Sunday, October 07, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the People’s Republic of China Place: ChengHua Da Dao Street, Si Xi Zhong Canting/Restaurant- North End of Chengdu Time: 12:16pm Topic: Marriage of Systems, Cultures and Values: Power Engine Discipline: Culture & Society and Social Engineering Weather and Surroundng Conditions: It’ beautiful and clear skies over Chengdu on this day, the last day of the National Day holiday. For this reason, the streets are atypically crowded and busy. Everyone seems to be preparng for the resumption of active working life comes tomorrow, Monday, October 8. At about the juction of the Wai Nian Tang Square, where I am at the moment, from where the ChengHua Road/Avenue shoots off, I can very well appreciate this boisterousness of the city at this eve of back to work or school period for the rest of the autumn season. Everyone is absorbed. The street cleaner, the shoe shiner, the candy hawker, the dog trader, the gambler, the food retailer, the three and two- wheel transporter like the taxi men and women are all fully engaged. One phenomenon that has come to my notice that makes this modernising New China a set apart from the ot...[查看详细内容..]

Sunday, October 07, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the People’s Republic of China Place: ChengHua Da Dao Street, Si Xi Zhong Canting/Restaurant- North End of Chengdu Time: 12:16pm Topic: Marriage of Systems, Cultures and Values: Power Engine Discipline: Culture & Society and Social Engineering Weather and Surroundng Conditions: It’ beautiful and clear skies over Chengdu on this day, the last day of the National Day holiday. For this reason, the streets are atypically crowded and busy. Everyone seems to be preparng for the resumption of active working life comes tomorrow, Monday, October 8. At about the juction of the Wai Nian Tang Square, where I am at the moment, from where the ChengHua Road/Avenue shoots off, I can very well appreciate this boisterousness of the city at this eve of back to work or school period for the rest of the autumn season. Everyone is absorbed. The street cleaner, the shoe shiner, the candy hawker, the dog trader, the gambler, the food retailer, the three and two- wheel transporter like the taxi men and women are all fully engaged. One phenomenon that has come to my notice that makes this modernising New China a set apart from the ot...[查看详细内容..]

Monday, October 01, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the People’s Republic of China Time: 2:21pm Place: Platinum Open-Air Plaza, Downtown Chengdu Topic: Sound of Chinese Traditional and Classical Music & Instruments in Display in Chengdu Discipline: Arts and Culture/Music Weather and Surrounding Conditions: Temperature has fallen drastically low in these early days of autumn in the city. Like everyone else, Li Hei had adjusted to the times. I have renewed my wardrobe. Warm clothings are in gear and fashion now. Sitting on this busy outside spot in the commercial side of Chengdu, I can feel the wind blowing and the accompanying cold, despite my thick sweater and the outer jacket. As consumers change their taste in adaptation to the season, so too do the sellers. The shops behiind and beside me bear testimony to this age-old economic adage. Their spring and summer time items have either been auctioned or discarded to make place for autumnal and winter gears. INTRODUCTION Perhaps to help heat up the cold environs, the orchestra of the Denglong Jie-Babao Jie municipality in the area occasionally is putting up some concerts. Like every professional group in this not...[查看详细内容..]

Monday, October 01, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the People’s Republic of China Time: 2:21pm Place: Platinum Open-Air Plaza, Downtown Chengdu Topic: Sound of Chinese Traditional and Classical Music & Instruments in Display in Chengdu Discipline: Arts and Culture/Music Weather and Surrounding Conditions: Temperature has fallen drastically low in these early days of autumn in the city. Like everyone else, Li Hei had adjusted to the times. I have renewed my wardrobe. Warm clothings are in gear and fashion now. Sitting on this busy outside spot in the commercial side of Chengdu, I can feel the wind blowing and the accompanying cold, despite my thick sweater and the outer jacket. As consumers change their taste in adaptation to the season, so too do the sellers. The shops behiind and beside me bear testimony to this age-old economic adage. Their spring and summer time items have either been auctioned or discarded to make place for autumnal and winter gears. INTRODUCTION Perhaps to help heat up the cold environs, the orchestra of the Denglong Jie-Babao Jie municipality in the area occasionally is putting up some concerts. Like every professional group in this not-s...[查看详细内容..]

Tuesday, August 21, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the People’s Republic of China Time: 1:10pm Place: Chengdu EYE Hospital/AIER Yan Ke Yi Yuan, Wan He Lu 86 hao Subject: Language Assimilation/Inculcation Topic: Hanzi-Hanyu Happily Harmonizes with English High Tech Language Weather and Surrounding Conditions: It is raining in Chengdu as write this piece. Chengdu Ren, like most Chinese DO NOT STAND being wet by the rains, so everyone is running helter, skelter, looking for any make-do shelter. Upon descending downtown where I normally go for coffee at the Baboa Jie Starbuck Coffee Shop, I too found shelter at this hospital, immediately opposite my bus stop. I chose this place because herein works one of my English language students, Lu Daifu/Dr. Lu, an eye specialist in cataract operations. Because Doctor Lu is obviously interested in scientific and technological terminologies, mandated by her profession, I am hence obliged as her private English teacher/fudao laoshi to keep an eye on high tech information and related stuffs, especially if they have medical or biological use. Dr. Lu intends to further her skill, professional and cultural know- how in an English spea...[查看详细内容..]

Daily Cosmic Calendar: Your Likely Fortune as of the Hour Provided by Astrology.com By Mark Lerner for Astrology.com - Hold Everything! A thick, cosmic fog rolls into our atmosphere and it is hard to maintain the clarity needed for lucid decision-making. First of all, yesterday's void lunar cycle in Capricorn remains in effect until 3:36PM PDT when the Moon takes the lunar baton for a two-day marathon run through airy Aquarius. This twilight-zone influence today pervades the morning hours and beyond while Mercury and Mars form a 90-degree squaring pattern from Virgo to Gemini (9:00AM PDT). Hot on the heels of yesterday's Mercury-Jupiter fracas and Thursday's Mars-Jupiter altercation, the universe is upping the ante by adding an element of mental instability and emotional turbulence. Projecting anger on well-meaning friends and relatives is a no-no. Acting on impulse -- without knowing all the facts or thinking along logical lines -- is a prescription for disaster. As if this weren't enough, Venus and Neptune chime in by opposing each other from Leo to Aquarius (2:49PM PDT). The shadow side of this polarity is that confusion, chaos and illusions can grow in affa...[查看详细内容..]

NEWS ARTICLE Confucius Not Only Said It, He Played It on the Zither April 28, 2000 - AP Confucius not only said interesting things, he sang them and accompanied himself on a kind of zither. The Smithsonian Institution's Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is opening a show Saturday of musical instruments from Confucius' time, 2,500 years ago. A collection of his lyrics - unfortunately there are no melodies - is one of the first pieces of Chinese literature handed down through the centuries. "It is said that Confucius accompanied himself on a 'qin' while singing the odes of the Shi Jing, or the 'Classic of Poetry,'" says cellist Yo-Yo Ma in a guide to the exhibit. "We don't know what Confucius' qin may have looked like, but in popular accounts of his life, the image of the philosopher-musician became firmly established." The qin is a kind of zither. Today's Chinese musicians still use one kind. Ma is an American of Chinese ancestry, one of today's leading cellists playing classical western music. Jenny F. So, the Sackler's curator of ancient Chinese art, said in an interview that some of the "odes" were just folk songs. Confucius reportedly made a practice of dancing with his disciples ever...[查看详细内容..]

Thursday, September 06, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan Province, the People’s Republic of China Time: 3:50pm Place: Study Corner, Starbuck Coffee Shop downtown, Babao Street Subject: Pavarotti Goes Silent Forever, Dies After Years of Vocal Talents Discipline: Music/Culture/Obituary- Fugao INTRODUCTION There are days when one wakes up in a high mood, having positive thoughts about life and living, develop a great plan for the day, and then suddenly, something dramatic happens and tips the balance overwhelmingly towards the negative, where one never dreamed to be. This is one of those days in my humble existence. I got up this morning to a good start. By midday everything was quite ok, but for the presence of drizzles in the city. Since summer is out and autumn is in, the regular presence of rain does not trouble me for much anymore these days. This means the cold that comes along with the rain is also tolerable and even welcome after the long and swelteringly hot summer. What torpedoed my day happened just now while I was about checking my e-mail, like I do regularly every time of the day, when my multiple commitme...[查看详细内容..]

Monday, September 10, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan, the People’s Republic of China Place: Starbucks Coffee Shop Downtown Subject: Brain Differences According to Our Political Views/Thoughts Discipline: Science/ Social Science & Politics Weather and Surrounding Conditions: This morning and early afternoon in the city was graced by a little spell of drizzle in confirmation of the fact that we are deep into the autumnal season. The evening is proving beautiful, cool and dry and quiet. It is especially so here in this coffee shop, where the Jazz tunes of Louis Armstrong peppers up my writing mood for good. The growing middle class of Chengdu finds comfort in having a nice and short spell here, after the diner hour, before beating a retreat home for a night of repose after a day’s hard work. INTRODUCTION Whatever be their life’s calling, these good citizens of China, like everyone else, qualify to a political animal, as per the definition of Aristotle. This great philosopher is credited to have described man to be a political animal, a social being that tends to depend on others of his/her likes to survive and thrive. Separated and isolated for a long tim...[查看详细内容..]

Monday, September 10, 2007 Dateline: Chengdu, Sichuan, the People’s Republic of China Place: Starbucks Coffee Shop Downtown Subject: Brain Differences According to Our Political Views/Thoughts Discipline: Science/ Social Science & Politics Weather and Surrounding Conditions: This morning and early afternoon in the city was graced by a little spell of drizzle in confirmation of the fact that we are deep into the autumnal season. The evening is proving beautiful, cool and dry and quiet. It is especially so here in this coffee shop, where the Jazz tunes of Louis Armstrong peppers up my writing mood for good. The growing middle class of Chengdu finds comfort in having a nice and short spell here, after the diner hour, before beating a retreat home for a night of repose after a day’s hard work. INTRODUCTION Whatever be their life’s calling, these good citizens of China, like everyone else, qualify to a political animal, as per the definition of Aristotle. This great philosopher is credited to have described man to be a political animal, a social being that tends to depend on others of his/her likes to survive and thrive. Separated and isolated for a long tim...[查看详细内容..]