Former Chinese diplomat, Wang Yusheng has an interesting opinion piece carried on China Daily, titled, “Be warned against songs of the Sirens.” He is essentially saying that while China’s progress made in the last few decades are to be commended, the Chinese people should not rest on their laurels and that China still has a long way to catch up to the developed countries.

He has a take on China’s sizable foreign reserves of $2trillion. Within the context of what U.S., Japan, and the E.U., it actually doesn’t amount to that much:

For example, in the US, Japan and European Union countries, a majority of the foreign exchanges is held by the people. In the US, non-governmental foreign reserves amount to $9 trillion, almost 60 times as much as China’s. America’s gold reserve is 8,135 tons, nearly 14 times that of China’s 600 tons. And though the Japanese government’s holdings are smaller than China’s, its private sector has $3 trillion in foreign reserves, almost 20 times that of China. Japan has no foreign debt, and many countries, including China, owe it more than $300 billion.

Tsinghua University Professor, Yan Xuetong, published an essay in the Journal of Contemporary China in 2001 entitled, ”The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes.” It is a great read – as the title says – a look at the rise of China through the eyes of the Chinese. Following is an excerpt:

The rise of China will create a huge market that will eventually make substantial contributions to scientiŽ c progress. The rise of China will benefit the Chinese as well as the rest of the world. Economic globalization makes it impossible for any country to keep its scientific and technological achievements from benefiting others. Every rich country inevitably invests largely abroad and imports many products from others. During the process of economic globalization, the rise of China will inevitably stimulate world economic growth by more inventions, investment, and importation. It is natural that there will be different views about the rise of China. Despite this, everyone agrees that China will increasingly play an important role in global affairs as China’s modernization has a major impact on the world.

On January 12, 2010, Google let out a bombshell, “A new approach to China,” threatening to pull out of China essentially if the Chinese government do not allow it to skip China’s censorship laws.

Google was in fact in violation of China’s censorship laws according to a December 5, 2008 report by the Chinese Public Security Bureau. CNet reported in an article in June 19, 2009, Google made “substantial engineering effort” in censoring pornography on Google.cn after confronted by the Chinese government:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10269184-93.html

In this case, however, Google was quite willing to state that it met with Chinese government officials to “discuss problems with the Google.cn service and its serving of pornographic images and content based on foreign language searches,” a Google representative said in a statement.

The company is also putting some serious effort into making sure it complies with China’s antipornography drive. “We are undertaking a thorough review of our service and taking all necessary steps to fix any problems with our results. This has been a substantial engineering effort, and we believe we have addressed the large majority of the problem results,” Google said.

In a widely anticipated speech from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on January 21, 2010, she declared to the world that the United States government is making “internet freedom” around the world an official policy. (See the White House blog entry, “Internet Freedom: Where the United States Stands.”)

Is “internet freedom” a universal value?

Almost equally anticipated, here is the Chinese government reaction, carried on China Daily, “Ministry refutes US claims China restricts Internet.”

However, I think one of the most interesting reaction as of late comes from Bruce Nussbaum – yes, Nussbaum of highly respected American design firm, NussbaumOnDesign.

“Internet Freedom Is Not a Universal Value, Secretary of State Clinton.”

Internet Freedom Is Not a Universal Value, Secretary of State Clinton

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 22

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on the universality of Internet Freedom is a wonderful speech that I personally applaud but it is seriously flawed when applied to China and to Google in China. Absolute internet freedom is a value widely shared among hundreds of millions of North Americans, Latin Americans and Europeans but not among the vast, vast, vast majority of Chinese.

I recently spent two weeks in Shanghai and Beijing talking with designers and academics. Here is my sense of how internet censorship and “freedom” work in China. The stereotype of of a distant, old, militaristic censor shutting down blogs and web sites on whim is incorrect. Both the young. high-tech entrepreneurs developing new online businesses and the government censors come from the same good universities, are extremely well-educated and know each other personally. The two sides are in constant contact every day, pushing and pulling, reshaping the zone and focus of censorship. In general, both sides, mostly men in their 20s and early 30s, I am told, are trying to increase the space of what is allowed. I am also told that one problem with Google in China was that it was not tied into this network of censor and censored as well as Baidu and other Chinese web companies. And Google didn’t share the accepted culture of dynamic censorship, further antagonizing the censors.

Two weeks is not a long time in any country, but I did take away the conclusion that for nearly all Chinese, Tibet and Taiwan are as much a part of China as Hawaii and New Mexico are of the US. Government censorship of individuals and groups calling for Tibetan independence is widely applauded, not criticized. It is not an internet space that the younger generation in China wants expanded. However, there is an enormous amount of expressed anger at the rich and powerful all over the net. And throughout contemporary Chinese painting.

I remember going to the 798 art district of Beijing and looking at one installation that listed words. The first word was “propaganda.” The second was “advertising.” The flow of other words expressed the artists conclusion that two were basically the same—messages from powerful institutions designed to persuade you to think one way and behave in a particular way.

In the US, internet users have no problem with letting companies flood their computers at will with cookies that track their behavior and indicate their state of mind. They have no problem allowing companies to use gps to know exactly where they are at any point in time. But should the government be allowed to do this? Never. This is a cultural decision as much as a political one.

I totally agree with Secretary of State Hillary in keeping the internet free but mandating it as a “universal” right is a reach too far. European nations mandate universal health care as a “universal” right. How do Americans feel about that?

Theme Song performed by 王菲 (Wang Fei, aka Wong Faye)

Chinese culture is rich and amazing. Did you know that the main melody at the 2008 Beijing Olympics medal ceremonies were composed using only musical instruments that were made 2,450 years ago? That melody was a version of “茉莉花” or “Jasmine Flower.”  It was adapted by famous Chinese composer Tan Dun and Wang Hesheng (of the Chinese Army orchestra) using the ancient instruments for the 2008 Olympics medal ceremonies. According to this China Daily article, “Classical piece will ring in ears of winners” on China Daily:

“The main melody, which Tan described as “glorious, heartwarming and full of respect”, was recorded using the digital recording of a 2,450-year-old bell set excavated from a site in Hubei.”

The original was a Chinese folk song created during the Qianlong Emperor period of the Qing Dynasty (1711-1799).  ”茉莉花” became known in the West first due to its inclusion by Giacomo Puccini in his opera Turandot in Italy.  

Below are lyrics to this song and various renditions:

Simplified Chinese

好一朵美丽的茉莉花
好一朵美丽的茉莉花
芬芳美丽满枝桠
又香又白人人夸
让我来将你摘下
送给别人家
茉莉花呀茉莉花

Literal Translation

What a beautiful jasmine flower
What a beautiful jasmine flower
Sweet-smelling, beautiful, stems full of buds
Fragrant and white, everyone praises
Let me pluck you down
Give to someone
Jasmine flower, oh jasmine flower

“茉莉花” has been performed all around the world. Below are various incarnations.

CCTV-7 Commercial: “Let the world hear our sounds” based on “茉莉花” (Jasmine Flower)

By a Trio using Western instruments at the 2009 Cultural Spring Festival Show

By Kenny G

By the Vienna Boys Choir in Korea in 2002

By 宋祖英 (Song Zuying) at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2006 accompanied by an American Orchestra

By a Japanese choir

According to the China Daily article, “from Puccini to the Beijing Olympics, this melody is a gift from the Chinese people to the world’s athletes,” Tan said.

Google has publicly announced via a lengthy blog post (“A new approach to China“) by its Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, David Drummond of Google’s intention to not censor any of its results on google.cn. It said Google is going to talk to the Chinese government to find a way to do search without censorship and yet be compliant with Chinese laws. Drummond said this was prompted by a large-scale and systematic attacks against Google’s servers (from within China) to gain access to gmail accounts of human rights activist.

Google, a giant in every way one can think of it, taking on China obviously makes for a “great” story. The number of trackback on that article is huge and appears the entire Internet is linking to it – including us here at TCLB.

Google is a distant second behind Baidu.com, but still hovers around 25% in market-share according to some reports (vs. 60% for Baidu). Around 25% given China’s Internet population, that is still very sizable. Will Google really pull out of the China market? Is Google beaten to a pulp in reality by Baidu, and this is their exit strategy? Or is there a shift in Chinese government policy such that Google would “win” on this fight? The world is abuzz about this and will be an interesting story to follow. This will likely be a top news of 2010!

[Edit 1/14/2010]

In all likelihood, Google is probably consolidating all of its search contents for the Chinese language onto google.com. If that’s the case, then there is no need for google.cn. There is no need to obey China’s censorship laws on google.com. The onus will then be on the Chinese government’s filtering departments to filter out whatever is directly accessed by Chinese citizens when accessing google.com, which by the way, is hosted outside of China.

Google then does not need to contend with some of its share-holders continuous bickering on confronting the Chinese government about censorship. Pulling a publicity stunt like this to get rid of google.cn buys Google a lot of mileage in the West, especially Google has come under strong scrutiny in Europe. Google also has been tarnished for violating copyrights of authors all over the world, including China.

The big variable is obviously how the Chinese government is going to react to this, and how the Chinese government views google.com. As long as google.com is used by Chinese citizens, there may still be legal jurisdiction or compliance. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

[Edit 1/15/2010]

China Daily has this really interesting article:

“Comment: Google is simply not successful in China”
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-15 16:23

The following is an excerpt from a comment posted by an Internet user named Gaoren on cnhubei.com based in Hubei province.

In an unusually high-profile move, Google publicly announced that it may quit China – sparking a wave of reaction around the world.

“We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn … We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China,” David Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, said in a statement posted on the company’s official blog.

The statement, entitled “A new approach to China”, claims that the company had detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack from China that resulted in the theft of the company’s intellectual property.

The news echoed around the world and the western media immediately seized the opportunity to attack China’s censorship and heaped praise on Google, which is not surprising, as indicated by their previous records. But the question remains: Does Google’s threat to pull out really result from what the company and the Western media have claimed, namely, China’s censorship?

To begin with, Google has always placed great importance on China. Google would be condemned if it ignored the Chinese market, which has almost 400 million Internet users and is still rimmed with huge potential. The fact that Google risked lawsuits in 2005 to prize Kai-fu Lee from Microsoft is the best evidence. It is no coincidence that Google.cn was launched shortly after Kai-fu Lee’s arrival.

The problem is Google.cn simply cannot compete with its main domestic rival, Baidu.com. A report from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that as of September 2009 Baidu.com’s market share in China stood at 77.2 percent, far stripping Google,cn’s 12.7 percent. In fact, the majority of Google’s users in China choose Google.com as their first choice.

After nearly five years’ pushing for the brand of Google.cn and after investing heavily in Google.cn, their efforts in the Chinese market are simply not successful, to say the least. Kai-fu Lee’s abrupt departure from Google in September 2009 wasn’t helpful, either. To answer for its investors and for shareholders to understand a not so favorable environment of global economy, Google’s decision to pull out of China comes as no surprise.

Indeed, Google is not the first or only one that fared miserably in China’s Internet market. The online auction and shopping website E-bay’s defeat against the domestic Taobao.com, Alibaba’s acquisition of Yahoo China, and QQ.com’s dominance in China’s instant messaging market, to name just a few, seem to have already foretold Google.cn’s fate.

China’s censorship, as a matter of fact, is just Google’s management’s ingenious excuse to flee the Chinese market in which they failed their investors and shareholders. For one thing, Google entered the China market after censorship was instituted, not vice versa. If anything, China has been loosing its censorship since Google’s entry. The best proof is perhaps the free debate over the installation of the filtering software Green Dam, in which the Chinese government finally budged.

A number of notable “mass incidents” are also freely discussed on the Internet – the mass protest over the death of a girl in Weng’an county in Guizhou province, the mass protest over the death of a chef in Hubei province, and the waitress who resisted sexual advance by killing a local official, not to mention quite a few corruption cases that have been brought to the spotlight through the Internet.

Many claim, most likely with ulterior motives, that the shutdown of Google.cn will leave Chinese netizens isolated from the outside world. That is, simply, untrue. The closure of Google.cn has little, if any, effect on the Chinese users, as Google.com, its global website, is the primary channel they access to search for information. Unfortunately, Google didn’t even bother to explain that.

Google’s motivation was clear and simple: to earn its share of this huge market. When the company cannot attain the goal and pocket enough money and hopes to find a way out, the Chinese government and its censorship, which the West frequently picks up, just become two convenient scapegoats.

This is a performance during the 2009 CCTV Spring Festival show by four Chinese music icons:
李宗盛 (Li ZhongSheng)
周华健 (Zhou HuaJian)
罗大右 (Luo DaYou)
张震岳 (Zhang ZhengYue)

泥娃娃
泥娃娃
一个泥娃娃
她有那鼻子 也有那眉毛
眼睛不会眨

泥娃娃
泥娃娃
一个泥娃娃
她有那鼻子 也有那眉毛
嘴巴不说话

她是个假娃娃
不是个真娃娃
她没有亲爱的爸爸
也没有妈妈

泥娃娃
泥娃娃
一个泥娃娃
我做她爸爸
也做她妈妈
永远爱着她

Lyrics/Translation courtesy of chinesecivilization.

高悬瀑布，远叠山，动听雀吟，静听蝉。
Waterfall hanging high above, mountains stack far one after another, I can hear birds singing when I walk around, I can hear crickets when it’s quiet;
不知松竹，谁先绿，难辩水天，哪最蓝。
Don’t know whether it’s the pine or the bamboo that first show the sign of green, can tell whether it’s the water or the sky that is more blue;
忽风桃花岸，白云裹红团，牧笛惊花雨，花边溪柳泉。
A sudden gust of wind blowing on the shore of peach blossom, redness embedded within white clouds, sound of flute disturbs the rain of peddles, spring gushing from underneath the flowers;
忽风桃花岸，白云裹红团，桃花源头随梦源，忽在天际,忽眼前。
A sudden gust of wind blowing on the shore of peach blossom, redness embedded within white clouds, the paradise in my dream appear and disappear in front of my eyes;
桃花源,桃花源,梦入桃花源,红树青山,斜阳孤岛,梦入桃花源。
Paradise, paradise, red trees and turquoise mountains, lonely island reflected under the setting sun, I enter the paradise in my dream;
桃花源,桃花源,梦入桃花源,桃花流水,福地洞天,梦入桃花源。
Paradise, paradise, red trees and turquoise mountains, lonely island reflected under the setting sun, I enter the paradise in my dream;

日照小村,月照田,午伴茶神,舞醉仙。
The sun casting shadows on a small village, the moon shining on the surrounding fields, I stay with the tea goddess at noon and dance with the drunken god;
不说桃花几时去,只见小姑又红颜。
Don’t tell me when the peach blossom will fade, I see it on the cheeks of your little sister;

眼含星点点,腮挂霞片片,风吹红裙动,深秋花依然。
Eyes sparkling like stars, cheeks blushing like rosy clouds, Red skirt flowing with wind, flowers still blossom in deep autumn;
眼含星点点,腮挂霞片片,桃花源头随梦源,疑是天上却人间。
Eyes sparkling like stars, cheeks blushing like rosy clouds, In the paradise I search for the source of dreams, can’t tell whether it’s heaven or earth;
桃花源,桃花源,梦入桃花源,红树青山,斜阳孤岛,梦入桃花源。
Paradise, paradise, red trees and turquoise mountains, lonely island reflected under the setting sun, I enter the paradise in my dream;

(repeat till end)

Over at the Fools Mountain: blogging for China blog, Allen has a really good article, “Making Sense of the Dollar and Yuan,” explaining the USD and the RMB. It is a really well thought out piece. Not many people can wrap their heads around a complex topic such as this. Many in the U.S. are insisting on the Chinese government to appreciate the RMB. Will that save the U.S. economy? Head over and find out.

但愿人长久
Lyrics by poet: Song Dynasty 蘇軾 (Su Shi) aka 蘇东坡(Su DongPo)
Singer: 王菲 (Wang Fei or Faye Wong)
Music score: 梁弘志 (Liang HongZhi)

明月幾時有 把酒問青天
不知天上宮闕 今夕是何年

我欲乘風歸去 唯恐瓊樓玉宇
高處不勝寒 起舞弄清影 何似在人間

轉朱閣低綺戶照無眠
不應有恨何事長向別時圓
人有悲歡離合 月有陰晴圓缺
此事古難全 但願人長久
千里共嬋娟

我欲乘風歸去 唯恐瓊樓玉宇
高處不勝寒 起舞弄清影
何似在人間

轉朱閣低綺戶照無眠
不應有恨何事長向別時圓
人有悲歡離合 月有陰晴圓缺
此事古難全 但願人長久
千里共嬋娟

Translation courtesy of China the Beautiful:

Will a moon so bright ever arise again?
Drink a cupful of wine and ask of the sky.
I don’t know where the palace gate of heaven is,
Or even the year in which tonight slips by.
I want to return riding the whirl-wind! But I
Feel afraid that this heaven of jasper and jade
Lets in the cold, its palaces rear so high.
I shall get up and dance with my own shadow.
From life endured among men how far a cry!

Round the red pavilion
Slanting through the lattices
Onto every wakeful eye,
Moon, why should you bear a grudge, O why
Insist in time of separation so th fill the sky?
Men know joy and sorow, parting and reunion;
The moon lacks lustre, brightly shines; is al, is less.
Perfection was never easily come by.
Though miles apart, could men but live for ever
Dreaming they shared this moonlight endlessly!

Another translation courtesy of Xah Lee Web.

When do good times come? i raise my drink to the moon
what year is today? what’s up with the gods?
i would hitch the wind to return
though high places are cold
i play with my shadow, a pleasure it is
the door, the window sill, reflected my sleeplessenss
the resentments, the separation, the bearings
for joy and for gloom, even the moon faces change
this is with us; may people prosper, as ducks in pairs

李白 (Li Bai, 701-762AD) is one of the most beloved Tang Dynasty (618-907AD) poets in Chinese history. This is a rendition of his poem, 静夜思 (“Thoughts on a Still Night”) where he reminisces his home. Below are couple of videos presenting this poem in various ways. Many Chinese children, some, perhaps shortly after they start talking, will be taught this poem (see second video below).

床前明月光，
疑是地上霜。
举头望明月，
低头思故乡。

Below is a translation by the Chinese Poems web site:

http://www.chinese-poems.com/lb4.html

Before my bed, the moon is shining bright,
I think that it is frost upon the ground.
I raise my head and look at the bright moon,
I lower my head and think of home.

Here is another rendition (actually two) by a Chinese scholar and a very cute Chinese girl:

For the last two centuries, the Chinese psyche has been defined in large part by the humiliations and sufferings brought about by foreigners (see the Opium War, the Second Opium War, and the Nanjing Massacre). After the founding of the current Peoples Republic of China, it was the disastrous policies of the Cultural Revolution and the Great Leap Forward which furthered that wound. The latter were the Chinese inflicting pain onto themselves.

In a T.V. series released in 1991, called 渴望 (“Yearning”), 毛阿敏 (Mao AMin) touched the hearts of every Chinese with her rendition of the theme song under the same name. The T.V. series itself was an epic, depicting the social upheaval that characterized the Cultural Revolution. The impact of the Cultural Revolution was pervasive. It gripped the whole nation.

Through 渴望, 毛阿敏 brought out the sadness and the strong yearning inside every Chinese to want to shed the past and to seek a future free of those sufferings. Every Chinese have lamented how things have gone so wrong for the bulk of the last two centuries. If anyone who wishes to understand why the Chinese want peace and stability nowadays, he or she should start by understanding this song and what it conveys.

Everyone knows China is going through an industrial revolution right now. In developed countries such as the U.S., this took place in the late 19th century. The ratio between the number of rural and urban residents basically swapped because industrialization freed the bulk of the population from having to work in the fields to produce food for all. This phenomenon is occurring in China right now with her massive GDP growth in the last three decades. Despite the hundreds of millions of people having moved to urban areas, the number of Chinese citizens residing in the rural areas is still staggering – 750 million. If the final ratio is similar to other developed countries (which is likely), the scale of this population movement in the coming decades is mind-numbing. Imagine one billion people on the move in only a few decades!

Equally, many “mother tongues” are going to be lost too, as the song laments. This phenomenon is easy to explain. In the U.S., many Americans who are descendants of immigrants usually loose the ability to speak their ancestors languages within one or two generations in favor of the official language, English. China has hundreds of dialects and thousands of accents. As they all converge in urban areas, they will predominantly speak the official dialect.

Many Chinese citizens visiting their parents at their old homes during the Chinese New Year will have this feeling.

The uploaded video, translation, and further info are courtesy of YallMeanMVP over at Youtube.com. According to YallMeanMVP, “the lyrics are adopted from a beautiful poem “Father’s Prairie, Mother’s River”(父亲的草原母亲的河), written by the renowned contemporary Mongolian Chinese writer/poetess 席慕容(Xi Murong).” (YallMeanMVP’s channel has a nice collection of Chinese videos and I recommend heading over for a look.)

YallMeanMVP: much thanks to yuluns for providing the translation:

Song/Poem Title:
父亲的草原母亲的河
Father’s Prairie, Mother’s River

词:席慕容 曲:乌兰托嘎
Lyrics/Poem: Xi Murong
Composer: ????

父亲曾经形容草原的清香
Father used to describe the fragrance of the prairie

让他在天涯海角也从不能相忘
A scent that followed him to the edges of the world

母亲总爱描摹那大河浩荡
Mother always spoke of the turbulence of the river

奔流在蒙古高原我遥远的家乡
Raging through the Mongolian steppes, my distant home

如今终于见到这辽阔大地
Now that I finally come to see this great land

站在芬芳的草原上我泪落如雨
Tears rain down my face as I stand on these fragrant prairies

河水在传唱着祖先的祝福
The river sings of the prayers of the forefathers

保佑漂泊的孩子,找到回家的路
Blessing the prodigal son to find his way home

啊!父亲的草原
Ah, father’s prairie

啊!母亲的河
Ah, mother’s river

虽然己经不能用母语来诉说
Though I can no longer express them in my mother tongue

请接纳我的悲伤我的欢乐
Please accept my feelings of sorrow and joy

我也是高原的孩子啊
I, too, am a son of the steppes

心里有一首歌
There is a song in my heart

歌中有我父亲的草原母亲的河
It sings of my father’s prairie and my mother’s river