Commentary & reflections on Chinese politics, society & culture, with particular attention to the Greater Pearl River Delta. Occasional postings on other topics that interest me.
Barack Obama has been hailed as America's first black president, and his candidacy and election have led some commentators to even proclaim America as a post-racial society, in which race no longer matters. But perhaps he should be better identified as America's most multicultural president, if not the first multicultural president, given his own living experiences in communities ranging from Honolulu to Jakarta to Chicago, and the extensive African and Asian connections in his immediate and extended families. As Time observes in detailing his family tree, "With roots in Kansas, Kenya and beyond, [Barack Obama] is a one-man melting pot."
Barack Obama's African Family, With Stepmother Kezia in Front of Him
The African and Midwestern roots of Obama's life are well known: his father Barack Obama Sr., a bright Kenyan villager who was one of the first Africans to attend the University of Hawaii and later pursued graduate studies in economics at Harvard; his extended family in Kenya through his father, including, among others, his stepmother Kezia who was Senior's first wife; his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, who married and divorced two men from foreign cultures, "was a teen mother who later got a Ph.D. in anthropology," and helped build the microfinance program in Indonesia from 1988 to 1992; Ann's parents, Madelyn Payne and Stanley Dunham, who raised Obama in his mother's absence; Obama's community roots and work as community organizer, civil rights lawyer, law professor and state senator in Illinois; his immediate family composed of wife Michelle, and daughters Malia Ann and Natasha; and his brother-in-law Craig Robinson, the basketball head coach of the Oregon State Beavers.
Much less in the public consciousness are Obama's connections to Asia. Aside from his stepfather Lolo Soetoro and his half-sister Maya Soetoro who are from Indonesia, he has a half-brother-in-law Konrad Ng who is a Malaysian Canadian of Chinese ancestry, and an African half-brother Mark Ndesandjo, who is a businessman in Shenzhen, China.
Barack Obama, right, with his stepfather Lolo Soetoro, mother Ann Dunham, and half-sister Maya Soetoro
After Ann divorced Barack Obama Sr., who had returned to Kenya, she fell in love with another fellow student at the University of Hawaii, Lolo Soetoro. They married and moved to Lolo's native country Indonesia, where Barack Obama Jr. would live from 1967 to 1971, when he returned to Hawaii to be under the care of his grandparents and to attend Punahou School.
[Then] the stepfather mused about the nature of things, and about what it took to survive in a difficult and dangerous world: "Men take advantage of weakness in other men. They're just like countries in that way. The strong man takes the weak man's land. He makes the weak man work in his fields. If the weak man's woman is pretty, the strong man will take her ... Which would you rather be?"
Obama told Newsweek's Jon Meacham: "I remember that very vividly, and my stepfather was a good man who gave me some things that were very helpful. One of the things that he gave me was a pretty hardheaded assessment of how the world works."
Obama's half-sister Maya Soetoro credits Obama with driving her to excel: "He was always pushing me to sort of, at that point, exceed my own lazy inclinations. My mother and father divorced when I was 9, so I think he started giving me a great deal of guidance as a big brother. And he helped me find my voice and my passion and helped to work to offer a lot of guidance."
Maya met her future husband, Konrad Ng, while both were pursuing Ph.D. degrees at the University of Hawaii. Konrad's parents were originally from Sabah, Malaysia, who moved to Canada where Konrad was born in 1974. Konrad and Maya married in 2003, and have a four year old daughter Suhalia. Today Maya Soetoro-Ng, who has a Ph.D. in education from the University of Hawaii, teaches U.S. History, global studies and peace studies at La Pietra Hawaii School for Girls. Konrad Ng, holder of a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Hawaii, is an assistant professor in the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawaii, where he teaches courses in the Critical Studies track.
Konrad Ng's Message in Support of Barack Obama
A Times of London story, pejoratively entitled "Barack Obama’s brother pushes Chinese imports on US," is probably the first media report on Mark Ndesandjo, the son of Barack Obama, Sr. and his third wife Ruth Nidesand, an American woman who now "runs the up-market Maduri kindergarten in Nairobi." Journalist Michael Sheridan points out that Obama and Ndesandjo have contrasting views towards their African heritage. Moreover, "while Obama chose to live in the glare of publicity, his half-brother submerged himself in the crowds of the most cosmopolitan city in China." (Thomas Crampton, a former correspondent with International Herald Tribune and The New York Times, has compiled the most extensive biographical information on Mark Ndesandjo.)
Mark Ndesandjo and His Business Partner and Close Friend Sui Zhengjun
Like Obama, Ndesandjo received an elite education in the United States, graduating from Brown University, and then earning an M.S. in physics from Stanford and an M.B.A. from Emory University. The half brothers met for the first time when Obama went to Kenya in 1988. While Obama celebrated his "rediscovery of his African inheritance," Ndesandjo dismissed Kenya as “just another poor African country” to which he felt little attachment, and also the notion of racial identity: “life’s hard enough without all that excess baggage.”
Obama and Ndesandjo's stands towards China are not consistent either. The financial meltdown has dominated the attention of the American public and the presidential candidates to the degree that the topic of U.S.-China relations, arguably the single most important issue in American foreign policy, has hardly surfaced at the presidential debates. However, during the campaign Obama has repeatedly charged China with trade measures that were detrimental to American workers: dumping goods; not opening their own markets; theft of intellectual property; undervalued currency. While stating his commitment to free trade, he also called for confronting China on its alleged unfair trade practices. Ndesandjo, on the other hand, has a company that provides services to Chinese companies to help them to export to the United States.
USC US-China Institute, "Election '08 and the Challenge of China," Part 8: Obama and China
After working at Lucent Technologies and Nortel, Ndesandjo went to Shenzhen in 2002 to teach English as a volunteer in a U.S.-China cultural exchange program, and fell in love with China so much that he settled and established roots in Shenzhen. He has developed fluency in Mandarin Chinese, and learned to write Chinese characters in cursive script with a brush. A self-taught pianist, Ndesandjo has taught orphan children how to play the piano at Shenzhen Social Welfare Center since 2002. He has recently married a Chinese woman from Henan province. With his friend and business partner Sui Zhengjun (隋政军), Ndesandjo founded a eatery chain called Cabin BBQ, with its first outlet in Shenzhen in 2003 and seven branches today. Their consulting firm, Worldnexus (天下), "has provided corporate communications and website design to Chinese firms seeking customers in English-speaking markets."
Mark Ndesandjo Teaching Orphans How to Play the Piano
Ndesandjo became the subject of considerable attention from the media towards the end of July after his fraternal connections to Obama became known, to the degree that he disappeared from public view，in order to avoid any negative impact on Obama's campaign. He was also approached by the wine producers of Shenyang Dragon Medical Co. Ltd., Liaoning Province to be their product spokesman, but he declined.
Chinese TV News Program on Mark Ndesandjo (in Cantonese), Showing Him Teaching Piano at an Orphanage and Doing Chinese Calligraphy
Pete Rouse, White House Senior Adviser-Designate
In addition to the Asian connections in Obama's family members, those in his staff and cabinet nominations may also be noted. At least two of his senior advisers have Asian American roots. Pete Rouse, Obama's Senate Chief of Staff, Co-chairman of the transition team and Senior Adviser-Designate in the White House, who "helped Obama find the delicate balance between being a rank-and-file senator and high-profile national figure," has a white father and a Japanese mother. Chris Lu (盧沛寧), Legislative Director of Obama’s Senate Office, Executive Director of his transition team and Cabinet Secretary-Designate of his White House staff, is a Chinese American classmate of Obama's at Harvard Law School, and responsible for his legislative work in congress.
Chris Lu, Cabinet Secretary-Designate of Obama's White House Staff
Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs-Designate
Two distinguished Asian Americans have been nominated by Barack Obama for his cabinet. Eric Shinseki, nominee as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, was a four-star general serving as Army Chief of Staff who in February of 2003 recommended that the U.S. should deploy several hundred thousand troops "to ensure that it could maintain order and genuinely control Iraq's sizable territory and potentially fractious society after it ousted Saddam" Hussein, and was publicly rebuked by Paul Wolfowitz, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld. As James Fallows, journalist for The Atlantic Monthly points out, Shinseki is "the first Asian-American in a military-related cabinet position, not to mention a Japanese-American honored for lifelong military service on Pearl Harbor Day," and also "the man who was right, when Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, et al were so catastrophically wrong." The fact that "a Japanese-American patriot from Hawaii should receive this news [of his nomination] on December 7" was "karmic justice."
Fallows describes the nomination of Steven Chu as Secretary of Energy as "An even more impressive pick than Shinseki." According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, of which the Chinese American physicist is the Director, Chu is "is a Nobel laureate physicist and a Professor of Physics and Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California (UC), Berkeley. He is also one of the nation’s foremost and outspoken advocates for scientific solutions to the twin problems of global warming and the need for carbon-neutral renewable sources of energy." Fallows observes that Chu is a "scientific explainer-in-chief" who is "Modest, funny, and willing to explain the work of of a scientist in terms and images most people can understand." In Fallows' judgment, "policy politics," not "identity politics" or political loyalty or ideological purity, was the most important reason for the selection of both Shinseki and Chu. The fact that Barack Obama makes professional expertise the most important criterion for his personnel decisions, and that he comes from by far the most multicultural background of any president in U.S. history, is an encouraging harbinger for the future of our increasingly multicultural nation in an increasingly multipolar world.
"Conversations with History: Steven Chu, A Scientist's Random Walk," U.C. Berkeley, Feb. 13, 2004
14-year old Chinese Hou Yifan (侯逸凡) has achieved another milestone in her brief but spectacular career in chess competitions this fall: the title of International Grandmaster with an Elo rating of 2578. At the age of 14 years and 6 months, she became the youngest woman to achieve the highest rank in chess, and is currently the youngest grandmaster of either sex.
Back in 1991, Hungarian sisters Zsuzsanna (Susan) Polgár and Judit Polgár became the third and fourth women to achieve the title of International Grandmaster, and the first women to do so by achieving it the regular way --- three grandmaster (GM) norms and an Elo rating over 2500. The previous two holders, Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze, who competed in chess in women-only events at a time when men and women played in segregated tournaments and matches, had been awarded the GM title for the World Chess Federation (FIDE) under special circumstances. To this date FIDE maintains separate ratings and separate world championship cycles for women, who can earn norms for the Woman FIDE Master (WFM), Woman International Master (WIM), and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). However, the Polgár sisters, Susan, Sofia, and Judit broke the sexual barrier by competing in previously men-only events. Today, women routinely compete in open events and some have earned FIDE Master (FM), International Master (IM) and Grandmaster (GM) titles, which have more demanding norms than the women-only titles.
Judit Polgár gained her GM title at the age of 15 years and 4 months, thereby breaking the record for the youngest grandmaster, held previously by American Bobby Fischer, who had achieved the title at 15 years and 6 months back in 1958. Fischer subsequently defeated Soviet world champion Boris Spassky in 1972, thereby breaking the monopoly of the Soviets on the world chess championship, and becoming a Cold War hero and icon.
In 2002, Humpy Koneru of India became the youngest girl to gain the grandmaster title, beating Judit Polgár's record by 3 months. Now Koneru's own record has been broken by Hou Yifan by 7 months. However, the youngest person of either sex to attain the grandmaster title remains Sergey Karjakin of the Ukraine, who did so in 2002 at 12 years and 7 months.
Born Feb. 27, 1994 at Xinghua (兴化) in Jiangsu (江苏) Province, Hou Yifan demonstrated a precocious gift for chess at a very age[ch]. At the age of 6 she was sent to the Shandong Evening News Chess Academy (齐鲁晚报棋院). Hou's progress was rapid. She became a national master at age 8, national grandmaster at age 9, the youngest representative of a Chinese national team at age 10, and the world's youngest Woman Grandmaster at age 13. Among her competitive successes are: 1st place in the girl's under-10 section of the 2003 World Youth Championship; reached the final 16 in the 2006 Women's World Chess Championship at age 12; silver medal for fourth (reserve) board performance at the 2006 Chess Olympiad; youngest player to win the Chinese Women's Chess Championship at age 13 in 2007.
Hou Yifan in Kabardin Costume at Nalchik
Having already won her second China's women chess championship and attained two of the three required GM norms earlier in 2008, Hou Yifan competed in the Women's World Chess Championship, held at Nalchik, the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic in Russia, from August 28 to September 18. She reached the finals against Russia's Alexandra Kosteniuk, who has been dubbed as "the Anna Kournikova of chess," as she "has traded on her looks, modeling for fashion magazines like the European editions of Vogue and Marie Claire, and selling bikini-clad images of herself through her Web site."
Kosteniuk put the comparison with Kournikova to rest by winning her match with Hou 2 1/2 to 1 1/2, thereby becoming the 14th women's world champion. Despite this near miss at becoming world champion, Hou Yifan did achieve the third and final GM norm during the championship. "Kosteniuk said she was afraid of how strong Hou would become in a few years, and predicted that Hou would soon dominate women’s competitions."
Hou Yifan's success, however, is not a fluke. Her innate talent has been nurtured by a system that has made China into a formidable chess power in only a couple of decades, particularly in women's competitions. At the Shandong Evening News Chess Academy, she had trained under IM Tong Yuanming (童渊铭), who was national champion in 1993 and a renowned chess coach whose students have won scores of championships [ch] in world and national competitions. After Hou won a gold medal at the 2003 World Youth Championship, Tong introduced her to train with GM Ye Jiangchuan (叶江川), the chief coach of the Chinese national men's and women's teams since 2000.
Although China's number of titled players (85) is very small compared with several other countries (1844 for Russia, 1068 for Germany, 500 for the United States, 386 for Ukraine, and 371 for Hungary), its competitive strength is very high as measured by the average rating of the top 10 players. China's men ranked third in the world with an average rating of 2651 as compared to Russia's 2719 and Ukraine's 2690. China's women are top-ranked with an average rating of 2479 as compared with Russia's 2457 and Ukraine's 2428. It appears that China's chess system under the Chinese Chess Association (中国国际象棋协会) [ch] focuses on training a small number of internationally highly competitive players who can win medals and championships abroad rather than promoting the popularity of the game among the masses. If that is a correct assessment, then the situation for chess is similar to that for sports. "China's sports system is an elite programme that pools the best youngsters and trains them in athletic academies at various levels." As Jin Can, a sports researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, points out, "This `gold medal strategy' means every official, from the top level to the grass roots, focuses on producing only gold-medal-winning athletes. Only the sports directors who can train gold-winning athletes are good directors ... As a result, the officials care only about achieving good results. They don't care about promoting sport to the public ... There is a consensus among academics that the new strategy should promote mass participation in sports activities."
There is no denial however, that China has become a great chess power, particularly in women's competitions. In 1991, Xie Jun (谢军) broke the monopoly held by players from the former Soviet Union in the women's world championships since 1950 by defeating Georgia's Maya Chiburdanidze, who had held the title since 1978, in a title match. After losing the title to Susan Polgar of Hungary in 1996, Xie regained the title in 1999 and held it till 2001. Two other Chinese women have also become world champions: Zhu Chen (诸宸), who won the title in 2001 by defeating Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia (the current world champion) but did not defend her title in 2004 because of pregnancy; Xu Yuhua (许昱华), who won the title in 2006 with a victory in the finals over Russian IM Alisa Galliamova.
The Chinese women's team has been highly successful in the biennial Chess Olympiads, winning a medal in all competitions between 1990 and 2006: 4 golds, 1 silver, and 4 bronzes. The men's team has been less successful, winning a medal only in 2006 with a second place finish. China's performance at the 2008 Chess Olympiad in Dresden, however, was disappointing. Both the men's and women's teams were seeded no. 3, but finished no. 7 in the open section and no. 8 in the women's section respectively. Armenia won the open section, while Georgia broke the Chinese women's string of medals in the Olympiads and won the gold medal by defeating China 2 1/2 to 1 1/2 in the 10th round and Serbia 3 to 1 in the 11th round.
Tang Dynasty Ladies, Opening Ceremony, Aug. 8, 2008
China's splendid performances and spectacular shows along with controversies about alleged underaged gymnasts and a lip-synching young singer at the Beijing Olympics have attracted worldwide attention. Although the United States won the most medals (36 gold, 38 silver and 36 bronze for a total of 110), the Chinese team had the most gold medals (51) to go along with 21 silver medals and 28 bronze medals.
Yang Wei (杨威), Gold Medalist in Men's All Around Gymnastics
Some Western commentators see the sports rivalry between China and the U.S. as "a competition between systems, between state-sponsored athletes and individualists, East and West, democracy and the single-party state." Michael Allen Gillespie of Duke University points out that in fact Americans brought home more gold medals than Chinese citizens. This is because in official counts a team medal is counted the same as an individual medal, whereas in the actual awarding of the medals, all 12 members of the U.S. basketball team, for example, get one gold medal each, while the Chinese winner of the men's table tennis singles gets just one medal. Because Americans do better in team sports such as basketball than the Chinese, the Americans actually hauled in more medals: by Gillespie's count, "Americans took home 118 gold medals, 99 silver medals and 76 bronze medals, while the Chinese took home 76 gold, 35 silver and 38 bronze medals. That is 293 total medals for the USA to 149 for China." For Gillespie America's superiority in team sports over China is no accident:
Voluntary cooperation has always been a hallmark of the American system, suffusing the lives of children and adults alike, an outstanding factor in our playrooms and in our boardrooms.
China, by contrast, has always put much less emphasis on voluntary cooperation than on hierarchical control and the obligation of those below to take directions from those above. Such discipline and obedience can produce individuals who become superb at repeating individual tasks, as in the diving competitions where the Chinese were outstanding, but it cannot produce the creativity and voluntary cooperation necessary to the successful operation of a team.
Dancers at Closing Ceremony, Aug. 24, 2008
Interestingly, many Chinese were not convinced that China's record number of Olympic medals mean that China is a great sports power. In an online poll on the portal 163.com on the question "Is China a great power in sports?", 4730 respondents said yes while 17,030 chose no. The naysayers pointed out that China is still weak in the most popular sports in the world, including basketball, soccer, and track and field. Moreover, many of the sports that China won gold medals are totally irrelevant to the daily lives of the people: for example, few people in China actually lift weights or row boats. Most importantly, some of the naysayers argued that "the number of gold medals implies a great investment on professional athletes training, but don’t necessarily mean adequate support for populace health and sports, namely enough stadiums, spaces, infrastructures built for common people."
Still, the shortcomings of the Chinese sports system notwithstanding, most people would argue that the Beijing Olympics was a great success for the host country and set a very high bar for future Olympics host cities beginning with London.
The Paralympics, which was held at Beijing following the Olympics from September 6 to 17, also commanded considerable global attention. The Paralympics had its origins as a program to rehabilitate British war veterans with spinal injuries, founded by neurologist Sir Ludwig Guttman in 1948. What began as sports competitions among patients of several hospitals coinciding with the London Olympics of 1948 evolved into the modern Parallel Olympics or Paralympics over time. The first Paralympics took place in Rome which was hosting the Olympics in 1960: Sir Ludwig Guttman brought 400 athletes in wheelchairs to compete there. The movement took a giant leap forward when South Korea, hosts of the Olympic Games in 1988, decided to hold a truly parallel Paralympics "staged on the same scale and lines as the Olympics." At the 2004 Athens Paralympics, a record 134 nations competed. China topped the tables for the first time, winning 63 gold medals, 46 silver medals and 32 bronze medals for a total of 141 medals.
China's performances at the Paralympics were even more successful than in the Olympics. 322 Chinese athletes competed in all 20 sports. China won a total of 211 medals (89 gold, 70 silver, 52 bronze), more than double the total medals won by runner-up Great Britain (102), with the United States just behind with 99 medals.
Receiving little to no attention in the Western media is the 1st World Mind Sports Games (第一届世界智力运动会), also held in Beijing, from October 3 to October 18 of 2008. The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA), founded in 2005, includes 4 international federations among its members: World Chess Federation (FIDE), World Bridge Federation (WBF), World Draughts Federation (FMJD) and International Go Federation (IGF). According to IMSA's Web site, "The goal of IMSA was to gather different mind sports federations to pursue common aims and interests, to organize the World Mind Sport Games under the aegis of the General Association of International Sport Federations and further realize the inclusion of mind sports in the Olympic movement. In particular, the organization's long-term plans include running World Mind Sports Games by analogy with Olympics, which will be held in Olympic host cities shortly after Winter or Summer Games." The Beijing World Mind Sports Games is thus conceived as the inaugural event in the series.
According to World Bridge Federation President José Damiani, who is one of the signatories of the the founding declaration of IMSA, "We clearly consider ourselves a sport ... Our events are no different from physical sports. They are all sports." While the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes the international bridge and chess federations, none of the mind sports are accepted as Olympic events. Nonetheless, IMSA hopes that eventually IOC can be persuaded to do so. Georgios Makropoulos, vice president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and another signatory of the founding declaration of IMSA, stated: "We hope that this event in Beijing will be so important and so big that the IOC will understand that they need us."
In fact, since the 1990s FIDE has been lobbying to gain the approval of chess as an Olympic event. Towards that goal drug tests were introduced in international chess tournaments in 2001, even though the World Anti-Doping Agency classifies chess as a "low risk sport," and it is highly unlikely that chess players can gain an edge by doping. The reason is that if chess were to become an Olympic event, it must submit to the anti-doping rules of the IOC. For the same reason the World Bridge Federation has also signed up to the World Anti-Doping Code, and at the 1st World Mind Sports Games contestants were subject to doping checks.
The 1st World Mind Sports Games featured five mind sports competitions: Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). 143 countries/regions and 2,763 competitors participated [ch]. The official logo "is a truelove knot which represents affinity, friendship, solidarity, communication, good luck as well as the traditional elements of China," with each sport represented by a color. According to Xiao Min (晓敏), Assistant to the Head of the General Administration of Sport of China (国家体育总局), the World Mind Sports Games would fully actualize the theme of "harmonious development" (和谐发展) [ch] -- the harmonious development of mass sports and competitive sports, of physical sports and mind sports, and of Olympic events and non-Olympic events.
Peformance at the World Mind Sports Games' Opening Ceremony
The 1st World Mind Sports Games was again a great success for the Chinese team in total medal count, marking the third successive world sporting event that China has both hosted and finished on top. China ranked first with 12 gold medals, 8 silver medals and 6 bronze medals. Runner-up Russia had 4 gold medals, 1 silver medal and 3 bronze medals. South Korea and Ukraine, which tied for third place, each won 2 gold medals, 4 silver medals, and 3 bronze medals. The United States ranked no. 11, with just 1 gold medal and 1 bronze medal.
Go Player Gu Li (古力) Taking Oath as Representative of All Competitors at the Opening Ceremony, Oct. 3, 2008
The Chinese may have an advantage in Xiangqi, the Chinese version of chess, and indeed they won five gold medals and three silver medals in that category (Vietnam won one silver medal and two bronze medals, while Hong Kong took two bronze medals, and Australia was runner-up in the women's team competition). However, even if one discounts those medals in Xiangqi, the Chinese team is still comfortably ahead of second-ranked Russia in total medal count.
Zhao Ruquan (赵汝权) of Hong Kong, Bronze Medalist in the Men's Rapid Xiangqi Event, Playing against Ji Zhongqi (纪中启) of the U.S.
Where the Chinese fell flat on is draughts, the only category that they failed to win any medals. This category was dominated by competitors from countries that had been part of the Soviet Union who took 12 of 15 medals, with Russia winning two golds, one silver and one bronze. The United States' only gold medal at the World Mind Sports Games was won by Moscow-born Alex Moiseyev in Checkers (Mixed).
Bridge and chess are probably the two mind sports that have the broadest geographical distribution of players and competitors, and this is reflected in the diverse origins of medal winners in both categories. Bridge was the most successful category for Norway, accounting for five medals out of a total tally of six that Norwegians won at the 1st World Mind Sports Games, and also for Turkey, which won two gold medals, the only medals the Turks won at the Games. As for host China, the Chinese won one silver and two bronze medals in bridge.
Bu Xiangzhi of China, Gold Medalist in the Men's Individual Rapid Chess Event
Countries that had been part of the Soviet Union not unexpectedly did well in chess events, but their performances were nowhere as dominating as in draughts. Ukraine won 1 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals, which accounted for all but 2 of its overall medals. Russia managed 2 golds and 1 bronze. China was even more successful than Ukraine, winning 4 golds, 3 silvers and 2 bronzes. Chinese grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi (卜祥志) was the gold medalist in the men's individual rapid event. Teen phenom Hou Yifan (侯逸凡), who is the world's youngest grandmaster of chess at age 14 and whom I have profiled on this blog, won the bronze medal in the women's individual blitz. That event was won by Russia's Alexandra Kosteniuk, who defeated Hou at the finals match of the Women's World Chess Championship earlier this year. Hou Yifan also won the gold medal in the mixed pairs rapid event (with Ni Hua (倪华) as her partner). In addition, as team member she won the silver medal in the women's teams blitz event, and the gold medal in the women's teams rapid event.
Hou Yifan of China, Winner of Four Medals in Women's Chess Events
Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia, Winner of the Women's Individual Blitz Chess Event
From the perspective of the East Asian countries, Go (weiqi 围棋 in Chinese) is probably the most prestigious of the mind sports. Go is a board game that is deceptively simple in terms of its rules, and yet profound in its strategic possibilities. Not surprisingly, all the medals were won by East Asian competitors. Although the host team garnered a respectable 5 out of 18 total medals (3 golds, 1 silver and 1 bronze), it was overshadowed by the South Korean team that won 2 golds,4 silvers and 3 bronzes (which accounted for all the medals won by South Korea at this event). Japan won bronze medals in both men's team and women's team events. Taiwan (which again has to compete under the name of Chinese Taipei at the insistence of the People's Republic of China) won its only medal: a silver in the pair Go event.
China's Gold-Medal Winning Women's Go Team against Great Britain
The Taiwan team was composed of Chou Chun-Hsun (周俊勳) [ch] and Hsieh Yi-Min (謝依旻) [ch]. 28-year old Chou Chun-Hsun, the finest professional Go player in Taiwan, was the winner of the LG Cup in 2007. Born in 1989, Hsieh Yi-Min was a Go prodigy who moved to Japan to enter a Go Academy at age 12 and became the youngest female to attain a professional rank (dan 段) at age 14 in Japan. She has already won 3 of the top 4 women's Go competitions in Japan by age 19. In the finals of the pair Go event, however, this formidable team was defeated by the China team of Huang Yizhong (黄奕中) and Fan Weijing (范蔚菁). Although both are first-class players, neither have achieved the very top ranks in Go. However, they have a personal chemistry as a team [ch], able to reach tacit agreement and tolerate the mistakes of the other.
Hsieh Yi-Min & Chou Chun-Hsun Accepting Their Silver Medals in the Pair Go Event, with the Chinese Taipei Flag Behind Them
But will the Beijing World Mind Sports Games be the first of a series that will follow the Summer or Winter Olympics and the Paralympics in the same host city? The question remains open. At the press conference concluding the event on October 18, 2008 [ch], World Bridge Federation President José Damiani praised the preparation and the implementation of the Games by the Chinese host and the achievements of the Games. He pointed out that even though mind sports cannot attract as big an audience as the Olympics or the World Cup Soccer, the five mind sports featured at the 1st World Mind Sports Games are sports with the greatest number of direct participants. In his words, "There are approximately one billion people who directly participate in these five sports. This is the biggest difference for the World Mind Sports Games; it has the highest rate of participation." However, Damiani also revealed that the location of the next World Mind Sports Games has not been determined, and that several candidate host cities as alternatives to London has been lined up. "We hope that we can come to an agreement with IOC, and that the Mind Sports Games can be linked to the Olympics like the Paralympics. But at this point we have still not received a response from IOC."
December of 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the beginning of the era of economic reform in China. A pioneer is businesswoman Zhang Huamei (章华妹), who received her getihu license (个体工商户营业执照) from the Institute of Industry and Commerce in the city of Wenzhou (温州) in Zhejiang Province on December 21, 1980, and thus became the nation's first licensed private entrepreneur (个体户). Her story has been celebrated in the People's Daily, Sina.com, Zhejiang Commercial Network (浙商网), and other Chinese language news media.
Zhang Huamei holding her getihu license
Zhang is typical of the background of many of China's first small private businessmen in the first stages of economic reform, who took up commerce out of economic necessity because the government could not or would not find work for them. Many were youth awaiting employment (待业青年); others were newly released from prison.
As the youngest of seven siblings, Zhang Huamei had no hope of landing a regular position in a work unit (单位) -- a government or collective enterprise or institution, since each household was entitled to job placement for only one son or daughter by the state. With the encouragement of her parents, Zhang set up shop in a small room in her house adjacent to the street in the fall of 1979.
At that time people who held regular jobs in work units had social status and were entitled to social benefits such as low-cost housing and medical care. To go into business was considered to be shameful, and Zhang was shunned by her friends and schoolmates.
Business was not easy: in addition to social prejudice there was a lot of competition -- on Zhang's street more than ten families had also set up shop, following her example. Moreover, the Office to Strike at Speculators (打击投机倒把办公室) could accuse petty traders of engaging in speculation (投机倒把) and confiscate their goods. Nevertheless, by selling knitting needles, elastic bands, souvenir badges, toy watches and the like, Zhang Huamei was able to earn over 100 yuan each month, as compared to the typical monthly wages of 20 yuan for an employee of a state-run work unit.
As economic reform got underway, the Office to Strike at Speculators in Wenzhou was reorganized as the Institute of Industry and Commerce (工商所), charged with promoting commodity production and exchange. The Institute announced at the end of 1979 that licenses to legalize commercial activities would be issued. Zhang Huamei immediately applied. She finally received her license a year later, making her the first legally licensed businessman in China.
After Zhang married her neighbor Yu Xinguo (余新国) in 1982, she gave birth to a son and closed shop. Zhang resumed business in 1985, selling beads, the hot commodity of the period. She was so successful that in the following year, she entered the ranks of the 10,000-yuan household (万元户), the standard for the newly rich at that time.
Facing increasing competition as more and more Wenzhou natives entered the bead trade, Zhang Huamei switched to shoes in 1990. Unfortunately, due to her lack of knowledge about the shoe trade, over the next few years she lost her savings and even accumulated debts of tens of thousands of yuan.
After she sold off her remaining stock of shoes in Tianjian, Zhang Huamei returned to her old trade of selling garment accessories, and once again achieved success in business. Her Huamei Garment Accessories Ltd. (华妹服装辅料有限公司) today sells several millions of yuan of buttons, zippers and other garment accessories each year.
Zhang Huamei being interviewed by journalists
Today, as a single shop proprietor with five employees, Zhang Huamei is an ordinary businessman in a nation of many millionaires and billionaires. Yet, as Song Shengfeng (宋乘风), the official who issued her a getihu license back in 1980 pointed out, that license announced the end of an era and the beginning of a new one [ch]. The rise and fall and rise of Zhang Huamei as a businessman epitomize the era of economic reform [ch]. As Zhang reminiscences, just over one hundred individual proprietors in Wenzhou got licenses at about the same time as she did, and the process took a year. The number of individual proprietors in the nation surpassed 1 million at the end of 1981 and 10 million at the end of 1987. Many of those who jumped into the sea of commerce (下海经商) in that first wave became so successful that today they run companies and even conglomerates.
The growth of individual proprietorships reached a peak at the end of the 1990s, numbering 31.6 million in 1999. As a result of cutthroat competition and some enterprises neglecting product quality, the number declined to 25 million at the end of 2006, leading some to predict the demise of individual proprietorships. However, the number rose back up to 27.4 million units by the end of 2007. As of November 2008, there are 285,321 units in Wenzhou. The process to apply for a license at the Industry and Business Bureau (工商局) can be completed in a single day.
The global financial crisis has affected the Wenzhou economy adversely. Yet, entrepreneurs such as Zhang Huamei depend on the domestic market, and may ride out the storm better than those in regions that are export-oriented, such as the Pearl River Delta. She is hopeful that Wenzhou can overcome current difficulties.
MIT professor Yasheng Huang has pointed out that Zhejiang Province (where Wenzhou is located) offers a significantly different model of achieving economic wealth from that of its neighbors to the north, Jiangsu Province and Shanghai Municipality. Although all three administrative units are among the richest province-level units in China, in Huang's words, "Zhejiang is rich because it has grown faster; Jiangsu [and Shanghai] is rich because it has always been rich." In Jiangsu and Shanghai, "the reigning economic model is to court, woo, and placate foreign investors while imposing onerous regulatory and financial constraints on indigenous entrepreneurs." In contrast, "The Zhejiang model is characterized by a heavy reliance on private initiatives, a noninterventionist government style in the management of firms, and a supportive credit policy stance toward private companies. Probably the most famous product of the Zhejiang model is Wenzhou, a city in southern Zhejiang province that today accounts for a disproportionate share of rich entrepreneurs, asset owners, and China's manufacturing prowess." Prof. Huang is likely to share Zhang Huamei's guarded optimisim concerning the future of Wenzhou.
The March 2008 Tibetan riots and the troubled Olympic torch relays around the world have created Chinese women martyrs and icons promoted by the Chinese government and the Chinese public. On March 14, five women, four Han and one Tibetan, who worked at a well-known casual wear store called Yishion (以纯专卖店) in Lhasa's tourist district, were burned to death when they were trapped inside the store that had been set ablaze by Tibetan rioters. Moments before her death, 19-year old Chen Jia (陈佳) had just sent off an SMS [ch] to her father saying that there were killings outside the store, that they were hiding inside and that her family should stay indoors and not worry about her. Tibetan Cirenzhuoga (次仁卓嘎) had emigrated from the Shigatse (日喀则) region four years ago, and had only gone home once as she was sending most of her monthly salary of about 1,000 yuan to her family of 13. 19-year old He Xinxin (何欣欣), who had discontinued her college studies due to financial difficulties in 2006 and worked at a restaurant, had just started a new job at Yishion for not even one week. 24-year old Yang Dongmei (杨东梅), the oldest employee at Yishion, had recently started a serious relationship with a new boyfriend. 22-year old Liu Yan (刘燕) was originally from Fujian, but moved to Tibet last year after becoming engaged to a Lhasa-based soldier.
The Chinese government treated these five women in death as martyrs in support of its version of what happened on Maarch 14: supporters of the Dalai Lama instigated ethnic Tibetans to riot, kill, burn and loot shops owned by the Chinese. Meng Jianzhu (孟建柱), head of the Ministry of Public Security (公安部), visited Lhasa [ch] on March 23 and 24, to drive home this message, to investigate the destruction done by the rioters, and to convey to the different ethnicities of Tibet the heartfelt concerns of the Chinese Communist Party and its leadership for their well-being. He emphasized that the violent actions of the rioters involving a small minority of monks, not only resulted in loss of innocent lives and destruction of massive amount of property, violated the laws of China, but also exposed the deceitfulness of the Dalai Lama who had professed to advocate non-violence. Meng made it a point to visit Yishion, bowed before the five victims' portraits and laying a wreath. He then declared, "The government will lead people of all ethnicities to smash the Dalai clique's intentional and secret effort to separate the motherland and undermine Tibet's harmony and stability." The government of Tibet Autonomous Region promised compensation of 200,000 yuan to each of the families of the 18 victims of the March 14 riots. As of April 10, 15 families, including those of the five salesgirls at Yishion, had been compensated, with the remaining 3 families yet to be identified.
During the Olympic torch relays plagued by disruptions of pro-Tibet demonstrators and confrontations between them and Chinese demonstrators, an apolitical young Chinese woman, who said that she had not heard of the Tibetan Independence Movement before, rocketed to national fame as a defender of China's national honor. A 27-year old resident of Shanghai, Jin Jing (金晶) had suffered a malignant tumor in her leg when she was nine years old. Her leg had to be amputated, and she had to undergo a year of chemotherapy. But Jin Jing did not lose her zest in life. Inspired by the television hero Zorro who fought for justice with his rapier, she took up fencing. On July 13, 2001, the day when Beijng won the right to the 2008 Olympics, Jin Jing was chosen for Shanghai's wheelchair fencing team. She later became a member of China's national wheelchair fencing team, winning numerous medals individually and as a team member at various national and international competitions, including an individual bronze medal and a team silver medal at the 2002 FESPIC (Far East and South Pacific Games to Disability) in Busan, South Korea.
Jin Jing Protecting the Torch from Protesters
Too old to compete at the Beijing Paralympics, Jin Jing was selected by Lenovo, an official sponsor of the Beijing Olympics, to be an overseas torchbearer. On the Paris leg of the torch relay on April 7, she was the third torchbearer when she was confronted by several pro-Tibet protesters who tried to take away the Olympic torch from her. One protester lunged at Jin Jing's wheelchair and grabbed her hair, but she managed to turn away and shielded the torch with her body before her attacker was hauled away by the police. Jin Jing suffered scratches and a bruised leg, but completed her section of the relay smiling.
Jin Jing Holding the Olympic Torch
Acclaimed as the "smiling angel in the wheelchair (轮椅上的微笑天使)" and "the most beautiful torchbearer (最美火炬手)" by the Chinese news media and netizens, Jin Jing came home to a hero's welcome. "Since returning home to Shanghai, she has been treated as a superstar, mobbed by fans and reporters, racing from one public appearance to another." She said, "I don't think I did anything great, Any Chinese or Olympics-loving torchbearer would protect the torch under such circumstances."
However, another young Chinese woman, Grace Wang (王千源), who is a 20-year old freshman at Duke University, became the icon of a traitress in the eyes of the angry Chinese youth (愤青) who adopt a strongly nationalistic stance and brook no dissension from their view of the Tibetan unrest as the machinations of the Dalai Lama and Tibetan splittists. But to some Western observers as well as more rational Chinese, she is a defender of dialogue and tolerance.
Grace Wang's ordeal began when, on April 9, she ran into a dozen or so of students (mostly Americans) in a pro-Tibet vigil confronted by a much larger group of pro-China demonstrators of about one hundred. During the 2007 Christmas break when the dormitories and the dining halls were closed, Wang had been housed off-campus with four Tibetan students, who were the first Tibetans she had known and with whom she had developed a friendship and exchanged life experiences. In particular, Wang began to reflect about the spiritual aspects of life under the influence of her Tibetan friends who are devout Buddhists.
Grace Wang Addressing Chinese Demonstrators, with Pro-Tibet Activists in Background, Giving Unfortunate Impression that She is a Free Tibet Supporter
Knowing people in both the pro-Tibet group and the pro-China demonstrators who were engaged in a shouting match, Wang attempted to mediate between them and to get the leaders of both groups to talk to one another. In an effort to persuade the American leader of the pro-Tibetan group to speak to the Chinese group, she agreed to write "Free Tibet, Save Tibet" on his back, an action that would be interpreted by the angry Chinese youth as support of Tibetan independence. Her various efforts to get the two groups to listen to the other side and engage in rational discourse came to naught, and Chinese demonstrators started to shove the Tibetan demonstrators and curse her as well.
That night Wang wrote a message to the Duke Chinese Students and Scholars Association, pleading for mutual understanding and thinking before acting: “Take away your anger, and your heads will become clear, your minds will become sharper, and then your judgments correct” (消除怒气，头脑才会清晰，思维才能敏捷，决断才会正确).
In the following days she received numerous online and offline threats, and her U.S. phone number and address as well as her parents' address in her home town of Qingdao were published online. Wang received torrents of abuse online from Chinese in both China and overseas who believed her to be a supporter of Tibetan independence, with only a few openly expressing support for her. The first message in a long thread in the online forum Tianya (天涯社区) is typical: "That foreign toady face of yours will always be a shameless one to the Chinese people! (你这样的崇洋媚外的嘴脸是要永远被中国人民所不耻!)" Some netizens threatened to tear her to pieces if she were to return to China. Some doubted that she supported Tibetan independence, but was instead promoting herself in front of the Western students and Western media, or trying to get a green card. China Central Television (CCTV) has gotten into the act of villifying Grace Wang as well: on April 18, its Web site showed her picture along with a video of the Duke protests under the caption "The Ugliest Chinese Student Abroad (最丑陋留学生)."
Grace Wang (Photo by Jeremy M. Lange for The New York Times)
Wang was placed under police protection and unable to resume her classes. Her parents' home in Qingdao was vandalized and her parents went into hiding. She is most worried about her family in China. According to Radio Free Asia's account of its Cantonese Service's interview with Grace Wang:
Wang doesn’t support Tibetan independence — she sees herself as a champion of human rights and free expression. “I think that Tibet is definitely a part of China. It is indivisible from China. This means that we must deal with Tibet and Tibetans as our brothers and compatriots,” she said.
“That means that we should use other methods than those used to deal with outsiders. You can use whatever methods you think expedient with outsiders, even very forceful methods. But with Tibetans we are dealing with our own relatives. There should be more reason and more relatedness in our dealings with them.”
On the angry youth phenomenon which is a major driving force in contemporary Chinese society, Grace Wang observed:
This very strange phenomenon of the angry youth among the Chinese today is a psychologically imbalanced manifestation, an abnormal patriotic way. But in reality it is definitely not patriotism.
Actually there are a lot of people in China who do not speak out and constitute the silent masses. They have the ability to observe and to think. Currently the people who observe and think with depth have not yet spoken. So floating on the surface is a layer of words spoken by those who are relatively agitated. [ch]
Wang hopes for a China that allows everyone to hear diverse political opinions and different voices. She is particularly concerned about tyranny, not just of the government, but also of the people. To her, those who assaulted her parents' home by writing big character posters, political slogans, and even spilling feces in front of their door are employing the tactics of the Cultural Revolution. What is terrifying is that this time it is the Cultural Revolution committed by the people (人民文革).
Ironically and ominously, even the "smiling angel in the wheelchair" became the target of vituperative invective by some angry youth. Angered by the assault on Jin Jing and other disruptions of the torch relay in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy's threat to boycott the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, an alleged support of the Free Tibet Movement by the French retail giant Carrefour (家乐福), Chinese netizens called for a boycott of Carrefour. Jin Jing, however, expressed reservations about such a boycott, since Carrefour's many Chinese employees would be hurt. In response, Jin Jing was called "Chinese traitor" (汉奸) and worse names by some angry netizens.
Ang Lee (李安)'s "Lust, Caution (色，戒)," winner of the Golden Lion award at the 2007 Venice Film Festival, attracted the attention of Chinese censors, angry youth, and curious film goers. Based on the short story of the same name by Eileen Chang (張愛玲), this film was set in Hong Kong and Shanghai during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War from 1937 to 1945. Chang's story was in part based on her own experiences in wartime Shanghai and in Hong Kong, where she was a student at the University of Hong Kong from 1939 to 1941. Chang might also have drawn from her own unhappy marriage to Hu Lancheng (胡蘭成), a writer who was an incorrigible philanderer, served in the puppet government of Wang Jingwei (汪精衛) during the war, and was thus considered a traitor (漢奸) by the Chinese public. Finally, the story was partly inspired by an attempted assassination in 1940 of Ding Mocun (丁默邨), a spymaster in Wang Jingwei's collaborationist government, by Zheng Pingru (鄭苹如), a 22-year old woman of mixed Chinese-Japanese parentage who was an intelligence agent for the Nationalist Party (KMT). (See K. M. Lawson's fascinating analysis, "Ding Mocun, Lung Ying-tai and Lust, Caution.")
Zheng Pingru and Wong Chia Chi, Her Counterpart in "Lust, Caution," Acted by Tang Wei
In the film Wong Chia Chi (王佳芝), a student who has been recruited by the Nationalist Party's spy network, masquerades as a rich merchant's wife in order to seduce and assassinate Mr. Yee (易默成), a ruthless counter-intelligence official in the puppet government in Shanghai. The two becomes inextricably intertwined in a love affair, with each performing and playing a role in their love-making, Mr. Yee to test whether Chia Chi is a spy and Chia Chi to convince Mr. Yee of the authenticity of her emotions. The graphic and exhausting sex scenes earned the film much controversy even in the West, and an NC-17 rating in the United States where it premiered on September 28, 2007.
Eileen Chang, Student at University of Hong Kong; Tang Wei as Chia Chi, Student in Hong Kong
Before "Lust, Caution" could be released for the viewing by mainland Chinese audiences, it had to go through script changes and 6 edits before it was finally approved by the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television or SARFT (国家广播电影电视总局). According to Fang Li, a leading film producer, China's film industry is the most backward industry in a rapidly growing market economy, thanks to the censors of SARFT, "a group of mostly elderly people who work in committee and invite critical comment on movies from different branches of government, from the Women’s Federation to provincial governments, all seeking to present their constituency in the best light and to avoid offense."
Tang Wei (Chia Chi) and Tony Leung (Mr. Yee) in "Lust, Caution"
While the cuts (which totalled 13 minutes) and script changes satisfied the censors sufficiently to allow the film to open in mainland China, they compromised the original intent of the director and simplified the film's emotional complexity and moral ambiguity. The differences between the mainland version and the overseas version are detailed by the EastSouthWestNorth blog. Aside from the expected cuts in the explicit sex scenes, which are in fact not gratuitous but central to the story, the important changes are:
The killing of Mr. Tsao was accomplished with one clean stab, rather than clumsily with eight stabs and Tsao falling down the stairs. The original edit show that killings are messy, and that the drama students who have plotted to carry out the political assassination of Mr. Yee, but have been uncovered and blackmailed by Mr. Tsao, are innocents in way over their heads. The censored version, however, sanitizes the killing and valorizes the students as budding heroic resistance fighters.
A scene with refugees dying in the streets of Shanghai was cut. Was the reason a concern that there are parallels between wartime Shanghai with the miserable living conditions of contemporary migrants to the cities?
Chia Chi's final lines in the jewelry store are changed in such a way that they indicate that she does not warn Mr. Yee to leave at once (as in the original version), but that Mr. Yee figures out on his own that he is being targeted. In place of the morally and psychologically conflicted Chia Chi torn between love and patriotism in the original version, the censored version makes the point that Chia Chi does not weaken in her resolve, and does not abandon the assassination of Mr. Yee, thereby becoming in effect a turncoat.
Joan Chen as Mrs. Yee in "Lust, Caution"
Even after the required cuts and changes, however, the film was subjected to a lot of attacks online and at salons. Both Ang Lee and Eileen Chang were denounced for allegedly denigrating Chinese resistance fighters, kowtowing to foreign aggression, and glorifying Chinese traitors during the 2nd Sino-Japanese War. China's nationalistic angry youth (愤青) took umbrage at "Lust, Caution." On Oct. 15, 2007, a group of Beijing students signed a petition [ch] to the new leadership that would be confirmed at the 17th national congress of the Chinese Communist Party. This document condemned the vulgar culture (滥俗文化) and the "pornographic, traitorous and poisonous" culture (“黄奸毒”文化) that have been promoted by the massive cultural invasion of foreign cultural products ranging from Hollywood blockbusters to junk films from Hong Kong and Taiwan to Japanese sex films and anime to Korean soap operas to American fast food. As a consequence, social morality has been utterly corrupted, the youth and children of China have been spiritually polluted to the degree that revolutionary ideals of service to the people have become virtually moribund, and people only look up to "successful" models of moneymakers who enrich themselves, but benefit neither the nation nor the people. Chen Kaige (陈凯歌)'s "The Promise" (无极) may be tolerated as an example of vulgar culture. But a product like "Lust, Caution" is the pinnacle of "pornographic, traitorous and poisonous" culture, turning a heroine who sacrificed her life in the cause of patriotic resistance into a prostitute and a socialite, and celebrating Chinese traitors (汉奸) who sold out the nation. The students demanded that the party leadership stop this spread of vulgar culture and "pornographic, traitorous and poisonous" culture and actively promote and disseminate the core values of the new socialist culture centered around the peasants and the proletariat.
Eileen Chang
This kind of attitude is not surprising among Chinese government censors and hot-headed Chinese youth, but it is disheartening that even some segments of the Chinese intelligentsia still employ the mentality and the rhetoric of the Cultural Revolution era. An example of the inflammatory and impassioned rhetoric that has been flung at "Lust, Caution" by intellectuals may be seen in a summary of the discussion of the film held at Peking University's Utopia Book Club (乌有之乡) on Nov. 11, 2007. The guest speakers were all members of the intelligentsia in academia and the mass media. Huang Jisu (黄纪苏), deputy editor at International Social Sciences, blasted the film as "a sexually transmitted skin disease" and "an insult to the good women of China." "While China has stood up, the ilks of Ang Lee are still kneeling" and embracing the leg of the West. Guo Songmin (郭松民), a freelance critic, called "Lust, Caution" "a big poisonous weed." Zhou Guojin (周国瑾), a movie director, went even further by classifying the film as a "Chinese traitor movie." Wang Xiaodong (王小东), a researcher at the Chinese Youth Research Center, shouted: "The ugly female Chinese traitor Eileen Chang wrote a story filled with dark and vile imagination in order to express her hatred against the beautiful heroine Zheng Pingru. So that was how "Lust, Caution" was created!" (More complete transcripts in Chinese of the discussion at this film salon and essays by Huang Jisu and Guo Songmin are available.)
Poster for Chen Kaige's "The Promise"
The Chinese public was not by any means unanimous in joining the condemnation of "Lust, Caution" as a work celebrating the negation of Chinese values. Even in a cut version which softened the complexities of the international edition, the psychological depth and humanistic portrayals of the film are appreciated by many. The Maoists of the past and and the leftist nationalists of the present prefer instead cultural works that sharply contrast the good and the bad characters and have a clear political message affirming the socialist revolutionary values. The leftist nationalist critics of "Lust, Caution" are certainly right to be concerned about the loss of morality in an increasingly commercial social environment, but their advocacy of a return to Maoist cultural standards takes an overly simplistic view of the allegedly corrosive effects of modern culture. If American popular culture is so insidious and harmful, how then would they explain the high level of volunteerism in American society, particularly among many young people who are committed to social service?
Still, many more people might have been attracted to the film by reports of its explicit and contortionary sex scenes, or by the fame of its Oscar-winning director, than by the intrinsic artistic merits of "Lust, Caution." Whatever the motivation of the attendees, "Lust, Caution" even in its censored version drew record audiences in China, raking in 90 million yuan or about $11.25 million in the first two weeks of its showing in China since its debut on November 1. Many Chinese, in an effort to see the forbidden scenes cut in the mainland version, downloaded the pirated overseas edition from domestic Web sites, despite warnings by security experts that the sites offering the downloads might be plagued with viruses. Dong Yanbin (董彦斌), a Ph.D. student at the China University of Political Science and Law, sued SARFT for failing to set up a ratings system that would allow adults to view an uncensored version. He also sued UME International Cineplex for infringing on his rights as a consumer by showing a cut version of the film.
Wang Lee Hom as Kuang Yu Min in "Lust, Caution"
Although no one else sought remedy through the court system (which in any case proved futile), many renewed long-standing calls for the institution of a ratings system so that adults can enjoy films with mature content. Among those who supported a ratings system are film director Jia Zhangke (賈樟柯), whose "Still Life" (三峽好人) won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 2006, and veteran star actress Gong Li (鞏俐). SARFT, however, adamantly holds on to its long-standing position that "films not suitable for children are not suitable for adults, either."
In the last two months of 2007, thousands of mainland Chinese flocked to Hong Kong for the purpose of seeing an uncensored version of "Lust, Caution." The record numbers of tourists traveling to Hong Kong solely to see a movie signifies "the rise of a class of affluent urbanites in China’s rich eastern cities who have grown increasingly accustomed to ever more choice in their lives."
"Lust, Caution" has not generated emotionally charged responses in the United States as in China. It has, however, drawn generally negative or tepid reviews. Critic Raymond Zhou (周黎明) argues that American critics have misunderstood elements of the plot and overlooked the film's multiple layers: "Human emotions writ large can transcend boundaries. It is the niceties that cause cultural misunderstandings." For example, the American critics were preoccupied with the S&M and acrobatic elements of the sex scenes between Chia Chi and Mr. Yee, and missed their symbolic meanings altogether: "The scenes epitomize their relationship, from domination, to distortion, to harmony." Zhou also points out that the American critics overlooked the connections between "Lust, Caution" and Ang Lee's previous films, such as "Sense and Sensibility": ""Lust" is "sensibility" while "caution" is "sense." Both leads -- and even some supporting characters -- have to maintain a life of caution for self-survival. When they succumb to lust or passion, they pay the ultimate price." (See also Zhou's more detailed analysis in Chinese.)
Ang Lee Receiving Award for "Lust Caution" at the 2007 Golden Horse Awards in Taipei
Ang Lee himself has pointed out the connection between "Lust, Caution" and "Brokeback Mountain," which won not only the Best Director Oscar for Lee, but also his first Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival in 2005. As Lee observes, both "Brokeback Mountain" and "Lust, Caution" "are based on stories by women in which sex, making love, is one intimate way to make connections ... 'Brokeback Mountain' is like paradise, the whole movie is like the loss of Eden . . . Something pure and unclear happened on Brokeback and they spend the next 20 years trying to go back [and] finally the tragedy comes. In "Lust, Caution," by contrast, the sex scenes here remind me of hell, [going] deeper and deeper toward hell."
Edison Chen as the Young Lau Kin Ming in "Infernal Affairs"
In early 2008, "Hong Kong's juiciest-ever sex scandal," involving the leaking and the online dissemination of some 1,300 photos of some of the Special Administrative Region's best known film industry celebrities engaged in explicit sex, sparked an even greater amount of voyeurism and controversy than Ang Lee's film. Dubbed Sexy Photos Gate (艷照門) by Chinese netizens, this cautionary tale unfolded when Edison Chen (陳冠希), a Canadian Chinese actor and singer who have become a heartthrob on the Hong Kong entertainment scene, took his pink PowerBook to a computer shop for repair. There one or more employees discovered a treasure trove of pictures of Chen in compromising positions with several women, including film star and singer Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝), Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) of the Canto-pop duo Twins, former singer and model Bobo Chan (陳文媛), and Chen's current friend Vincy Yeung (楊永晴), who is the niece of Albert Yeung (楊受成), the founder of Emperor Entertainment Group (英皇娛樂集團), which represents Chen, Cheung and Chung. Someone posted a few photos online beginning Jan. 27. Then the initial trickle led to torrents of hundreds of photos released online in waves by persons unknown.
Bobo Chan
For weeks the unfolding scandal captivated people in the Chinese world, occupying the front pages of Hong Kong newspapers for 21 days and becoming a hot topic on mainland Chinese online forums (EastSouthWestNorth has extensive coverage of developments, media coverage and public reactions). In mainland China, which normally dealt more harshly with the dissemination of pornography online, for several weeks Internet sites and Web forms posted news and photos, as the police was preoccupied with the crisis precipitated by unusually heavy snow storms and placed the Sexy Photos Gate postings on the back burner [ch]. The photos had a wide circulation in China, with the popular Tianya forum getting 20 million hits per day. On February 20, however, the police announced that it "would "severely crack down on the criminal activities of manufacturing, selling and spreading discs of Hong Kong's celebrity photos and other pornography productions."
Twins, the Singing Duo of Gillian Chung (left) and Charlene Choi (right)
The public frenzy finally subsided after two of the principals made public apologies. After days in seclusion, Gillian Chung, flanked by her Twins partner Charlene Choi, made a brief appearance at a press conference on February 11, 2008. "I admit that I was naive and very silly, but I've grown up now. I want to thank my company, family and friends for their concern," she said.
Gillilan Chung's Public Apology for the Photo Scandal (in Cantonese), Feb. 11, 2008
After hiding in Canada, Edison Chen returned to Hong Kong. On February 21, 2008, Chen held a press conference, apologizing "to all the people for people for all the suffering that has been caused." He also announced: "I have decided to step away from the Hong Kong entertainment industry. I have decided to do this to give myself an opportunity to heal myself and search my soul." He would devote himself in the future to do volunteer and charity work, he said.
Edison Chen's Public Apology for the Photo Scandal, Feb. 21, 2008
Gillian Chung Bearing Gifts for Child Victims of the Sichuan Earthquake
Several people were arrested for copying and circulating sexually explicit pictures online. The professional futures and personal relations of the principals were seriously or even irreparably damaged. The ad endorsements of the stars were withdrawn by their sponsors, and their professional appearances were cancelled or curtailed. Among the companies which dropped or did not renew ad campaigns involving Edison Chen are Pepsi China, Standard Chartered Bank, Samsung, Levi’s and the Hong Kong Metro. Gillian Chung was the target of boycotts. She kept a low profile, but participated in a series of free performances in Beichuan (北川) for the victims of the devastating May 12 Sichuan earthquake in September. She returned to Beichuan on December 3, bringing food and warm clothes to the child victims of the earthquake. However, she was dropped from the cast of Chen Kaige's high profile film, "Forever Enthralled" (梅兰芳). Gillian Chung and Charlene Choi remain close friends, but it is unknown when their duo Twins will perform together again in public.
Cecilia Cheung in "Fly Me to Polaris"
Despite repeated divorce or separation rumors concerning Cecilia Cheung and her husband Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), who is also a Hong Kong film star, the two have apparently reconciled and are still together as of the end of 2008 [ch]. Cheung is reportedly pregnant with their second child.
What had begun as a sex scandal evolved into a public debate in Hong Kong in the form of editorials, online discussions and public protests about related issues and developments, including the personal culpability and degree of contrition of the stars concerned, the right to privacy for celebrities, the social responsibilities of artistes, police abuse of power, fairness of the judicial system, and legal definitions of indecent and obscene materials. There was considerable public interest and debate in Taiwan and mainland China as well.
While some fans defended the privacy rights of the stars implicated in the scandal, others have questioned their morality and the judgment, and the sincerity of Gillian Chung and Edison Chen in their public apologies.
The heavy-handedness of the Hong Kong police came in for a great deal of criticism. More than one hundred detectives were assigned to the case. Nine people were arrested in a futile attempt to stem the flood of online postings, which quickly spread to overseas servers beyond the jurisdiction of the Hong Kong police. Oiwan Lam (林藹雲), editor of inmediahk.net (香港獨立媒體), a citizen-reporter Web site established in 2004, observed: "On the Internet there are a lot of nude pictures and sexy photos, but the police don’t bring charges except in the current case involving the singers."
Chung Yik-tin (鐘亦天), the first person to be arrested on January 31 for posting one single photo online four days earlier, was denied bail and held until February 15 when the the Obscene Articles Tribunal (淫審處) determined that the photo was "indecent" (不雅) rather than "obscene" (淫褻), and the police withdrew the charge of posting obscene articles against him. However, other suspects who had uploaded more photos than Chung were granted bail, prompting questions about the police's fairness in dealing with suspects. Moreover, why did the police go after people who posted the photos online, but failed to question Edison Chen, the original source of the photos, or ask the Canadian police or Interpol to question him after Chen fled to Canada?
Police Commissioner Tang King-shing (香港警務處處長鄧竟成) went so far as to declare on February 2, the 6th day of the scandal, that even possession of those photos might be illegal, depending on the number, which could indicate an intent to distribute. This created a great outcry about police infringement of the freedom of speech and promoting a climate of fear, as this stringent legal interpretation could mean that anyone possessing an unspecified number of photos that could be deemed obscene could be subject to HKD 1,000,000 in fines and 3 years in prison. On February 10, a group of protesters (230 people by police count and over 400 by the organizers' count) demonstrated, "arguing that, among other things, Hong Kong’s anti-pornography ordinance was too broad and too vague, and that this was a case of unequal treatment." Assistant Commissioner Vincent Wong Fook-chuen (助理處長黃福全) subsequently clarified that it was not against the law to share the photos with friends, but that it was illegal to publish them online so that strangers could view them.
Did the police deal with this case with great zeal because the case involved celebrities and because of the personal intercession of Albert Yeung, as some Hong Kongers charged? After all, Yeung had a great deal at stake both in terms of his business interests and personally, as the female stars were his clients whose image as virginal ingenues (玉女) was carefully cultivated by his company, and his niece was the girl friend of Edison Chen? Given that "Hong Kong on the surface is more prudish than Western countries and less tolerant of Hollywood-style antics," the commercial value of the actresses and Edison Chen was seriously damaged. Moreover, while Albert Yeung was allegedly connected to the Sun Yee On triad, he has "strong links to Chinese Communist Party figures who have the ear of the Hong Kong government which, for whatever reasons, prefers to ignore his brushes with the law and regard him as a useful and patriotic businessman."
Indeed, the alleged mob ties of Albert Yeung and his competitors at China Star Entertainment Group (中國星集團) have led to many speculations by Hong Kongers without factual substantiation. Was China Star behind the leaking of the photos to damage the reputation of Emperor Entertainment's stars, some of whom had defected from China Star? Did Edison Chen flee to Canada because of his fear that there might be a hit contract out on him?
Particularly substantive was the discussion of the stars' rights to privacy and social responsibilities. Some argued that because these stars were public figures (公眾人物), they had limited right to privacy and should take public responsibilities for their actions, while the public had the right to know. Cultural critic Liang Wendao (梁文道) [ch] countered that public figures should be divided into two categories: those with public powers, e.g. politicians and government officials; and those in which the public took a special interest, e.g. movie stars and celebrities. The first group had control over the use of public funds, and their actions could impact the entire society. Therefore their rights to privacy should be limited. For example, the public had the right to know their sources of income. The actions of the second group, on the other hand, might impact entertainment companies, advertising agencies, and their fans. But the welfare of the whole society would not be affected by what they did, and therefore the public's right to know should be limited. The private affairs of these public figures with no official authority should be their own business.
What about the social responsibilities of stars and artists who were models for particular social groups? For example, what about Gillian Chung, who was nurtured as a virginal ingenue (玉女) by her entertainment company, and the leakage of her intimate photos might well damage those preteen and teenage girls for whom she was their model? After all, according to a survey of about 400 middle school students [ch], 55% had circulated the sex photos among friends, 92% had discussed the incident with their friends, 74% had discussed it with their parents, and close to 30% found nude photos acceptable. Liang Wendao argues, however, that the responsibilities of celebrities should only pertain to their actions on public occasions [ch], not their private actions in the privacy of their homes and bedrooms. Gillian Chung might have been foolish to allow those photos of hers be taken, but she was not morally responsible for any possible damages that might be inflicted on preteen and teenage girls who saw her pictures, since she did not have the intention to make them public, and had the right to engage in consensual sexual acts in private.
(Epilogue)
Both "Lust, Caution" and Sexy Photos Gate entered the political discourse of Taiwan's presidential election in March unexpectedly. Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), the presidential candidate of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was falling badly behind Nationalist Party candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) due to the DPP's corruption scandals and public fears that the DPP's tough stand in support of Taiwan independence might provoke China and damage Taiwan's security and economy. Hsieh, in an effort to fight for the youth vote, hired a heavy metal band as spokesman for his campaign, and posted a series of YouTube campaign ads. In one video, he made a pun regarding a sexual position in "Lust, Caution," and in another, he told a corny joke about the lessons of Sexy Photo Gate on the need to protect privacy. Ma won the election in a landslide victory.
Lin Chi-ling as Xiao Qiao in John Woo's "Red Cliff"
Beijing Daily (新京报) released in December a list of the 50 most beautiful people in China (中国最美50人) [ch], headed by Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) who had catapulted to stardom after her role in Ang Lee's "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The co-stars of Lee's "Lust, Caution," Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (梁朝偉) and Tang Wei (汤唯) were voted no. 2 and no. 19 respectively. Tang Wei, whose sensational debut in "Lust, Caution" made her a hot star, ranked 2 places ahead of Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), Taiwan's no. 1 supermodel who made her film debut in this year's blockbuster "Red Cliff" (赤壁), directed by John Woo (吳宇森) and starring Tony Leung Chiu-Wai as Zhou Yu (周瑜) and Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) as Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮). Gong Li (巩俐), who had ranked no. 1 two years ago and no. 3 last year, had fallen off the list completely, probably because she had recently chosen to take up Singapore citizenship, an action that provoked controversy and even charges of treason by Chinese netizens. As for Edison Chen, who ranked no. 34 last year, he did not make the list this time, no doubt because of his notoriety in connection with Sexy Photos Gate.
Perhaps Edison Chen should try to rebuild his career in North America where the notorious scandals and absurd escapades of its stars only serve to heighten public interest in them and make them ever more bankable. In November, E! Entertainment ranked him 15th on its “25 Sexiest Men of the World” 2008 list. As Mark Magnier of the Los Angeles Times observes: "As Paris Hilton and other Hollywood types can attest, sex sells and can super-charge careers. In Hong Kong, it can also end them, at least temporarily."
Christopher Nolan's blockbuster "The Dark Knight" will not be shown in China. It is speculated that the Chinese government objected to the film because: (1) Tainted Edison Chen had a cameo; (2) Hong Kong mobsters are among the cast of villains; and (3) Gotham District Attorney Harvey Dent states, "Carbon fiber, .28 Caliber, made in China. If you want to kill a public servant you should buy American," thus conjuring up memories of "media reports of defective Chinese products from toys to milk powder and drywall to auto parts."
