Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
At long last I have discovered the secret behind how the U.S. government works: both Democrats and Republicans alike are Taoists. Need proof? Just consider the following passage from Lao Tse's "Tao Dejing" (Taoist Scripture). Though written five centuries before Christ, the following passage sounds just like a manual for modern government:
"The ancients who showed their skill in practicing the Tao did so, not to enlighten the people, but rather to make them simple and ignorant.
The difficulty in governing the people arises from their having much knowledge. He who (tries to) govern a state by his wisdom is a scourge to it; while he who does not (try to) do so is a blessing." 65 道德经:古之善为道者，非以明民，将以愚之。民之难治，以其智多。故以智治国，国之贼；不以智治国，国之福。
If people ruled by leaders without wisdom are blessed, we are very fortunate in this day and age! But seriously, Old Lao Tzu did have some shrewd insights on good government. Consider verse 57:
"In the kingdom the more prohibitions, the poorer the people become...the more laws, the more thieves and robbers there are." 57道德经:天下多忌讳，而民弥贫...法令滋彰，盗贼多有。
No wonder Mark Twain said we had so many cons in Congress.
Not that I'm complaining--at least much. For all America's faults, at least we are allowed to complain about them--a freedom that in itself covers a multitude of sins. If dissent is allowed, change is possible--at least in theory.
Lao Tse's Three Treasures Lao Tse, by the way, had some priorities that it might do for our modern rulers to adopt. He said his three treasures were gentleness, frugality, and not putting himself first. He explained, "Gentleness lets me be bold, frugality enables me to be liberal, not putting myself above others allows me to take the place of highest honor. " He then said, "Now-a-days [2500 years ago!], they give up gentleness for boldness, frugality for liberality, and the hindmost place to be foremost--all ending in death."
Maybe Lao Tse knew what he was talking about after all!
In closing, here is Lao Tse on Over-Government:
"The people starve because overtaxed by officials. This causes famine. The people are hard to govern because they are governed too much. This makes them ungovernable." 75 道德经:民之饥，以其上食税之多，是以饥。民之难治，以其上之有为，是以难治
Well, I hear the bells of nearby Nanputuo Temple ringing; Congress must be back in session. Ommmmmmm.
Reference: Lao Tse's 3 Treasures: 道德经: 我有三宝，持而保之。一曰慈，二曰俭，三曰不敢为天下先。慈故能勇；俭故能广；不敢为天下先，故能成器长。今舍慈且勇；舍俭且广；舍后且先；死矣！
www.amoymagic.com
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
This Folder is Shared with Other People [ cannot move error]
Bill Brown .. Xiamen University
This blog entry is not related to Xiamen...but then it again, it is, since we all use computers, and someone out there may be able to help! (By the way, when I came to Xiamen University in 1988, we had no computers in the MBA Center's office, and the Foreign Affair's first computer was one that I put together with parts that I brought in from Hong Kong. How times have changed!).
Here's the problem. With Microsoft Vista, quite often it gives me an error message when I try to moved a folder. A box pops up with the warning "This folder is shared with other people. If you move this folder, it will no longer be shared." It then gives me the option to continue or cancel. If I cancel, it freezes, and if I try to then cancel, I cannot. But a few minutes later (sometime 15 minutes later), I get a message
"Buffer overrun detected! Program:...PowerCinema for TOSHIBA\KERNEL|CLML\CLMLSvc.exe A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated."
One, my folders are NOT shared with anyone else, and I've even closed the Power Cinema Program, which appears to be a Power Problem. But nothing helps. I've even completely disabled the Cyberlink PowerCinema and rebooted; no use. Does anyone have any idea what to do--other than to chuck the computer and send a letter to Osama Bin Laden asking him to pay a visit to Microsoft? Thanks.
Enjoy Amoy-- anyway!
Dr. Bill
www.amoymagic.com
This blog entry is not related to Xiamen...but then it again, it is, since we all use computers, and someone out there may be able to help! (By the way, when I came to Xiamen University in 1988, we had no computers in the MBA Center's office, and the Foreign Affair's first computer was one that I put together with parts that I brought in from Hong Kong. How times have changed!).
Here's the problem. With Microsoft Vista, quite often it gives me an error message when I try to moved a folder. A box pops up with the warning "This folder is shared with other people. If you move this folder, it will no longer be shared." It then gives me the option to continue or cancel. If I cancel, it freezes, and if I try to then cancel, I cannot. But a few minutes later (sometime 15 minutes later), I get a message
"Buffer overrun detected! Program:...PowerCinema for TOSHIBA\KERNEL|CLML\CLMLSvc.exe A buffer overrun has been detected which has corrupted the program's internal state. The program cannot safely continue execution and must now be terminated."
One, my folders are NOT shared with anyone else, and I've even closed the Power Cinema Program, which appears to be a Power Problem. But nothing helps. I've even completely disabled the Cyberlink PowerCinema and rebooted; no use. Does anyone have any idea what to do--other than to chuck the computer and send a letter to Osama Bin Laden asking him to pay a visit to Microsoft? Thanks.
Enjoy Amoy-- anyway!
Dr. Bill
www.amoymagic.com
20 Ounces or 12?
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
Dr. Tom sent this about stress. Of course, Dr. Tom is one of those folks who forwards several things a day--but this one has some very choice quotes, and deserves to be shared. I especially liked the very last quote--perhaps because I'm always getting sidetracked--but sidetrack or main track, I enjoy the ride! Enjoy.
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 8oz. to 20oz.
The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.'
'In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.' He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on.'
'As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again, when we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'
'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work or life down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.
‘Life is short. Enjoy!’ And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burden of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
www.amoymagic.com
Dr. Tom sent this about stress. Of course, Dr. Tom is one of those folks who forwards several things a day--but this one has some very choice quotes, and deserves to be shared. I especially liked the very last quote--perhaps because I'm always getting sidetracked--but sidetrack or main track, I enjoy the ride! Enjoy.
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 8oz. to 20oz.
The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance.'
'In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.' He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on.'
'As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again, when we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.'
'So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work or life down. Don't carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can. Relax; pick them up later after you've rested.
‘Life is short. Enjoy!’ And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burden of life:
* Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.
* If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can't push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.
* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
www.amoymagic.com
Ambassador von Royen in Xiamen!
Bill Brown .. Xiamen University
Last week, I was very honored to spend two days guiding a team of Dutch tourists around Gulangyu and Xiamen, and one of them was the well-known former Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia, Jan Herman von Royen (accompanied by his wife Caroline). Von Royen was most instrumental in engineering the agreements that gave birth to Indonesian Independence. Below is an article about him.
By the way, von Royen loved Xiamen, but had never heard of it. But when he bought a copy of my book Discover Gulangyu and asked me to sign it, he was shocked to learn that Xiamen was the same as Amoy! Western history books are full of stories about exotic Amoy; there is nothing in Western history about Xiamen. Chinese complain that "Amoy" is a foreign name, but in fact, it is what almost all Overseas Chinese call Xiamen. So if we are to attract the attention of the world, we should use the name Amoy, as well as Xiamen. [Click here for "Why Amoy?"]
Enjoy Amoy!
TIME, Nov.14, 1949: BIRTH OF A NATION
Source is Here
A few hours before dawn, a bleary-eyed night porter at The Hague's stuffy Hotel des Indes (named for The Netherlands' once vast and profitable colonies) opened the heavy oaken door for a weary guest, who went promptly to his room, and to sleep. He was slim, patient Jan Herman van Royen, able career diplomat and chief Dutch troubleshooter at The Hague Round Table Conference, which had been called to settle the differences between Indonesia and The Netherlands (TIME, Sept. 5). Van Royen had just wound up a crucial committee meeting which seemed to assure the conference's success. The way was clear for the birth of a new nation.
Nationalists in Indonesia sputtered that they did not like the agreement which Van Royen and the Indonesian representatives had worked out. Nevertheless, after four years of bitter fighting and endless negotiations, it looked as though Indonesia would get the freedom it fiercely wanted, and yet would retain some of the economic ties with The Netherlands which are necessary for the survival of both countries.
During its ten weary weeks, The Hague conference had often seemed close to failure. The Indonesians had wanted as much independence as possible, the Dutch had wanted to retain as much sovereignty as possible. But eventually the Dutch and the Indonesian delegates grew to trust and understand each other. One weekend motor trip to Namur, in Belgium, helped to break the ice; Indonesia's Premier Mohammed Hatta and the Dutch Minister for Overseas Territories, Johan van Maarseveen, reached some important decisions chatting in their car. Explained Van Royen: "It doesn't pay to try to be too clever. The only way to gain confidence is to treat people as normal equals. The fortunate thing is that our interests run parallel. They can't do without us, nor we without them."
One of the thorniest problems of the conference was the public debt incurred by the Dutch administration in Indonesia, which the new republic would have to take over. The Dutch had originally set the figure at 6.3 billion guilders ($1.7 billion), but the U.N. Commission on Indonesia, which hovered anxiously over The Hague talks, helped persuade the Dutch to scale down their demands to 4.3 billion ($1.1 billion). Another tough nut was the future of New Guinea, a large part of which is still held by Dutch troops. Under the compromise which Van Royen had engineered, both parties agreed to defer a decision on New Guinea for a year.
www.amoymagic.com
Last week, I was very honored to spend two days guiding a team of Dutch tourists around Gulangyu and Xiamen, and one of them was the well-known former Dutch Ambassador to Indonesia, Jan Herman von Royen (accompanied by his wife Caroline). Von Royen was most instrumental in engineering the agreements that gave birth to Indonesian Independence. Below is an article about him.
By the way, von Royen loved Xiamen, but had never heard of it. But when he bought a copy of my book Discover Gulangyu and asked me to sign it, he was shocked to learn that Xiamen was the same as Amoy! Western history books are full of stories about exotic Amoy; there is nothing in Western history about Xiamen. Chinese complain that "Amoy" is a foreign name, but in fact, it is what almost all Overseas Chinese call Xiamen. So if we are to attract the attention of the world, we should use the name Amoy, as well as Xiamen. [Click here for "Why Amoy?"]
Enjoy Amoy!
TIME, Nov.14, 1949: BIRTH OF A NATION
Source is Here
A few hours before dawn, a bleary-eyed night porter at The Hague's stuffy Hotel des Indes (named for The Netherlands' once vast and profitable colonies) opened the heavy oaken door for a weary guest, who went promptly to his room, and to sleep. He was slim, patient Jan Herman van Royen, able career diplomat and chief Dutch troubleshooter at The Hague Round Table Conference, which had been called to settle the differences between Indonesia and The Netherlands (TIME, Sept. 5). Van Royen had just wound up a crucial committee meeting which seemed to assure the conference's success. The way was clear for the birth of a new nation.
Nationalists in Indonesia sputtered that they did not like the agreement which Van Royen and the Indonesian representatives had worked out. Nevertheless, after four years of bitter fighting and endless negotiations, it looked as though Indonesia would get the freedom it fiercely wanted, and yet would retain some of the economic ties with The Netherlands which are necessary for the survival of both countries.
During its ten weary weeks, The Hague conference had often seemed close to failure. The Indonesians had wanted as much independence as possible, the Dutch had wanted to retain as much sovereignty as possible. But eventually the Dutch and the Indonesian delegates grew to trust and understand each other. One weekend motor trip to Namur, in Belgium, helped to break the ice; Indonesia's Premier Mohammed Hatta and the Dutch Minister for Overseas Territories, Johan van Maarseveen, reached some important decisions chatting in their car. Explained Van Royen: "It doesn't pay to try to be too clever. The only way to gain confidence is to treat people as normal equals. The fortunate thing is that our interests run parallel. They can't do without us, nor we without them."
One of the thorniest problems of the conference was the public debt incurred by the Dutch administration in Indonesia, which the new republic would have to take over. The Dutch had originally set the figure at 6.3 billion guilders ($1.7 billion), but the U.N. Commission on Indonesia, which hovered anxiously over The Hague talks, helped persuade the Dutch to scale down their demands to 4.3 billion ($1.1 billion). Another tough nut was the future of New Guinea, a large part of which is still held by Dutch troops. Under the compromise which Van Royen had engineered, both parties agreed to defer a decision on New Guinea for a year.
www.amoymagic.com
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Xiamen Vacation!
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
A few years ago, Sue and I decided that since we are always encouraging people to visit Xiamen, we should visit it ourselves! Of course, we've lived here since 1988 so we should know our own town well, especially since I've written so many books about it. But like most people, we tend to take our own home for granted, so we set out to experience Xiamen like a tourist, and we came away with an even greater appreciation of this magic little island.
Off Season Specials During the off seasons, many local Xiamen hotels with low occupancy rates are delighted to give a discount rate to locals who want to explore their own home, and Sue and I checked into a hotel by Yuandang Lagoon on Friday afternoon, and spent until Sunday exploring the beauty of the Night Lights on the lake, and the scenery, classic colonial architecture, and shops on Gulangyu Island. We rode a tandem bicycle to enjoy the unmatched scenery of the Island Ring Road, and walked along our beautiful Xiamen Board Walk. Xiamen also of course has dozens of fine parks and gardens, the finest being the 10,000 Rock Botanical Garden, which has more rocks than our Xiamen University cafeteria rice. We explored the old back streets of downtown Xiamen, in some ways unchanged for centuries, but in others (the chic shops, for instance) so different from the town I knew a mere decade ago.
We also enjoyed sampling the many great restaurants. Though I moved to China only because Chinese food was too expensive in America, I also enjoy sampling the other cuisines from dozens of nations—Vietnamese, French, Italian, American (if there is such a thing as American cuisine).
Sue and I had such a great time that we have made it our goal to vacation in Xiamen at least once every three months!
It just goes to prove… there’s no place like home!
My Favorite! Xiamen Millennium Harbourview Hotel
Millennium Hotel's Official Website
www.amoymagic.com
A few years ago, Sue and I decided that since we are always encouraging people to visit Xiamen, we should visit it ourselves! Of course, we've lived here since 1988 so we should know our own town well, especially since I've written so many books about it. But like most people, we tend to take our own home for granted, so we set out to experience Xiamen like a tourist, and we came away with an even greater appreciation of this magic little island.
Off Season Specials During the off seasons, many local Xiamen hotels with low occupancy rates are delighted to give a discount rate to locals who want to explore their own home, and Sue and I checked into a hotel by Yuandang Lagoon on Friday afternoon, and spent until Sunday exploring the beauty of the Night Lights on the lake, and the scenery, classic colonial architecture, and shops on Gulangyu Island. We rode a tandem bicycle to enjoy the unmatched scenery of the Island Ring Road, and walked along our beautiful Xiamen Board Walk. Xiamen also of course has dozens of fine parks and gardens, the finest being the 10,000 Rock Botanical Garden, which has more rocks than our Xiamen University cafeteria rice. We explored the old back streets of downtown Xiamen, in some ways unchanged for centuries, but in others (the chic shops, for instance) so different from the town I knew a mere decade ago.
We also enjoyed sampling the many great restaurants. Though I moved to China only because Chinese food was too expensive in America, I also enjoy sampling the other cuisines from dozens of nations—Vietnamese, French, Italian, American (if there is such a thing as American cuisine).
Sue and I had such a great time that we have made it our goal to vacation in Xiamen at least once every three months!
It just goes to prove… there’s no place like home!
My Favorite! Xiamen Millennium Harbourview Hotel
Millennium Hotel's Official Website
www.amoymagic.com
Dutch Retake Xiamen & Tigers
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
The Dutch Recapture Amoy!
Well, I've found my new career--Tour Guide! I've been asked many times over the years to guide groups, especially on Gulangyu, but I've never done it, except for family and friends (and the U.S. Ambassador a couple years ago). But Mr. Olivier Sieuw, in Beijing, asked me several times to lead a group of 11 Dutch folk on a tour of historic Gulangyu colonial architecture--and it turned out to be a lot of fun. What was really surprising was that one of the guests, who was a former Dutch Ambassador, had no idea that Xiamen used to be Amoy until I signed his copy of "Discover Gulangyu" with "Enjoy Amoy."
The group fell in love with Xiamen, once they came to understand our rich history, and centuries of relations with Europe. And the former Dutch Ambassador told me that he saw in an antique market in Holland a
beautiful large oil painting of Amoy harbor in the 19th century, with foreign ships flying their flags of many nations! He'll try to get a photo of it for me, and permission to use it in my upcoming book "Old Xiamen in Foreigners' Eyes."
The Dutch group were surprised to learn that the Netherlands and Amoy have a history together of almost 500 years, and that the Chinese-European Art Center at Xiamen University was started by a lady from Holland, Mrs. Ineke Gudmundsson.
But one thing the Dutch had a hard time believing was that Xiamen had tigers right on Xiamen island and Gulangyu Island! I told them the story of little Nancy Theobold finding the tiger in her backyard on Gulangyu. And below are a couple of tidbits about Amoy Tigers (or South China Tiger, but called Amoy Tiger because this is the area they roamed). By the way....a friend of mine had an aunt killed by a man--eating tiger not far from Xiamen--in the 1960s.
TAME CHINESE TIGER in AMOY!
(by Miss D’Almeida, 1863, p. 285)
A gentleman took us to see a young tiger, between six and seven months old, which was so tame that it followed him about like a dog, and seemed quite pleased when we patted his head. The gentleman told us he paid ten dollars for him when he was first caught, a few months prior to the time we saw him, and that he had now sold him to the English Consul for a hundred pounds. I believe it is intended for the Zoological Gardens in London, where it will figure as the first from China ever seen there, and where we may some day renew our acquaintance with the tiger of Amoy.
“Mr. H. R. Bruce brought into Amoy the largest tiger that had ever been seen in that place, measuring over nine feet from nose to tip of tail.”
September 20th, 1888. Diary of Events in the Far East, Chinese Recorder, Vol. 19, Nov., 1888, p. 540
"Two things in Fukien impressed Marco Polo: the beauty of the women and the size of its tigers." Mackenzie-Grieves, 1959, p. 69
Chinese Vampires in Old Xiamen! (Think tigers are bad? Check out the true story of these horrible creatures!).
www.amoymagic.com
The Dutch Recapture Amoy!
Well, I've found my new career--Tour Guide! I've been asked many times over the years to guide groups, especially on Gulangyu, but I've never done it, except for family and friends (and the U.S. Ambassador a couple years ago). But Mr. Olivier Sieuw, in Beijing, asked me several times to lead a group of 11 Dutch folk on a tour of historic Gulangyu colonial architecture--and it turned out to be a lot of fun. What was really surprising was that one of the guests, who was a former Dutch Ambassador, had no idea that Xiamen used to be Amoy until I signed his copy of "Discover Gulangyu" with "Enjoy Amoy."
The group fell in love with Xiamen, once they came to understand our rich history, and centuries of relations with Europe. And the former Dutch Ambassador told me that he saw in an antique market in Holland a
beautiful large oil painting of Amoy harbor in the 19th century, with foreign ships flying their flags of many nations! He'll try to get a photo of it for me, and permission to use it in my upcoming book "Old Xiamen in Foreigners' Eyes."The Dutch group were surprised to learn that the Netherlands and Amoy have a history together of almost 500 years, and that the Chinese-European Art Center at Xiamen University was started by a lady from Holland, Mrs. Ineke Gudmundsson.
But one thing the Dutch had a hard time believing was that Xiamen had tigers right on Xiamen island and Gulangyu Island! I told them the story of little Nancy Theobold finding the tiger in her backyard on Gulangyu. And below are a couple of tidbits about Amoy Tigers (or South China Tiger, but called Amoy Tiger because this is the area they roamed). By the way....a friend of mine had an aunt killed by a man--eating tiger not far from Xiamen--in the 1960s.
TAME CHINESE TIGER in AMOY!
(by Miss D’Almeida, 1863, p. 285)
A gentleman took us to see a young tiger, between six and seven months old, which was so tame that it followed him about like a dog, and seemed quite pleased when we patted his head. The gentleman told us he paid ten dollars for him when he was first caught, a few months prior to the time we saw him, and that he had now sold him to the English Consul for a hundred pounds. I believe it is intended for the Zoological Gardens in London, where it will figure as the first from China ever seen there, and where we may some day renew our acquaintance with the tiger of Amoy.
“Mr. H. R. Bruce brought into Amoy the largest tiger that had ever been seen in that place, measuring over nine feet from nose to tip of tail.”
September 20th, 1888. Diary of Events in the Far East, Chinese Recorder, Vol. 19, Nov., 1888, p. 540
"Two things in Fukien impressed Marco Polo: the beauty of the women and the size of its tigers." Mackenzie-Grieves, 1959, p. 69
Chinese Vampires in Old Xiamen! (Think tigers are bad? Check out the true story of these horrible creatures!).
www.amoymagic.com
Friday, April 24, 2009
Napoleon of Nanputuo Temple! (Xiamen)
Bill Brown .. Xiamen UniversityNapoleon seemed to think he was god--and evidently so did the Chinese--at least here in old Amoy (former name for Xiamen). In the succinctly entitled book published in 1853, "An Aide-De-Camp's Recollections of Service in China, A Residence in Hong-Kong, and Visits to Other Islands in the Chinese Seas," by Colonel Arthur Augustus Thurlow Cunynghame,
"There is still one very superb temple, [Nanputuo Temple] by far the best specimen I had yet met with. This, as usual, was filled with gods and demons of all denominations and attributes. The entree of these figures does not appear to be exclusively restricted to Chinese deities, a clay statue of Napoleon having been found in one of their temples at Amoy, in his cocked-hat and boots; how he got there, it would be difficult to determine." "(p.115)
I've not seen the Napoleon idol, but Nanputuo Temple has literally thousands of idols. It may well have been spirited off by some idle British soldier during their occupation of our fair isle of Amoy. I'll still have a go at looking for it, but I suspect it could well be in the British Museum in London, which has millions of artifacts from all over the world, hundreds of which were honestly acquired.
Who knows--maybe it was the Amoy folks' worship of N
apoleon that led to the idea of the People's Liberation Army Temple in Quanzhou's walled city of Chongwu--a very unique temple with little green statues of --no, not leprechauns--27 PLA soldiers, replete in green uniforms, and surrounded by incense, fresh fruit and dried fruits and candies, and offerings of booze, soft drinks, cigarettes, and even cell phones and toy plastic tanks, helicopters, battleships and aircraft carriers (Just saw on the news yesterday China wants to build a real aircraft carrier).But if you find the Napoleon of Nanputuo Temple, please let me know!
Dr. Bill
Some Fujian Temples
www.amoymagic.com
Thursday, April 23, 2009
I Wanna Hold Your Hand!
Bill Brown ...
Adapted from "Magic Xiamen--Guide to Xiamen"
Copyright Bill Brown
I nearly fell off my trusty rusty Forever Brand bike when I saw a gate guard sitting in another’s lap, arms about him, eyes locked intimately.
Chinese men are very intimate -- unlike us Westerners who religiously defend our inviolable body space (about 30 inches, according to space cases who study such stuff).
Chinese view privacy and body space differently because with 1.3 billion people there isn’t a lot of room for either one. Men have no qualms holding hands, arms, or bodies, which is all well and good for Chinese who know the ropes, but not for foreigners.
Consider the simple handshake. Americans grab, squeeze, pump for oil 3 times, and escape, but Chinese may grab your hand and hold it intimately in theirs, even stroking it throughout the entire conversation. It still unnerves me, even after 12 years.
I eventually gave a lecture on how not to shake hands or other body parts with unsuspecting Laowai. And the very next day, I ran into Foreign Affair’s Lao Huang, (Lao means “old” or “venerable”), one of my sons' favorite Chinese grandfathers, and handholder par excellence.
Lao Huang grasped my hand and caressed it for a good 15 minutes while he chatted away. He eventually asked, “Xiao Pan” (which means “Little Pan,” not “Unvenerable Pan”), “Do you feel awkward holding my hand?”
“A tad,” I confessed.
He roared with laughter, threw his arms about me (that I could handle), and confessed, “I heard about your hand-holding lecture yesterday!”
And ever since then, the old rascal has greeted me with an American pumping-for-oil handshake—and a sly chuckle.
www.amoymagic.com
Adapted from "Magic Xiamen--Guide to Xiamen"
Copyright Bill Brown
I nearly fell off my trusty rusty Forever Brand bike when I saw a gate guard sitting in another’s lap, arms about him, eyes locked intimately.
Chinese men are very intimate -- unlike us Westerners who religiously defend our inviolable body space (about 30 inches, according to space cases who study such stuff).
Chinese view privacy and body space differently because with 1.3 billion people there isn’t a lot of room for either one. Men have no qualms holding hands, arms, or bodies, which is all well and good for Chinese who know the ropes, but not for foreigners.
Consider the simple handshake. Americans grab, squeeze, pump for oil 3 times, and escape, but Chinese may grab your hand and hold it intimately in theirs, even stroking it throughout the entire conversation. It still unnerves me, even after 12 years.
I eventually gave a lecture on how not to shake hands or other body parts with unsuspecting Laowai. And the very next day, I ran into Foreign Affair’s Lao Huang, (Lao means “old” or “venerable”), one of my sons' favorite Chinese grandfathers, and handholder par excellence.
Lao Huang grasped my hand and caressed it for a good 15 minutes while he chatted away. He eventually asked, “Xiao Pan” (which means “Little Pan,” not “Unvenerable Pan”), “Do you feel awkward holding my hand?”
“A tad,” I confessed.
He roared with laughter, threw his arms about me (that I could handle), and confessed, “I heard about your hand-holding lecture yesterday!”
And ever since then, the old rascal has greeted me with an American pumping-for-oil handshake—and a sly chuckle.
www.amoymagic.com
Friday, April 17, 2009
100 Mayors TV
Bill Brown ... Xiamen University
This afternoon, I was one of 3 guests on a TV special, "100 Wenming City Mayors," 《百位市长》， with Mayor Liu Cigui. I've never figured out a good way to translate "wenming." Civilized? Cultured? Since I helped Xiamen win the international Livcom Award in 2002 in Stuttgart, Germany, the city has gone on to win numerous other international honors, including the coveted U.N. Habitat award (I was impressed too, once it was explained to me; I had thought habitats were what you put hamsters in).
I'm surprised at all of the changes in Xiamen even over the past year. I didn't know we had almost 100,000 Taiwan residents in Xiamen now! Makes sense, though; 3/4 of Taiwanese are from S. Fujian anyway.
I also saw a middle school student who wrote a letter of complaint to the mayor about environment problems in relatively remote Xiang An (where the undersea tunnel will end up; Xiamen University is building an extension there, and Xiamen YMCA was talking about building some kind of retreat center out there).
But back to the student who complained...she was shocked when Mayor Liu gave her a handwritten response, and then showed up at her home to see first hand what she had complained about. She said, "What we can do for ourselves, we should do for ourselves--but if we can't handle it, the government should." And, I suppose, they did!
I gave a short talk, and was glad they can edit it. I forgot the very first paragraph and after stumbling, grabbed my notes out of my pocket, reviewed them, and then went on--fairly smoothly from there. Even after 21 years here, I'm still not a "natural" at doing TV in Chinese--though this time I did the first few lines in the Amoy Dialect, which was fun. And that's probably why I forgot the rest of the lines. It's still my dream to take some time to study the dialect for a year or two. Maybe when I retire?
I enclose my talk below. I only have it in Chinese, but basically I say we love Xiamen, it's changed a lot in 20 years, I've been to over 100 cities in over 30 countries and lived in a dozen, but Xiamen is one of the most special--and more and more foreigners thinks so as well, and want to move here from Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. because they not only want business success but a good living environment for their family--and Xiamen gives us that. I also threw in for free that our sons love Xiamen as well, and that Shannon, who works at the Xiamen Millennium Harbourview Hotel, just married a beautiful local Xiamen girl (and showed a photo of Shannon and our beautiful new daughter), and I said that I hope they get busy and give us some Sino-Chinese grandkids soon. And that was about it. Except for taking a couple of breaths here and there.
The photo, by the way, is of them making me up for the program. Someone said, "He doesn't need make-up. He's white enough!" Chinese, as you know, think the whiter the better. But the make-up girl said, "We're making him darker, not lighter."
我爱厦门（普通话），我是厦门人（闽南话）。我们全家是1988年来到厦门的，从来到这里的第一天起，我们就有一种感觉。我曾经走访了30多国家的数百个城市，并且在其中的十几个城市居住过，但我感觉厦门市世界上最好的城市之一。
实际上，许多在这里的外国人也赞同这个观点。十几年前，很少有外国人会待在厦门超过一两年。现在，厦门变得如此美好，很多人都不愿意离开了。
每周我都要受到好几封电子邮件，咨询来厦门访问的事。现在的厦门，在城市建设与发展上不亚于欧美一些先进城市，甚至在某些方面比美国，欧洲的一些知名城市还要好。
现在，不仅是我和妻子决定在厦门过一辈子，我们的两个儿子也有同样打算。我的大儿子娶了厦门姑娘做老婆，现在在厦门千禧海景酒店工作。我还要介绍更多的外国人来厦门参观访问。我经常收到读过我的书或者访问我介绍厦门网站的外国人给我来的信，他们希望移居厦门。他们中的许多人已经在中国的上海或广州生活过，并希望留在中国。同时，他们也想在商业上有发展，给他们的家庭提供一个良好环境，正如厦门提供给我的环境一样。
www.amoymagic.com
This afternoon, I was one of 3 guests on a TV special, "100 Wenming City Mayors," 《百位市长》， with Mayor Liu Cigui. I've never figured out a good way to translate "wenming." Civilized? Cultured? Since I helped Xiamen win the international Livcom Award in 2002 in Stuttgart, Germany, the city has gone on to win numerous other international honors, including the coveted U.N. Habitat award (I was impressed too, once it was explained to me; I had thought habitats were what you put hamsters in).
I'm surprised at all of the changes in Xiamen even over the past year. I didn't know we had almost 100,000 Taiwan residents in Xiamen now! Makes sense, though; 3/4 of Taiwanese are from S. Fujian anyway.
I also saw a middle school student who wrote a letter of complaint to the mayor about environment problems in relatively remote Xiang An (where the undersea tunnel will end up; Xiamen University is building an extension there, and Xiamen YMCA was talking about building some kind of retreat center out there).
But back to the student who complained...she was shocked when Mayor Liu gave her a handwritten response, and then showed up at her home to see first hand what she had complained about. She said, "What we can do for ourselves, we should do for ourselves--but if we can't handle it, the government should." And, I suppose, they did!
I gave a short talk, and was glad they can edit it. I forgot the very first paragraph and after stumbling, grabbed my notes out of my pocket, reviewed them, and then went on--fairly smoothly from there. Even after 21 years here, I'm still not a "natural" at doing TV in Chinese--though this time I did the first few lines in the Amoy Dialect, which was fun. And that's probably why I forgot the rest of the lines. It's still my dream to take some time to study the dialect for a year or two. Maybe when I retire?
I enclose my talk below. I only have it in Chinese, but basically I say we love Xiamen, it's changed a lot in 20 years, I've been to over 100 cities in over 30 countries and lived in a dozen, but Xiamen is one of the most special--and more and more foreigners thinks so as well, and want to move here from Shanghai, Guangzhou, etc. because they not only want business success but a good living environment for their family--and Xiamen gives us that. I also threw in for free that our sons love Xiamen as well, and that Shannon, who works at the Xiamen Millennium Harbourview Hotel, just married a beautiful local Xiamen girl (and showed a photo of Shannon and our beautiful new daughter), and I said that I hope they get busy and give us some Sino-Chinese grandkids soon. And that was about it. Except for taking a couple of breaths here and there.
The photo, by the way, is of them making me up for the program. Someone said, "He doesn't need make-up. He's white enough!" Chinese, as you know, think the whiter the better. But the make-up girl said, "We're making him darker, not lighter."
我爱厦门（普通话），我是厦门人（闽南话）。我们全家是1988年来到厦门的，从来到这里的第一天起，我们就有一种感觉。我曾经走访了30多国家的数百个城市，并且在其中的十几个城市居住过，但我感觉厦门市世界上最好的城市之一。
实际上，许多在这里的外国人也赞同这个观点。十几年前，很少有外国人会待在厦门超过一两年。现在，厦门变得如此美好，很多人都不愿意离开了。
每周我都要受到好几封电子邮件，咨询来厦门访问的事。现在的厦门，在城市建设与发展上不亚于欧美一些先进城市，甚至在某些方面比美国，欧洲的一些知名城市还要好。
现在，不仅是我和妻子决定在厦门过一辈子，我们的两个儿子也有同样打算。我的大儿子娶了厦门姑娘做老婆，现在在厦门千禧海景酒店工作。我还要介绍更多的外国人来厦门参观访问。我经常收到读过我的书或者访问我介绍厦门网站的外国人给我来的信，他们希望移居厦门。他们中的许多人已经在中国的上海或广州生活过，并希望留在中国。同时，他们也想在商业上有发展，给他们的家庭提供一个良好环境，正如厦门提供给我的环境一样。
www.amoymagic.com
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