I am currently studying as much as I can the impact (or lack of) Confucianism on today’s Chinese society.
Central in Confucianism is the notion of “Filial Piety” – caring for and respecting the parents. While the new generation in China has put the notion a bit upside down – parents now supposed to do everything for the children and grandchildren without much return – the majority of the Chinese still very much adhere to the old principles. The issue is an important component of my book.
I was reading about the never-ending sad story of the U.S. housing market, with the foreclosures that make more and more people homeless.
I had read an article (author Peter Goodman – IHT 20 Oct 09) on the topic, when the starting lines hit me afterwards: a lady (Sheri West) in Cleveland ended up completely homeless, after sleeping in her car, months of sleeping on coaches of friends. She was forced to seek a place in a shelter for the homeless. But…
The article said she is the mother of three grown children, grandmother to six and great-grandmother to one; her husband left her.
So, what are the children doing about that? Apparently nothing.
While we miss here the complete background of the story, in most Asian countries that would be considered as a shame.
For the children.
Some Asian values put our Western world to shame; just hoping China will not copy the West.
Gilbert
Vice Chairman – China First International Chongyang Festival, Beijing 2009 Celebration event of World Illustrious Elderly
International Director, Managing Committee of China Ageing International Development Foundation
Letting Steam Off
Oct 1 Parade last pictures
Been busy like hell and I needed time to go through the 2GB of pictures we all collected. Thanks to the Xinhua photographer who was with us on the float (I call it the BOAT) – he gave many high definition pics. Some of the pictures come from others, bit difficult to keep track.
There are some nice shots of the other foreigners walking along the float, including our daughter Valerie.
The pics show the actual parade once we started moving along Chang’an Avenue towards Tiananmen, till we passed Zhongnanhai and then turned away from the avenue much further to get to our bus.
It’s all now far behind us and life is back to normal (crazy, crazy).
This is the last series, I made a personal choice of the ones I liked most. We clearly had fun but we were also impressed by the massive amount of people – most of them enthusiastic and a bit surprized to see foreigners.
We also met, most of us, for a dinner at The Taj Pavillion (World Trade Center), organized and funded by our Indian “star” Manish Chopra, on 10 October. It was a fun evening with excellent Indian food. See also some pics.
How to eat chicken wings
There are many ways to serve chicken wings.
click to eat
I prefer them to be served as a real man expects.
They taste sooooo much better.
T-shirt for unhappy staff
If you feel like this at work:
then buy this T-shirt!
So, what about the “Great Parade”?
Gosh, I guess some people must think we are dangerous “commies“! There we were, in the middle of that military, dictatorial communist regime! Worse, waving and excited!
Not that I care, ignorance for many is a bliss. Some people are so damned paranoid and fail to grasp what is going on here.
Of course I also fume (openly) about certain things here, like the airtight shutdown of the Internet (OK, not so airtight if you know how and willing to pay for it). There is also enough paranoia here.
For sure the Parade served its purpose but according to the Chinese textbook. It was first of all for domestic consumption – make all Chinese feel proud (and nationalistic), show unity, progress and prosperity (even if…). Must say, they succeeded. The vast majority of Chinese people felt great – and proud to participate.
The floats are now on display on Tiananmen Square. In 2 days 1.5 million people visited the square. All enthusiastic.
But China also sent a message to the world: “I do it on my terms, you like it or not”. China has now progressed that far that it wants to make clear it is s force to be reckoned with. If some complain it all looked a bit like a Nazi parade, Beijing really doesn’t give a damn.
In other words, a very open expression of self confidence. Sitting on 2 trillion USD of reserves of course helps. So does having an economy that is less hot than before but still growing. While the rest of the world wonders (me including) if the recovery is a U or rather a W.
OK, now I just hope it’s all finally over and done with. No more 2008 Olympics, no more 60 Anniversary. Let’s hope Beijing returns to normal again, it was nice but we can really miss the mess that goes along with it.
So, when will Facebook be back by the way? And Youtube?