Reform 2.0

The success of China's economic reform is evident and tremendous. But economic reform has reached its limit without political reform. Prosperity and corruption now exist side by side. Although the national government has tried different ways to combat misuse of power and economic corruption, nothing has worked. It is my belief that only the introduction of the rule of law will be able to limit and eliminate the influence of corruption on Chinese politics and economy.

Abe Resigned

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe resigned from office yesterday. His resignation was seen as inevitable when his party, the Liberal Democratic Party, lost in the Japanese Parliament's Upper House's election at the end of July. That lost gave the opposition Democratic Party of Japan in control of the Upper House for the first time in history.

What happened? Many commentators will look for answers. Basically, Abe didn't have any new idea. His slogan of building a "Beautiful Japan" was abstract and seemed to seek return to an old Japan. The average Japanese cared bread and butter economic issues. Shinzo Abe didn't have answers in the increasing integration of East Asia.

Ang Lee Received Top Award at Venice

Ang Lee's "Lust, Caution" won the Golden Lion, top prize for best film, at this year's Venice Film Festival yesterday in Italy. The film is a Chinese-language erotic thriller set in the 1940s Shanghai, starring Hong Kong actor Tony Leung, Chinese-American actress Joan Chen, and Chinese actress Tang Wei. It depicts a group of young students trying to kill a Japanese collaborator during World War II.

Related post:
Ang Lee's 'Lust, Caution'

Export Goods, Import Pollution

China's export-driven economy is choking the Chinese. In big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, residents are all feeling the effect of bad air. Being the world's factory is in fact a bad deal for the Chinese because this means China imports energy and raw materials to produce goods, but exports them for others to consume. The pollution is left behind in China.

From the above chart, we see China exports annually 200 billion US dollars more goods than it imports. Furthermore, what China imports are mostly oil, natural gas, coal, and other raw materials for the purpose of manufacturing consumer goods to be exported to other countries. On the other hand, the US imports 800 billion US dollars more goods than it exports. No wonder it has better air and less pollution than China.

Related post:
Hard Recall Lessons

The Egg - Inside View

The first floor of the National Grand Theater in Beijing. (Image: The National Grand Theater)

The Egg - Outside View

The National Grand Theater in Beijing, designed by Paul Andreu. It costs 2.7 billon yuan to build. (Image: The National Grand Theater)

A Necessary Partnership

Chinese president, Hu Jintao, met his American counterpart, George W. Bush, at the APEC summit in Sydney yesterday. President Bush said that Hu is "an easy man to talk to" after the 90-minute meeting. President Hu called the talks "candid and friendly". Mr. Hu had invited the US president to the Beijing 2008 Olympics and Mr. Bush said he was "anxious to accept".

On Korean Wave

The Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, has a very insightful editorial on Korean Wave or Hallyu on June 1, 2007. In case the link may disappear, I copied the whole editorial here:

Sobering Words from a Global Entertainment Player

Park Jin-young, the singer and dancer-turned entertainment entrepreneur responsible for creating the international phenomenon that is Rain, on Thursday said the Korean Wave will have to be abandoned for true global success. In a lecture at Yonsei University, Park said, “You must be prepared to give up the Korean Wave to achieve greater success on the global stage. In the U.S. market, the home to mainstream music, drama and movies, who will listen to a Korean singer if all he or she does is shout about how great Korea is? It’s not a smart move to flog products emblazoned with a country’s flag.” After opening his own entertainment company at the age of 27, Park went to the U.S. in 2003 and spent every day going round 20 different music companies. His efforts paid off when he succeeded in getting one of his songs featured on the album of a popular rap artist. After Rain, he brought the Korean singer Min to the U.S. and picked out singing sensation Nichkhun Horvejkul, who is seen as Thailand’s answer of Rain. The reason Harvard University and other educational institutions rush to invite Park to lecture is because they value the way he took on the challenge of succeeding on the global stage as well as his accomplishments.

Park has always felt uneasy about having his activities linked to the Korean Wave. He said he is neither a “patriot” nor a “messenger of the Korean Wave.” He warned, “There are too many people making a living off nationalism in Korea. The ‘Korean Wave’ ended up becoming ‘Korea is Great’, and that’s why we’re seeing an anti-Korean Wave trend overseas.” He sighed in despair when he cited an instance where Korean fans became furious after they learned about Park’s plan to dress Rain in Chinese costume and incorporate kung fu moves into his dance routine at a concert in China. He is frustrated by the closed-mindedness of Korean society, which tries to view even pop culture through the narrow lens of nationalism.

Park said, “You can become a global success if you do something well, whether it is Korean or not. We still lack diversity, yet are strong in uniformity.” His comments are bold and provocative. That’s why they have stirred up heated controversy. But Korean society has matured enough to be able to listen to the candid advice of such unconventional figures and pioneers. Park’s advice is to throw away the narrow view of things through Korea’s eyes and to open our eyes wider. Those words apply not only to pop culture, but also to education, the economy, politics and other areas of our society. Korea’s so-called leaders, who are so far from global standards and spend their days fighting amongst themselves, can learn a thing or two from this young and ambitious entrepreneur who’s striving to become the world’s best and Asia’s no. 1.