Say NO to United Nations' abolishment of Traditional Chinese in 2008

Current Chinese government is pushing United Nation to abolish the traditional Chinese, which is widely used by people in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and overseas Chinese communities. The purpose is to make a UNIFIED Chinese. I'm not sure if it's a good direction to go. Simply I just don't think that UN should endorse this attempt - a form of Chinese culture hegemony towards other Chinese cultural regions in the world.

You can find further details (incl the petition button) in the following link:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/say-no-to-united-nations-abolishment-of-traditional-chinese-in-2008.html


I have signed the petition myself and left my personal comment is as follows:
Keeping the traditional Chinese is one of the best ways to preserve the 2 thousand years old Chinese culture. As a Chinese culture admirer, I cannot imagine to abolish the traditional Chinese characters. Also I wonder how people would be able to read the old Chinese documents without learning traditional Chinese. Which is an actual embarrassment in China, as her young generation cannot understand the cultural heritage...

Trip to Osaka Area 070720 - 26 (1)

(Rose Garden in the Nakanoshima Island inside of Osaka City)

This is the 3rd time I came to Osaka this year. Still cannot believe that I'd fall in love with this "addicted-to-express-oneself" city only at the end of my 4-year stay in Japan.


Actually I've seen nearly most of tourist attractions in Osaka city during my last two visits (still need to put them in my blog ;-)) except for the supposedly famous aquarium and Universal Studio. As it's easy to find substitutes for both, they simply cannot get any appeal in my visiting schedule. I came back here this time for a special reason - TENJIN MATSURI (天神祭, i.e. festival of heavenly deity).

(Tenjin Matsuri - chariot carried out from Tenmangu Shrine)

Apart from 2-day matsuri, I took the chance to visit the earliest Buddhist holy mountain in Japan - Koyasan (高野山) and explore the 21.5 km pilgrimage track (Choishimichi, 町石道) used by numerous devout Buddhist monks and religious Japanese since around 900AD. It's a very refreshing 2 days of sun & forest bathing, and I felt recharged with energy.

(The Kohondaito - Essential Pagoda - in Koyasan)

Well, all in all, Osaka area (incl. its neighbouring Kyoto, Kobe, Nara and Wakayama prefecture etc.) is a region where one can always find something interesting to do and frequently gets oneself surprised by novelty. If you are curious about what kind of city it is, stay tuned for the coming stories...

May We All Be Coffee

A life-inspiring story to share with you~

Princess Rose

MAY WE ALL BE COFFEE

A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how
things were so hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make
it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It
seemed as one problem was solved, a new one arose.

Her mother took her to the kitchen. She filled three pots with water and
placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to boil. In the first she
placed carrots, in the second she placed eggs, and in the last she
placed ground coffee beans. She let them sit and boil; without saying a
word.

In about twenty minutes she turned off the burners. She fished the
carrots out and placed them in a bowl. She pulled the eggs out and
placed them in a bowl.

Then she ladled the coffee out and placed it in a bowl. Turning to her
daughter, she asked, "Tell me what you see."

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.

Her mother brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots. She did
and noted that they were soft. The mother then asked the daughter to
take an egg and break it. After pulling off the shell, she observed the
hard boiled egg.

Finally, the mother asked the daughter to sip the coffee. The daughter
smiled as she tasted its rich aroma. The daughter then asked, "What does
it mean, mother?"

Her mother explained that each of these objects had faced the same
adversity: boiling water. Each reacted differently. The carrot went in
strong, hard, and unrelenting. However, after being subjected to the
boiling water, it softened and became weak. The egg had been fragile.
Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid interior , but after
sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened. The
ground coffee beans were unique, however. After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you?" she asked her daughter. "When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond? Are you a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?

Think of this: Which am I? Am I the carrot that seem s strong, but with
pain and adversity do I wilt and become soft and lose my strength?

Am I the egg that starts with a malleable heart, but changes with the
heat?

Did I have a fluid spirit, but after an illness, a death, a breakup, a financial hardship OR some other trial, have I become hardened and stiff?

Does my shell look the same, but on the inside am I bitter and tough with a stiff spirit and hardened heart?

Or am I like the coffee bean? The bean actually changes the hot water,
the very circumstance that brings the pain. When the water gets hot, it
releases the fragrance and flavor. If you are like the bean, when things
are at their worst, you get better and change the situation around you.
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, do you
elevate yourself to another level? How do you handle adversity? Are you
a carrot, an egg or a coffee bean?


May you have enough happiness to make you sweet, enough trials to make you strong, enough sorrow to keep you human and enough hope to make you happy.

The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything;
they just make the most of everything that comes along their way. The
brightest future will always be based on a forgotten past; you can't go
forward in life until you let go of your past failures and heartaches.

When you were born, you were crying and everyone around you was smiling. Live your life so at the end, you're the one who is smiling and everyone around you is crying.

May we all be COFFEE.

God Bless

What a Shame for Taiwan

As a decendent of WWII victim country and a TWN-CN origin, i condemn the Japanese political leaders' visit and tribute to the Yasukuni Shrine each year. To my sad surprise and disappointment, the TWN ex president Lee did the most humilating thing to all the TWN people yesterday for his own political ambition. He does not only damage his own prestige but hugely shame people of TWN. I hope that the incumbant DPP government will react to this event.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/world/20070608TDY02009.htm

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui on Thursday visited Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where his older brother--who died in the Philippines while serving in the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II--is enshrined.

Lee told reporters after the visit: "I was with my brother after 62 years. It made me cry."
However, the visit is likely to trigger further criticism from China, as Beijing considers Lee as the representative of Taiwan's independence movement.

Lee, 84, was accompanied by his wife, Tseng Wen-hui, and married writers Shumon Miura and Ayako Sono at the shrine, which enshrines Class-A war criminals along with other war dead.
At a press conference he gave at a Tokyo hotel before going to the shrine, Lee said there was no political motive for his visit. "[My elder brother and I] got along very well, but we parted 62 years ago in Kaohsiung [in southern Taiwan], and that was it. At our home, there's no hair or bone from my brother--even no plate to remember him," Lee said. "Now, Yasukuni is the only place where he rests."

Lee said after arriving in Japan on May 30: "I can't bear not to visit Yasukuni Shrine and pay tribute, as a brother and out of human nature."
(Jun. 8, 2007)

Sometimes, we just need to get ourselves loved by ourselves...

It was the toughest day yesterday so far this year.
Long, full with tears and filled with emotions :
love, sorrow, sadness, regrets, anxiety, helplessness,
lust, desire, infatuation, passion, affection,
joy, fantasy, lack of confidence, etc...

After all the emotions being channelled out,
all the thoughts sorted out,
a fresh new feeling is there again.

It's a feeling of being reborn, energy regenerating,
a new perspective of life, a re-confirmation of possibilities in myself,
and a brand new set-off for a course in self-orientation/self-search...


To reward myself, I went for a nail design art "treat" today.
It fixed the seriousely-neglected side of me.

Looking at my fingers after an intensive car,e and with the pretty design coat,
I felt spring has come to my life with all the cherry blossoms in every corners of Tokyo.
In the warm sunshine, life is as bright as the sun and as smelly as the flowers.

(The most popular nail art designs in Tokyo - with bio sculpture gel.
Besides color gradation, multi-color Rhinestones in different shapes and hand-paintings
can all be done by nail artists. )

(Different from acrylic liquid and powder sculpture,
bio sculpture gel is a thin coat treatment to be put on nails and
can strengthen and promote the growth of nature nails.
You can also have extention added up to make your finger nails look longer and prettier.
I had a bio sculpture treatment without extention
cus my nail artist suggested the extention would work better a month later
when I get used to the nail treatment.
The bio sculpture can usually last for 1 month,
and then a "repair" or "repaint" would be needed. )

Another feedback on comfort women issue

The following is another feedback from BIBI, who has been living in Japan for several years and considers himself partly Japanese...


*************************************************************************************
I am very glad to see that one of your interests are related to this and other related issues. I was always reading avidly in Japan any news related to comfort women and I may try to inform some of my friends on this issue. My greatest interest though is to see that you engage in dialogue and bring reactions from some Japanese people. If I may, I encourage you to become more knowledgeable on the extent of the Japanese apology - or what I believe is rather a lack or absence of apology - to China and other neighboring countries.

Also, how about looking at the Chinese perspective following some abuses China perpetuated to neighboring Asian peoples itself. Is it satisfying and how far is China itself from making public apologies?

Also, is the value of an apology the same in both cultures? Is it realistic to compare the German attitude (or the French) to this case and could we expect a similar attitude from Japan for the only reason that both countries are well ahead in the 21st century (although their cultures are still so far apart)?

I don't think so, although I too would love to see Japan act with what my Western perspectives call civility. So if Japan made real apologies and expressed more consideration and empathy to the Governments of neighboring Asian countries, my sense of what is right would be flattered.

But my own perspective doesn't have much worth in the sense that I am not truly Japanese (only my heart is Japanese to some extent, the rest of me is French). There are other fields where I have the feeling that Japan is acting way behind our age and its rank in the world, one is the freedom of the press and another is the practice of long periods of pre-indictment trial in the Japanese judicial system (up to 23 days) during which I think risks of abuse are high. This is my French perspective, but is it relevant? To what extent is this Japanese practice consistent with the importance of giving a chance to detainees to make a confession? Probably to a large extent.

The point I am trying to make is that it is easy to miss an important aspect of the cultures we would like to see change "for the better". I don't think that the issue of comfort women is yet ripe for the japanese people.

Revised Textbooks in Japan

Before the ripples of "comfort women" get pacified, an once-a-year revision of history textbooks in Japan aroused another outcry for "reveal the truth" in countries like China, South Korea, other Asian countries, Europe and North America.

On the 1st April New York Times publshed an article by Mr. Norimitsu Onishi titled as "Japan's Textbooks Reflect Revised History" (link as follows). In this article, Mr. Onishi pointed out that by revising the history textbooks Japanese government does not only try to deny its military atrocity in other Asian countries, but also seek to find scapegoats (i.e. American army) for the cruel and immoral conducts of Japanese soldiers on their own soil - Okinawa.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/world/asia/01japan.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin

To pave the way for re-establishment of military force, the Abe led government is prepared to go as far as it can to deny since long established historical facts, regardless the Kono statement in 1993 and written records on/related WWII history by Japanese politicians (such as autobiography of ex-prime minister Nakasone) and prominent historians.

From a personal point of view, I'm currently living in Japan and I have good Japanese friends, appreciate Japanese culture/life philosophy and respect Japanese people. However, I cannot agree with the current Japanese policy and feel very disappointed with Japanese political leaders.

I believe that a country unable to face its past cannot find its way into the future. A nation without courrage to repent for the crimes commited by its ancestors will not earn respect from other peoples. It is true that the past should not be a burden for the living ones, and yet the strength of a people only comes from the understanding of its own history, but not the denial...


More readings:
http://chineseinvancouver.blogspot.com/2007/03/another-denial-japan-changes-textbook.html

Japan Prime Minister Abe's Ambivalence

Since my living in Japan several franzy anti-Japan movements have taken placed in China, Korea and other Asian countries. Some Japanese friends ask me why Asian countries/people are never satisfied with Japan no matter how much aide or support Japan has been providing them since one or two decades, especially countries like China.

In the past I often found it hard to answer questions alike. From a sentimental point of view (as well as my Chinese-culture background), I understand perfectly the bitter feeling held by many Chinese, especially the generation who have personally fought against the Japanese invasion and those who have heard about the war stories from their family members. On the other hand, I'd prefer to look into this matter with some objectiveness - what really happened during the war and how it was dealt with after the war.

Evidently the post-war Japanese govenment did apolgize publicly to those countries (China is one of which) that suffered the Japanese military operations during the WWII. Some controversial issues, such as if the war a form of Japanese imperialist invasion to serounding countries or it's just an "alliance" membership offered by Japan, stay yet in the core of hot debate between Japan (either Japanese Authorities or acdamics) and related Asian countries. In the case of Sino-Japan reconciliation, shamefully I'm not familiar with the contexte and substance of the "official" apology made by Japanese government vis-a-vis Chinese people for the damages during the WWII nor anything related to the "compensation money" that some Japanese believe that their government has paid to the Chinese during these years. In view of the now-still-going-on politics saga featured the current Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, I might get a possible answer to my Japanese friends.


Within a month Mr. Abe has made several controversial public discourses regarding the wartime "comfort women" (army prostitutes) . From the firm denial to a public apology, his ambivalent attitude indicates clearly that the Japanese government or some influencial politicians within refuse to face certain historical events, especially war crimes implicating Japanese government and/or military's participation and/or organisation, to repent for their behavior, to offer a sincere apology to victim countries, their peoples and some specific individuals (such as comfort women) and to take the responsibility for the damages during and after the war. The comfort women issue also make me to think about the fact that Japanese government (education authorities) decided again this year to stripp off "sensitive" materials related to WWII from text book and the yearly worship paid to war criminals in Yasukuni Shrine etc.

Washiongton Post has opted for a perfect headline for Japan's ambivalent attitude on 23rd March:

Shinzo Abe's Double Talk :

He's passionate about Japanese victims of North Korea -- and blind to Japan's own war crimes.

Link to the editorial:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/23/AR2007032301640.html?reload=true


An editoiral titled "Denying the past" also appeared in the Japanese centrist newspaper - Asahi Shimbun today:

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200703290074.html (English version)
http://www.asahi.com/paper/editorial20070328.html (Japanese version was published on 28th)


And another interesting article contributed by YaleGlobal is posted on a blog frequented by Canadian Chinese community:

Abe's new clothes - Chinese in Vancouver


To sum up, I think that as long as Japanese Authorities remains unconsistant with their attitude towards the historical events during WWII and reluctant to solve the disaccords between them and involved Asian countries with sincerity, the dissatisfactory emotion and even hatred feeling will always exist in the heart of many Asian people and the opposition against Japan's attempt for acquiring permanant seat in UN Security Council will still prevail among Asian countries.

Stepping into 21st century, a real democratic and modern Japan might want to look into the past history with more scrutiny and objectiveness, be frank with the historical events and make peace with the victim countries, and especially with its own conscience. If it doesn't know how to get it on, the German experience can be the best lesson.