rouge championed both the causes of hypocrisy and irony by destroying everything western—books, medicine, language, and technology. Yet the source of this rash action was the western ideology of communism, the western ideology that had so inspired them.
I met a man who visited Cambodia. He talked with some of the people who recalled those days of terror. Apparently the Khmer Rouge were no strangers to sport. Two soldiers would stand at a distance behind a Cambodian civilian, one with a gun and one with a stone. The latter would cast his stone toward the civilian and shout in French, "Look out! A stone!" If the civilian revealed his knowledge of French by darting aside, the soldier with the gun would shoot him.
Hundreds of thousands fled the country, crossing the border into Thailand, their former bully.
The Cambodia Tribunal Monitor (http://www.cambodiatribunal.org) writes of life under the regime:
'The Khmer Rouge … wanted to transform Cambodia into a rural, classless society in which there were no rich people, no poor people, and no exploitation. To accomplish this, they abolished money, free markets, normal schooling, private property, foreign clothing styles, religious practices, and traditional Khmer culture. Public schools, pagodas, mosques, churches, universities, shops and government buildings were shut or turned into prisons, stables, reeducation camps and granaries. There was no public or private transportation, no private property, and no non-revolutionary entertainment. Leisure activities were severely restricted. People throughout the country, including the leaders of the CPK, had to wear black costumes, which were their traditional revolutionary clothes.
'During this time, everyone was deprived of their basic rights. People were not allowed to go outside their cooperative. The regime would not allow anyone to gather and hold discussions. If three people gathered and talked, they could be accused of being enemies and arrested or executed.
'Family relationships were also heavily criticized. People were forbidden to show even the slightest affection, humor or pity. The Khmer Rouge asked all Cambodians to believe, obey and respect only Angkar Padevat, which was to be everyone's "mother and father."
'The Khmer Rouge claimed that only pure people were qualified to build the revolution. Soon after seizing power, they arrested and killed thousands of soldiers, military officers and civil servants from the Khmer Republic regime led by Marshal Lon Nol, whom they did not regard as "pure." Over the next three years, they executed hundreds of thousands of intellectuals; city residents; minority people such as the Cham, Vietnamese and Chinese; and many of their own soldiers and party members, who were accused of being traitors. Many were held in prisons, where they were detained, interrogated, tortured and executed. The most important prison in Cambodia, known as S-21, held approximately 14,000 prisoners while in operation. Only about 12 survived.
'Under the terms of the CPK's 1976 "Four-Year Plan," Cambodians were expected to produce three tons of rice per hectare throughout the country. This meant that people had to grow and harvest rice all 12 months of the year. In most regions, the Khmer Rouge forced people to work more than 12 hours a day without rest or adequate food.' May 13 Cambodia Tribunal, Part 1During the 1970s, with much of the world's attention seized by the Vietnam War, the horrific happenings in Cambodia were largely ignored. In 1984, however, Roland Joffé's film The Killing Fields helped to bring the atrocities to the attention of the public. Now, 30 years after the demise of the Khmer Rouge regime, the nation, with the assistance of the United Nations, is conducting a tribunal to bring the totalitarian regime's ringleaders to justice. Here I begin a new series of blog entries on CAMBODIA. For details on the tribunal, visit:
BACKGROUND
Cambodia, formerly known as Kampuchea, was a thriving, peaceful empire until 1432, when it was sacked by Thailand. For the next few centuries it was a vassal state under the rule of Thai and Vietnamese kings with occasional short-term independence. In 1863 Thailand gave Cambodia their own king—Norodom. When tensions began mounting with the Thai and Vietnamese, King Norodom sought protection from the French. Treaties signed by the three countries with France defined which provinces belonged to which country in the Indochina peninsula.
Cambodia continued as a protectorate of France. During the Second World War, however, when Japan controlled Indochina, the Vietnamese founded a National Liberation Movement (Viet Minh) to oppose both Japanese and French control of Indochina. The movement received funding from the United States and from China. From 1946 until 1954, the political split between the Vietnamese National Army, who supported French control, and the Viet Minh sparked the Indochina war. The fighting, concentrated mostly in northern Vietnam, spilled over into Laos and Cambodia. Cambodia won independence from France in 1953, but it was forced to hand over the Mekong River delta to Vietnam. During these years, the communist movement in Cambodia took root.
In 1960, Sihanouk became Head of State in Cambodia and, as the Vietnam War progressed, he took a position of neutrality. Cambodians, however, began to take sides. In 1970, while out of the country, a military coup, led by pro-American Lol Nol, seized power. Sihanouk, resentful, aligned himself with the communist Khmer Rouge ("Red Cambodians") who had been gaining territory in the mountains. This led the country to civil war.
For the next three years, U.S. forces tried to disrupt the Khmer Rouge's advances by invading and bombing Cambodia. Their attempts were a failure, and two million Cambodians fled their villages to the capital city of Phnom Penh. Many of those whose family members died in the bombings became expressed their new anti-Americanism by joining the Khmer Rouge. The communist movement, thus, grew by leaps and bounds. By 1975, the country was on the brink of starvation with most of its livestock and rice fields destroyed and deprived of farmers. May 09 Chinese Women and Canadian Men, a Winning CombinationShawn was busy making contour reservoir maps for big oil companies to make them even richer. He began to wonder if life had a nobler purpose. He started furnishing his apartment to have some pretty ladies over. But the pretty ladies were too busy bar hopping. He composed some verse and took a course in Chinese. He felt Shanghai calling him, so he ditched the oil, sold his furniture for paltry prices, and settled into life in the Orient. Carolyn was tired of selling clothes, tired of betrayal by bad boys, and wanting a chance to wear a wedding gown. When the two met over coffee, things began looking up.
Shawn, a British Columbian, went to Mainland China and married their Carolyn.
 In the bedroom community of Cochrane, Alberta Clint was lookin' out the window at golf courses and concrete. He slaved away at reading prohibitively expensive university text books, and wondered why humans were treating the environment so poorly. He cranked up the reggae so loud it blasted him over to Taiwan where Jenny, garbed in a qipao, was strolling along at the night markets, smelling the controversial aroma of chou dofu, and drinking oolong cha. When they ran into each other, their hearts skipped a beat.
Clint, an Albertan, went to Taiwan and married their Jenny.
 Vince, given to kerf and flatulence, was bored. He watched Interview with the Cherf Bear, experimented with plumbing and painting, tried to run his fingers over guitar strings like J.B., but somehow, life was not what it was supposed to be. Ling, one of four children, was tired of shopping for bags and shoes and sucking durian juice on the island-nation of S'pore. She was lookin' for some adventure and decided to swing over to callous Calgary for dim sum and pottery. When the two met over dish soap at Dowsk's place, the stars began to chuck and jive.
Vince, a Saskatchewanian, married Ling, a Singaporean.
 The day will come when a Manitoban meets a Hong Konger… May 07 English AccentsIn my current job teaching ESL in swingin' Shanghai, the curriculum is one that focuses mainly on pronunciation or "phonics".
Every curriculum has its pros and cons. Though the curriculum is wonderful, it nevertheless has some drawbacks. The big problem in focusing any English curriculum on phonics is that there is no standard pronunciation of English. Most schools divide pronunciation into only two categories: British English and American English. The first obvious problem with this is that the U.K. and the U.S. are not the only countries with English speakers, though perhaps the two with the highest populations. Let's not forget Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, several African counties, many islands of the Caribbean, Belize, Guyana, and a host of others.
The second bigger problem is that there is no standard British accent and no standard American one. A Scotsman and an Englishman have very different accents, not to mention the Welshman and the Northern Irishman. Moreover, within England, different cities have different accents—Liverpool, Manchester, London. And even within London there are different accents. Ya gotta love those cockneys with their defiance of the letter Tt. The same is true with the U.S. And it's not as simple as the north versus the south. There are perhaps eight to ten distinct American accents.
What is interesting is that the curriculum I'm using was developed in a region of the U.S. called Indiana. There are sounds that they clearly say differently than the rest of the U.S. but they insist that theirs is the correct American accent. What is unfortunate is that native speakers from other places, including other regions of the U.S., are told that their pronunciation is not standard. The Chinese fall for this too, thinking that this "Midland" pronunciation is real American English.
I've fond a cool site with a quiz that determines where in the U.S. you come from. It asks around a dozen questions about your pronunciation. Most who've taken the test declare it to be very accurate. Enjoy!
May 06 Expo 2010 Basic InfoI attended Expo '86 in Vancouver. It was a blast. The pavilions had some amazing displays and spectacles. There was great evening entertainment, concerts and such. I even remember Chinese pop stars putting on concerts during the Expo. If the 2010 Expo in Shanghai is anything like the one in Vancouver, we're in for a treat. Here is some basic info about it. For more details visit the official website - English version at http://en.expo2010.cn.
1. Expo 2010 will take place 1 May through 31 Octover 2010 in Shanghai, China.
2. Tickets in Shanghai for the event go on sale 1 July this year 2009.
3. The city plans to add to its existing eight subway lines, at least five more, opening to the public by the time Expo kicks off next year.
4. While most of the pavilions will be disassembled after Expo ends, the China Pavilion will remain.
5. The same individual who composed the Beijing Olympic theme song ("Beijing Welcomes You"), sung by a couple dozen Chinese pop stars, has composed the theme song for Expo 2010: "City". Jackie Chan was in Shanghai on May 1st (one year countdown) to launch the song. See photo below.
6. Three Chinese celebreties have been appointed promotion ambassadors for the Expo - movie star Jackie Chan, sports star Yao Ming (who is Shanghainese), and pianist Lang Lang.
7. The Expo 2010 mascot is named Haibao.
8. The Expo theme is "Better City, Better Life".
9. The Canadian Pavilion will feature performances by world-renowned acrobatic troupe Cirque du Soleil.
10. If you plan on travelling to Shanghai from abroad, Peltonator's recommends you come in either May or October when the climate is milder. Summers in Shanghai can reach temperatures of nearly 40 degrees.
 May 05 May 2009 Update1. The Chinese just celebrated their May holiday long weekend. May 1st is a national holiday – sort of an equivalent of Labour Day. So Friday was off. The Dragon Boat Festival (another long weekend holiday) will be celebrated on May 28th. I'll be putting stuff up on the site all about this event.
2. Canadians are caught up in Stanley Cup fever. Round 2 of the playoffs is underway. The lone Canadian team still in the swing of things is the Vancouver Canucks who have never won a Stanley Cup, incidentally. Good luck to them. Go to www.nhl.com for all the latest scores and schedules.
3. Busy with things, I neglected to report on the Genie Awards of 2009, which were held last month. For those of you who don't know, the Genies are awards for excellence in Canadian film-making. Best Picture winner was Passchendaele, the story of a Canadian soldier during World War I who must return to the battlefield to honour his promise to the woman he loves. For more on the Genies, click here: http://www.genieawards.ca.
4. The city is gearing up for Expo 2010 ("Better City, Better Life"). I'll be posting some info on the event shortly. Visit the official website in English here: http://en.expo2010.cn. May 02 History of the Canadian Chinese Community, Part 8 (Final Series Entry)Prior to the Prime Minister's formal apology to Chinese Canadians, he had conducted a series of consultations with various Chinese Canadian organizations and their representatives to listen to what kind of compensation they wanted for the Head Tax, Exclusion Act, and other ill treatment given to them in the past (see photo below).
 After these consultations, the Canadian government decided to redress the injustices. In 2006, it did the following:
1. On June 22, The Prime Minister, on behalf of the Government of Canada, delivered a speech of apology in the House of Commons for the implementation of the Head Tax. After this speech, he attended a reception with members and dignitaries of the Canadian Chinese community and apologized to them directly in another speech (see photos below). The text of this speech can be found at the following link:
    2. The Government offered individual payments of $20,000 CAD to living Chinese Head Tax payers and the living spouses of deceased payers. There were about 20 Head Tax payers still alive at the time.
3. The Government announced its intention to establish "a $24-million community historical recognition program to provide grant and contribution funding for community projects linked to wartime measures and immigration restrictions and a $10-million national historical recognition program to fund federal initiatives, developed in partnership with other stakeholders".
In the middle of his speech in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister spoke the Cantonese words "gar nar dai doe heem", which mean "Canada apologizes". This drew a standing ovation.
Futile partisan politics aside, with all the cynicism it engenders, this was a beautiful move by the Canadian Government. We believe that one of the signs that a government has attained a level of maturity is that it acknowledges past mistakes, apologizes, and offers compensation to affected groups. Previous Canadian governments stubbornly and arrogantly refused to do this, viewing an apology as a sign of weakness. In fact, the opposite is true; a formal apology is a sign of strength and maturity. We also applaud its decision to consult with Chinese groups prior to offering the apologetic compensation. All too often a government makes the mistake of leaving out this crucial step resulting in the groups being unsatisfied with the redress.
Great irony has taken shape. Canada, which was so opposed to the immigration of Chinese people a century ago, despite their building of its vital Canadian Pacific Railway, is now, today, dependent on this immigration for its very survival. Canadians of European descent are marrying and procreating in drastically and progressively decreased numbers. Current birth rates only slightly surpass mortality rates. And, with improved medical care, Canada's population is aging rapidly. If it were not for an influx of young Chinese immigrants, Canada's population would be headed for extinction. For more on this complete with stats from Statistics Canada, click on this link:
Coincident with this is a big increase in Canadian emigrants. Now that China has opened up and houses what many consider the world's fastest growing economy, many Canadians of European descent, unable to secure stable employment in their industrially saturated homeland, are migrating to China. They are imbibing its rich culture, working and living to help in its development, befriending and even marrying its citizens.
 Though in some cases treated badly, the treatment the Chinese afford Canadians is, in general, much better than the treatment Canadians dealt its Chinese immigrants in the early years and even today.
We cite a couple of examples.
Chinese radio stations play much English music. But Canadian radio stations do not play Chinese music. Chinese singers born in Canada, in order to earn a living, have to sing Chinese songs for the people living in China. The Canadian music industry is a whites-only club and bars singers with Asian faces.
When a Chinese immigrant orders in a Canadian restaurant in broken English, he is often treated harshly by intolerant Canadian waiters. But, in China, when a foreigner orders in poor Chinese, he is usually helped by the Chinese waiter. What is inexcusably worse is that many foreign immigrants in China order in English, angrily and demandingly expecting the Chinese waiter to understand them.
Folks, we still have a long way to go.
 May 01 History of the Canadian Chinese Community, Part 7On June 22, 2006, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper stood up in the House of Commons and delivered a heartfelt formal apology to Canada's Chinese community.
For a video of his apology, click on this link:
From website of the Office of the Prime Minister, Government of Canada…
Address by the Prime Minister on the Chinese Head Tax Redress
22 June 2006, Ottawa, Ontario
 Mr. Speaker, I rise today to formally turn the page on an unfortunate period in Canada’s past, a period during which a group of people - people who only sought to build a better life - was repeatedly and deliberately singled out for unjust treatment.
I speak, of course, of the head tax that was imposed on Chinese immigrants to this country, as well as the other restrictive measures that followed. The Canada we know today would not exist were it not for the efforts of the Chinese labourers who began to arrive in the mid-nineteenth century. Almost exclusively young men, these Chinese immigrants made the difficult decision to leave their families behind in order to pursue opportunities in a country halfway around the world they called "gold mountain."
Beginning in 1881, over 15,000 of these Chinese pioneers became involved in the most important nation-building enterprise in Canadian history – the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. From the shores of the St. Lawrence, across the seemingly endless expanses of shield and prairie, climbing the majestic Rockies, and cutting through the rugged terrain of British Columbia, this transcontinental link was the ribbon of steel that bound our fledgling country together.
It was an engineering feat that was instrumental to the settlement of the West and the subsequent development of the Canadian economy and one for which the backbreaking toil of Chinese labourers was largely responsible. The conditions under which these men worked were at best harsh, and at times impossible: tragically, some one thousand Chinese labourers died during the building the CPR. But in spite of it all, these Chinese immigrants persevered, and in doing so, helped to ensure the future of this country.
But from the moment the railway was completed, Canada turned its back on these men. Beginning with the Chinese Immigration Act of 1885, a head tax of $50 was imposed on Chinese newcomers in an attempt to deter immigration. Not content with the tax’s effect, the government subsequently raised the amount to $100 in 1900, and then to $500 in 1903, the equivalent of two years' wages.
This tax remained in place until 1923, when the government amended the Chinese Immigration Act and effectively banned most Chinese immigrants until 1947. Similar legislation existed in the Dominion of Newfoundland, which also imposed a head tax between 1906 and 1949, when Newfoundland joined Confederation.
The Government of Canada recognizes the stigma and exclusion experienced by the Chinese as a result. We acknowledge the high cost of the head tax meant many family members were left behind in China, never to be reunited, or that families lived apart and, in some cases, in extreme poverty for years. We also recognize that our failure to truly acknowledge these historical injustices has prevented many in the community from seeing themselves as fully Canadian.
Therefore, Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the people and Government of Canada, we offer a full apology to Chinese Canadians for the head tax and express our deepest sorrow for the subsequent exclusion of Chinese immigrants.
Gar nar dai doe heem.
Mr. Speaker, this apology is not about liability today: it is about reconciliation with those who endured such hardship, and the broader Chinese-Canadian community, one that continues to make such an invaluable contribution to this great country.
And while Canadian courts have ruled that the head tax, and immigration prohibition, were legally authorized at the time, we fully accept the moral responsibility to acknowledge these shameful polices of our past.
For over six decades, these race-based financial measures, aimed solely at the Chinese, were implemented with deliberation by the Canadian state. This was a grave injustice, and one we are morally obligated to acknowledge.
To give substantive meaning to today’s apology, the Government of Canada will offer symbolic payments to living head tax payers and living spouses of deceased payers. In addition, we will establish funds to help finance community projects aimed at acknowledging the impact of past wartime measures and immigration restrictions and the head tax on the Chinese-Canadian community and on ethno-cultural communities.
No country is perfect. Like all countries, Canada has made mistakes in its past, and we realize that. Canadians, however, are a good and just people, acting when we’ve committed wrong.
And even though the head tax – a product of a profoundly different time - lies far in our past, we feel compelled to right this historic wrong for the simple reason that it is the decent thing to do, a characteristic to be found at the core of the Canadian soul.
Mr. Speaker, in closing, let me assure the House that this government will continually strive to ensure that similar unjust practices are never allowed to happen again. We have the collective responsibility to build a country based firmly on the notion of equality of opportunity, regardless of one’s race or ethnic origin.
Our deep sorrow over the racist actions of our past will nurture an unwavering commitment to build a better life for all Canadians.
Thank you. History of the Canadian Chinese Community, Part 6In China, the Communists now had a stronger army and more support from the public. They captured Beijing and Tianjin in early 1949 and drove the Nationalists deeper into the south. On October 1st, 1949, Mao Ze Dong declared the establishment of the People's Republic of China, and Jiang Jie Shi and his supporters fled to the island of Taiwan.
In 1950, Pu Yi, formerly China's last emperor, was tried as a war criminal. Pardoned in 1959, he returned to Beijing where he worked in the mechanical repair shop of a botanical garden.
After Canada reversed its policy on Chinese immigration, Chinese-Canadians were given full citizenship rights and their wives and children in China that had been separated from their Chinese husbands in Canada for the past quarter-century began immigrating into Canada. Most of the immigrants from China during the 1950s were these. As a result, Chinese Canadians were not as predominantly male.
Nevertheless, during the Cold War era, with aversion to communist countries, Canada's immigration policy preferred western Europeans to Asians. China supported North Korea during the Korean War, the last war in which Canada has participated up to now. Chinese-Canadians were seen by many Canadians as communist agents from the PRC. Further distrust of Chinese immigrants was intensified by a discovery made in 1959.
An article from Wikipedia reports:
"In 1959, the Department of Immigration discovered an abuse of immigration papers by Chinese immigrants; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were brought in to investigate. It turned out that some Chinese had been entering Canada by purchasing real or fake birth certificates of Chinese Canadian children bought and sold in Hong Kong. These children carrying false identity papers were referred to as 'paper sons'. In response, Douglas Jung (the first Chinese MP [Member of Parliament] in Canadian history) introduced a private member's bill in 1962 called the 'Chinese Adjustment Program'. The bill granted amnesty for paper sons or daughters if they confessed to the government. As a result about 12,000 paper sons came forward."
It was not until Canada's centennial birthday in 1967 that Prime Minister Lester Pearson (see photo below), recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, changed the country's immigration policy by eliminating its "race" and "place of origin" section and introducing a points system. This brought fairness, as Chinese were admitted into the country using the same criteria as those from any other nation.
 In 1970, Canada and the People's Republic of China established diplomatic relations for the first time since pre-1949. Pierre Trudeau (see photo below) was Prime Minister of Canada at that time. Under his leadership, the Canadian government completely abolished institutional racism a year later with the implementation of the policy of multiculturalism.
 In 1976, two things shook up China. On 28 July 1976, early in the morning at 3:42 AM, 255,000 people died in ten seconds. The Tangshan earthquake was the most devastating of the 20th century. Forty-three days later, Chairman Mao passed away. A power struggle ensued between the moderates and the hardliners, the latter being led by the notorious "Gang of Four". The moderates won the struggle and Deng Xiaoping (see photo below) began a series of reforms that were to steer China in a new direction and the country began to open up.
 One of the symbols of this opening involved a Canadian who is unknown to most Canadians. In 1988, Mark Rowswell (see photo below) went to Peking University to further his Chinese language studies which he had begun at the University of Toronto. He was invited to perform a comedic skit in the Chinese language during the annual CCTV New Year's gala. The following day, he was told that 600 million Chinese people had watched him perform and he was now a superstar. He was the first foreigner the Chinese people heard speak impeccably fluent Chinese, even better than many Chinese people. He is known to the Chinese as Da Shan and is the most famous western performer in China of all-time.
 That Canadian Norman Bethune sacrificed his life saving the lives of many Chinese during their devastating war with Japan and that Canadian Mark Rowswell (Da Shan) was the first foreigner to publicly demonstrate his mastering of spoken Chinese are two examples that have warmed the hearts of the Chinese towards Canadians.
The British had illegally gotten the Chinese addicted to opium. When the Chinese had tried to resist, the Brits bullied them in the Opium Wars agreeing to remove the opium if the Chinese gave them Hong Kong for 99 years. The Chinese reluctantly agreed, without much choice. The British, rejoicing from their extortion, did nothing over those 99 years but develop Hong Kong into a first world city. Ninety-nine years later, the Chinese asked Britain politely to return Hong Kong to them, which was now filthy, filthy rich. The British finally buggered off and gave it back in 1997. It was bitter-sweet.
But many Hong Kongers, worried that the PRC wouldn't keep its word about allowing Hong Kong to keep its free-market system, emigrated to Canada prior to the 1997 handover. It was easy for them to do so due to their Commonwealth status. The Canadian consulate in Hong Kong reported that, from 1991 to 1996, half of all emigrants from Hong Kong chose Canada as their new home. During those six years, about 180,000 Hong Kongers migrated to Canada, making up 20 percent of all immigrants to Canada. After the handover, high unemployment of Hong Kongers in Canada and their trust in the Chinese government, solidified by its preservation of Hong Kong's system, prompted many of them to return to Hong Kong.
Nowadays, mainland China has taken over from Hong Kong and Taiwan as the largest source of Chinese immigration and sends more migrants to Canada than any other country in the world, an average of 30,000 per year since Y2K. Fifteen percent of all immigrants to Canada come from the PRC. According to Statistics Canada, Chinese is the third most spoken language in the country (after the two official languages English and French). In the two westernmost provinces (B.C. and Alberta) there are far more speakers of Chinese than French and, in Ontario, French speakers only slightly outnumber Chinese. In the 2001 census, 17.7% of metropolitan Vancouverites were Chinese.
In the early 1980s with the founding of the Chinese Canadian National Council, the Chinese began asking for compensation for the past injustices they were made to suffer, especially the head tax Chinese immigrants had to pay from 1885 to 1923. They were ignored until the 1990s when the Supreme Court of Canada declared that the government had no legal obligation to redress the tax but had a moral obligation to do so. The Canadian government refused and was criticized for stonewalling the Chinese community. And then…everything changed for the better in 2006.
Coming up: Canada's formal apology to its Chinese community. |
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