Now I think I will reconsider my comments on Falungon after I watched the espisode 'All about the Mormons'.
Yes, I would not pre-judge them anymore. They may be nice persons, nice neighbors even though they may believe in nonsense.
Monday, April 14, 2008
All about the Mormons?
Now I think I will reconsider my comments on Falungon after I watched the espisode 'All about the Mormons'.
Yes, I would not pre-judge them anymore. They may be nice persons, nice neighbors even though they may believe in nonsense.
The Truth According To Wikipedia
Dutch filmmaker Isbrand van Veelen stirred a lot of controversy last week at the Next Web conference when he premiered the documentary above, The Truth About Wikipedia. It has now been posted to YouTube and is worth watching when you have a spare 45 minutes. The film pits Andrew Keen, the disapproving author of The Culture of the Amateur, and Bob McHenry, former editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica, against Wikipedia co-founders Larry Sanger, Jimmy Wales, and Web 2.0 guru Tim O’Reilly, among others. The film is masterfully made and shows many points of view, but it ends up being more than anything else a vehicle for Keen to put forth his diatribes against Wikipedia. You definitely get the sense that he wins the argument in the movie. And, in fact, when I asked van Veelen afterwards on stage who he personally agreed with the most (I was the conference MC), he admitted it was Keen. This siding with the enemy, as it were, actually makes the documentary more thought-provoking. People in the audience were seething, and one man came prepared with a speech denouncing the filmmaker.
In the film, Keen actually argues that we need gatekeepers for the truth, and those gatekeepers should be experts. Of course, he misses the point that the relatively small handful of people who do most of the writing and editing on Wikipedia may very well be experts in their topic areas, or become experts by writing and researching Wikipedia articles. That is not to say that controversies do not arise all the time about factual inaccuracies, edit wars, and companies trying to conduct PR campaigns by changing their Wikipedia entries. But the film also misses the point that Wikipedia is very much a market of ideas. Like any market, information at any given point in time can be wrong, but in the end it turns out to be right more often than not. Whether you agree with Keen or with the Wikipedians depends on your definition of truth. Keen is an absolutist. There is Truth, and everything else is fiction. Experts are the guardians of that truth. But the truth is that Truth itself is always evolving, even the experts’ notion of it.
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I do like the idea of Web 2.0 that people can share enormous information via internet. It is easy to search a new term from Wiki and simply click on the associated links to read more on a particular topic. It is useful and amazing. Most of people I know (including me) do have confidence in the information listed on the Wiki even though Wiki has put the "warning" sign there. Therefore, it is a bit scaring to think how free it could be. I totally agree with Keen's caution and concern. In fact, some ideas in the video remind me of ridiculous ideas during the culture revolution in China. By the way, I am a Chinese and I grow up in Mainland China. I think it is ok for me to put some very personal comments on it. :D
One ridiculous idea from the culture revolution was experts do not have better knowledge than normal people without any academic background. Does it sound familiar??? In the digital new age, everyone has their right to express their ideas free. There is no absolutely right or wrong. Of course, such ridiculous idea created disasters during that period in China. There is no place for science or logic thinking. People believed in everything. Everything can be right or wrong within days. Now we laughs at it when we look the history back. However, I could not laugh when I heard the similar idea from the video. Is it a new digital form of cultural revolution? Can we learn something from history? Would it be more dangerous combining with the free speech idea of democracy?
In the film, Keen actually argues that we need gatekeepers for the truth, and those gatekeepers should be experts. Of course, he misses the point that the relatively small handful of people who do most of the writing and editing on Wikipedia may very well be experts in their topic areas, or become experts by writing and researching Wikipedia articles. That is not to say that controversies do not arise all the time about factual inaccuracies, edit wars, and companies trying to conduct PR campaigns by changing their Wikipedia entries. But the film also misses the point that Wikipedia is very much a market of ideas. Like any market, information at any given point in time can be wrong, but in the end it turns out to be right more often than not. Whether you agree with Keen or with the Wikipedians depends on your definition of truth. Keen is an absolutist. There is Truth, and everything else is fiction. Experts are the guardians of that truth. But the truth is that Truth itself is always evolving, even the experts’ notion of it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I do like the idea of Web 2.0 that people can share enormous information via internet. It is easy to search a new term from Wiki and simply click on the associated links to read more on a particular topic. It is useful and amazing. Most of people I know (including me) do have confidence in the information listed on the Wiki even though Wiki has put the "warning" sign there. Therefore, it is a bit scaring to think how free it could be. I totally agree with Keen's caution and concern. In fact, some ideas in the video remind me of ridiculous ideas during the culture revolution in China. By the way, I am a Chinese and I grow up in Mainland China. I think it is ok for me to put some very personal comments on it. :D
One ridiculous idea from the culture revolution was experts do not have better knowledge than normal people without any academic background. Does it sound familiar??? In the digital new age, everyone has their right to express their ideas free. There is no absolutely right or wrong. Of course, such ridiculous idea created disasters during that period in China. There is no place for science or logic thinking. People believed in everything. Everything can be right or wrong within days. Now we laughs at it when we look the history back. However, I could not laugh when I heard the similar idea from the video. Is it a new digital form of cultural revolution? Can we learn something from history? Would it be more dangerous combining with the free speech idea of democracy?
Friday, April 11, 2008
Comments
So far, there are a lot of discussions and comments on current Tibet and Olympic issue. I can roughly get a common public image of China from those comments. It is very interesting for me, a Chinese to think about the public or international image of China. Who is China in your eyes (or Hu is China??? Sorry, a small joke!)?
We have dominant or only communism party. Our economic development is extremely fast. These two features definitely cause a lot of social problems. However, we are learning and trying to improve government function, legal system (if you can consider other possible forms of social system than democracy). I believe we can do better if other countries can share their experience on environmental and social issues.
Please do come for the Olympics 2008 in Beijing. You can experience China with your own eyes and tell Chinese people what we should improve our society. It is great to have your opinions. You can give us a fresh idea from a different view angle. It would be more positive and more constructive than simply boycotting Olympics.
Here I would like to quote from George Clark. "...But you judge a nation by the direction in which it is traveling, not by the road bumps. And China is clearly moving in a direction of very considerable promise to us all. The Olympics, like ping-pong diplomacy, will push China further in that direction."
About Tibet, I have never been there. All my knowledge is from the textbook. So I would not comment on this point. There is a BBC documentary “One Year in Tibet”. It is interesting to watch.
Brainwashing in China. I am a Chinese. I grow up in mainland China and my mom joined the communism party. My father does not. He thinks it is stupid. He always makes fun of my mom on this point. I did not join the party for the same reason as well. Indeed, it is stupid to meet, read, and discuss about ideas of communism which I would only consider one theory of possible social systems (by the way, it is really interesting to read “animal farm”.). So you see, not everyone gets brainwashed. Do you think, we (normal chinese people) do have brains to think by ourselves???
Idea of evil communists in China. Most people mentioned the cruel control of communism party in China. To my view, it is really rather out-of-date. There are several decades past after cultural revolution. So...do you think it is, in fact, fair to take a new look at China with a open mind???
Religion issue. Ok, I would say it again! Please take a fresh look! My personal experience is that China is very very tolerant for religion belief. Oh...how dare you say that!!! Of course, it is just my personal experience. My university has special muslim cafeteria. My mom’s company has muslim cafeteria. Once I did want to convert to muslim since muslim can get extra beef supply during that short-of-material-supply period. You can only get a certain amount of food for the family during that period. I admit my motive for religion is really not that pure. One of my friend wanted to attend the mass in latin. The church only has the mass in latin in the early morning session. Unfortunately she was a college student and getting up at 5 or 6 was quite difficult for her.
Yes, I do not have any religion as most Chinese. Religion is more a philosophy or way of life for Chinese. You can choose whatever you want to believe. There is no religion tradition in my family as well. My grand grand grand...parents did not have religion as well. So you see, it is not evil communism party’s fault. I am open-mind with religion. You can believe in whatever you want. Good spirits may have many different names. I think the idea of religion in China in fact is great if you think about 9-11 and conflict between Christian and Muslim. The idea of tolerant is to accept other people may have different religion or no religion. However, all of us breathe, eat and worry about job, relationship...
Short comments on Falungong. Anyone wants to talk about this issue. Please do read their books. I did before it was forbidden in China. It is nonsense for me as I do have proper education and knowledge of the world. Of course, it is against free speech idea to forbid their activities in China. However, wrong government execution, specially from the evil communism party, still does not make them more valuable than...(I do not want to use certain words.)
The cost of economic development. A lot of people consider we totally ignore the cost of economic development on environment or on human right. Again, please take a look at China with a fresh mind. We DO. However, it takes time for people or our government to learn how to deal with all those problems. The economic development is just too fast for us!!! How long did it take to realize the cost of economic development in Europe and in USA???
We have dominant or only communism party. Our economic development is extremely fast. These two features definitely cause a lot of social problems. However, we are learning and trying to improve government function, legal system (if you can consider other possible forms of social system than democracy). I believe we can do better if other countries can share their experience on environmental and social issues.
Please do come for the Olympics 2008 in Beijing. You can experience China with your own eyes and tell Chinese people what we should improve our society. It is great to have your opinions. You can give us a fresh idea from a different view angle. It would be more positive and more constructive than simply boycotting Olympics.
Here I would like to quote from George Clark. "...But you judge a nation by the direction in which it is traveling, not by the road bumps. And China is clearly moving in a direction of very considerable promise to us all. The Olympics, like ping-pong diplomacy, will push China further in that direction."
About Tibet, I have never been there. All my knowledge is from the textbook. So I would not comment on this point. There is a BBC documentary “One Year in Tibet”. It is interesting to watch.
Brainwashing in China. I am a Chinese. I grow up in mainland China and my mom joined the communism party. My father does not. He thinks it is stupid. He always makes fun of my mom on this point. I did not join the party for the same reason as well. Indeed, it is stupid to meet, read, and discuss about ideas of communism which I would only consider one theory of possible social systems (by the way, it is really interesting to read “animal farm”.). So you see, not everyone gets brainwashed. Do you think, we (normal chinese people) do have brains to think by ourselves???
Idea of evil communists in China. Most people mentioned the cruel control of communism party in China. To my view, it is really rather out-of-date. There are several decades past after cultural revolution. So...do you think it is, in fact, fair to take a new look at China with a open mind???
Religion issue. Ok, I would say it again! Please take a fresh look! My personal experience is that China is very very tolerant for religion belief. Oh...how dare you say that!!! Of course, it is just my personal experience. My university has special muslim cafeteria. My mom’s company has muslim cafeteria. Once I did want to convert to muslim since muslim can get extra beef supply during that short-of-material-supply period. You can only get a certain amount of food for the family during that period. I admit my motive for religion is really not that pure. One of my friend wanted to attend the mass in latin. The church only has the mass in latin in the early morning session. Unfortunately she was a college student and getting up at 5 or 6 was quite difficult for her.
Yes, I do not have any religion as most Chinese. Religion is more a philosophy or way of life for Chinese. You can choose whatever you want to believe. There is no religion tradition in my family as well. My grand grand grand...parents did not have religion as well. So you see, it is not evil communism party’s fault. I am open-mind with religion. You can believe in whatever you want. Good spirits may have many different names. I think the idea of religion in China in fact is great if you think about 9-11 and conflict between Christian and Muslim. The idea of tolerant is to accept other people may have different religion or no religion. However, all of us breathe, eat and worry about job, relationship...
Short comments on Falungong. Anyone wants to talk about this issue. Please do read their books. I did before it was forbidden in China. It is nonsense for me as I do have proper education and knowledge of the world. Of course, it is against free speech idea to forbid their activities in China. However, wrong government execution, specially from the evil communism party, still does not make them more valuable than...(I do not want to use certain words.)
The cost of economic development. A lot of people consider we totally ignore the cost of economic development on environment or on human right. Again, please take a look at China with a fresh mind. We DO. However, it takes time for people or our government to learn how to deal with all those problems. The economic development is just too fast for us!!! How long did it take to realize the cost of economic development in Europe and in USA???
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
China and Tibet issue continued...
To be honest, I am disappointed about all the reports on Olympic torch relay, people's comments on China and Tibet issue. :-(
So far I really like the note from Gregory Clark. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080321gc.html
"...But you judge a nation by the direction in which it is traveling, not by the road bumps. And China is clearly moving in a direction of very considerable promise to us all. The Olympics, like ping-pong diplomacy, will push China further in that direction."
So far I really like the note from Gregory Clark. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20080321gc.html
"...But you judge a nation by the direction in which it is traveling, not by the road bumps. And China is clearly moving in a direction of very considerable promise to us all. The Olympics, like ping-pong diplomacy, will push China further in that direction."
Saturday, April 05, 2008
Ataraxia
I am still searching for interesting articles and comments about China and Tibet issue.
I found this article: Bias over Tibets cuts both ways, by Richard Spencer. I just love the comments from ataraxia. :D
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/richardspencer/march2008/tibetbiascutsbothways.htm
I found this article: Bias over Tibets cuts both ways, by Richard Spencer. I just love the comments from ataraxia. :D
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/foreign/richardspencer/march2008/tibetbiascutsbothways.htm
Friday, April 04, 2008
Best Free Documentaries!
http://bestdocumentaries.blogspot.com/
First, I was searching for the BBC documentary film "One Year in Tibet". It is a pity that it is not available from the BBC iplayer web site for non-UK. Accidentally, I found this blog page. It is a great surprise! :D There are two episodes on that post. The film is really interesting, especially under the current circumstance (the tense situation in Lhasa or near areas).
Another interesting video is The Fake Trade. Here my interest is very obviously since I am a Chinese. :D China is THE country on that hot list. I am not proud of it. It may seem not harmful to buy a fake bag or a pair of sunglasses. However, it is scary to buy fake medicines or food. At least, I don' t want a world like that. People is losing their trust in things they are buying...in people they are buying those things from...or in the society. In China, we say we are losing public trust 社会公信.
One interesting question arising here is why we buy fake products. The material desire??? We are born-to-be customers? I think the story of stuff has pointed out the problem. Ironically, American fashion magazine Bazaar held the press conference to announce their web site: Fakes Are Never in Fashion.com??? In fact, I think the fashion industries are the problem! Every page of each magazine is sending a wrong message to people: you are defined by the material things you own. In the video, a woman told interviewer that the fake bags she owns are definitely knockout, fake but cheap and with good quality. In deed, it is a knockout if you get a fake bag in less than 100 euros and a real one costs over thousand pounds. By the way, she was doing a botoxing. She is fake too! :D
There is a campaign on the homepage of “Fakes are Never in Fashion”. You can make a design. The winning design will be produced on limited-edition T-shirts???? Limited-edition, how ironical!
First, I was searching for the BBC documentary film "One Year in Tibet". It is a pity that it is not available from the BBC iplayer web site for non-UK. Accidentally, I found this blog page. It is a great surprise! :D There are two episodes on that post. The film is really interesting, especially under the current circumstance (the tense situation in Lhasa or near areas).
Another interesting video is The Fake Trade. Here my interest is very obviously since I am a Chinese. :D China is THE country on that hot list. I am not proud of it. It may seem not harmful to buy a fake bag or a pair of sunglasses. However, it is scary to buy fake medicines or food. At least, I don' t want a world like that. People is losing their trust in things they are buying...in people they are buying those things from...or in the society. In China, we say we are losing public trust 社会公信.
One interesting question arising here is why we buy fake products. The material desire??? We are born-to-be customers? I think the story of stuff has pointed out the problem. Ironically, American fashion magazine Bazaar held the press conference to announce their web site: Fakes Are Never in Fashion.com??? In fact, I think the fashion industries are the problem! Every page of each magazine is sending a wrong message to people: you are defined by the material things you own. In the video, a woman told interviewer that the fake bags she owns are definitely knockout, fake but cheap and with good quality. In deed, it is a knockout if you get a fake bag in less than 100 euros and a real one costs over thousand pounds. By the way, she was doing a botoxing. She is fake too! :D
There is a campaign on the homepage of “Fakes are Never in Fashion”. You can make a design. The winning design will be produced on limited-edition T-shirts???? Limited-edition, how ironical!
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