Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Great Malaysians In History
Any interest to start a list of great Malaysians in history, as defined by persons (of all races) having outstanding contributions to humanity (wherever in the world)?
A Gentler and Kinder China
I read about Dr Wu maybe 10-15 years ago and had since had his name forgotten. This is rather embarrassing until you rekindled my faded memory.
1910 was a time Chinese wherever they were had no idea of citizenship. If they are born Chinese, they are Chinese nationals.
The call for service to the motherland who was so often besieged by war and conflict, poverty and disease then, was as patriotic as idealistic. Many forsaken their comfort, wealth to help their fellow countrymen even if they are so distant in the far north of China to a man who was born in the South Sea.
It is men and women like Dr Wu, who helped made China what it is today. In the words of Premier Wen who uttered the following words whilst paying respect to Mao Anqing, the eldest son of Mao Zedong who was killed in the Korea war: 中国现在强大了人民幸福了 (China is now strong and the peoples are happy).
These words sound too premature and not truly reflecting the reality. I am hoping one day that, like what Dr Wu’s great granddaughter has hoped, a stronger China can be a gentler China, a richer China can also be a kinder China. Only this China that blend hard- and soft power (钢柔并重) will be truly respected.
CCP administration should start looking at De (德) and Li (礼). This topic will warrant a long write up.
1910 was a time Chinese wherever they were had no idea of citizenship. If they are born Chinese, they are Chinese nationals.
The call for service to the motherland who was so often besieged by war and conflict, poverty and disease then, was as patriotic as idealistic. Many forsaken their comfort, wealth to help their fellow countrymen even if they are so distant in the far north of China to a man who was born in the South Sea.
It is men and women like Dr Wu, who helped made China what it is today. In the words of Premier Wen who uttered the following words whilst paying respect to Mao Anqing, the eldest son of Mao Zedong who was killed in the Korea war: 中国现在强大了人民幸福了 (China is now strong and the peoples are happy).
These words sound too premature and not truly reflecting the reality. I am hoping one day that, like what Dr Wu’s great granddaughter has hoped, a stronger China can be a gentler China, a richer China can also be a kinder China. Only this China that blend hard- and soft power (钢柔并重) will be truly respected.
CCP administration should start looking at De (德) and Li (礼). This topic will warrant a long write up.
Dr. Wu Lien Teh 伍连德
A Personal Account about a Malaysian-Chinese Doctor Honored for Fighting the Plague in Harbin in 1910. Dr Wu was born in Malaysia and was the first person of Chinese-descent to graduate in medicine from Cambridge University.From TIME Magazine Monday, Sep. 21, 2009 article: A Family Journey
By Ling Woo Liu
My great-grandfather, Dr. Wu Lien-Teh, was sitting down to dinner in Tianjin, a port city near Beijing, when he received a telegram. It was Dec. 19, 1910, and China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs had alerted him to an outbreak of deadly pneumonic plague near the Russian border. A Cambridge-educated vice director of the Imperial Army Medical College, Wu, then just 31, was to report immediately to Beijing before heading to Harbin in China's remote northeast.
After a three-day train ride, he arrived in the frigid city to lead an international team of plague fighters. "As [we] entered the town, [we] could sense an air of tenseness and foreboding among the inhabitants," he wrote in his memoirs. "Everywhere there were guarded talks and whispers of fever, blood-spitting and sudden deaths, of corpses abandoned by roadsides and open fields." He introduced the practices of wearing face masks, cremating infected corpses and observing strict quarantine — methods used today to fight pandemics such as SARS and swine flu and even a small outbreak of pneumonic plague in Qinghai province in July. My great-grandfather implemented these measures despite -22ºF (-30ºC) temperatures, decrepit facilities, traditional preferences for land burials and — what he found most worrisome — the fatalism of local residents. His initiatives worked. Within four months, the outbreak was stamped out, but not before it took 60,000 lives.
In 1937, with Japan's full invasion of China, Wu returned to his native Malaysia and, since then, most of that side of my family has scattered to Singapore, Australia and the U.S., where I was born and raised. Yet last month, almost a full century later, I found myself making the same journey my great-grandfather made that winter. After flying to Beijing from my current home in Hong Kong, I headed to Harbin to attend the opening of the Wu Lien-teh Memorial Hospital and the 60th anniversary of another hospital affiliated with Harbin Medical University, one of several medical institutions founded by Wu. Some 700 government officials as well as doctors from China and abroad attended the elaborate, televised event. Walking around the Wu Lien-teh hospital and associated museum, and listening to trained docents shed light on my own family history, I was deeply moved. But I also wondered: Why, after so long, is China honoring my great-grandfather?
The answer, on reflection, lies as much with how China has changed since the People's Republic was founded 60 years ago as with Wu's vital work. Over the decades China has lurched from serial revolutions to social experiments to, now, the wildly successful pursuit of wealth. In the process, hundreds of millions of lives have been both upended and uplifted. My great-grandfather and his family were buffeted by some of those forces too (though with nowhere near the terrible consequences experienced by countless other Chinese). While his achievements have long been recognized by epidemiologists worldwide, they were largely forgotten in China after the communists took over. In the aftermath of "liberation," foreign links and laurels, once celebrated, became perilous liabilities. Wu's relatives, including my father, fled in 1949, in part because they feared that their overseas ties might hurt them in the new China.
Yet as the nation continually transforms itself, so does its idea of what is acceptable and what, indeed, constitutes a hero. At first, those touted as model citizens were chosen for their political pedigrees and correctness, and used as propaganda tools by the Communist Party. Of all the comrades who were lionized, a young soldier named Lei Feng, utterly loyal to the Party, came to epitomize the ultimate hero.
The Lei Fengs of yesterday are no longer relevant, however, to the vast majority of Chinese today. As China modernizes at speed, its icons are resembling those of other developed nations: athletes, pop stars, entrepreneurs. To some extent, that represents a normalization of Chinese society. But it also exposes, worry some of the country's leaders, a growing obsession with frivolity and materialism. Enter my great-grandfather — a nonpolitical, service-oriented figure with no history whatsoever with the Party and whose life's work transcends any ideology. "In today's society, people's outlook and values have big problems; people are focused on their individual interests and, frankly, on making money," said Gu Yingqi, China's former Vice Minister of Health, who attended the Harbin ceremonies. "Not only can we in the health field learn from Wu Lien-teh, everyone can learn from his international spirit and his care for others."
In Harbin, upon meeting me, one nursing student gushed, "She resembles Dr. Wu!" I didn't mind being recognized for being someone's relation rather than for being myself. Chinese authorities have resurrected my great-grandfather because they think his memory can help create a kinder, gentler society. That gives me profound happiness — and gives China, I believe, reason for hope.
Monday, October 5, 2009
大江大海1949 - A Book Recommendation
This Blog strongly recommend Ms Lung Ying-tai's (龍應台) latest book "大江大海1949" (Big River, Big Sea — Untold Stories of 1949). She wrote a famous letter to Hu Jintao, not too long ago, urging him to "please pursuade me with civility" (请您以文明说服我)
This book is a story of the "losers" of the Civil War. It is a personal story of the writer and the generation who experienced it.
It is a collection of stories from those who made it to Taiwan following the defeat of the Natonalist. They were those who were forcefully enscripted. They were those whose spouse, chidlren and parents who were left behind and never got to see other again. There were places that disappeared from the map. All these were the story, a personal story of a generation of Chinese, many of whom are still alive, that required to be written and understood.
Ms Long wrote a very moving book judging by the first chapter I have just completed reading. Her prose is beautiful and her thoughts is always humane.
Her intention of writing the book is simple. Without understanding, there is no empathy across the Strait and there is no reconciliation and the peace, if any, will be fragile, and surely, I must add, there is no basis for reunification.
It is unsual for me to write a book recommendation before I finish reading it. It is just so good that I must make it known here to share with you.
By the way, this book is apparently banned in the mainland. I am hoping that the mainland censor can see the big picture.
It is time for INCLUSIVENESS especially after 60 years.
Please see www.cw.com/tw/book/1949 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5DqjiDdEic&feature=channel for more information.
This book is a story of the "losers" of the Civil War. It is a personal story of the writer and the generation who experienced it.
It is a collection of stories from those who made it to Taiwan following the defeat of the Natonalist. They were those who were forcefully enscripted. They were those whose spouse, chidlren and parents who were left behind and never got to see other again. There were places that disappeared from the map. All these were the story, a personal story of a generation of Chinese, many of whom are still alive, that required to be written and understood.
Ms Long wrote a very moving book judging by the first chapter I have just completed reading. Her prose is beautiful and her thoughts is always humane.
Her intention of writing the book is simple. Without understanding, there is no empathy across the Strait and there is no reconciliation and the peace, if any, will be fragile, and surely, I must add, there is no basis for reunification.
It is unsual for me to write a book recommendation before I finish reading it. It is just so good that I must make it known here to share with you.
By the way, this book is apparently banned in the mainland. I am hoping that the mainland censor can see the big picture.
It is time for INCLUSIVENESS especially after 60 years.
Please see www.cw.com/tw/book/1949 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5DqjiDdEic&feature=channel for more information.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
60 Years of the People's Republic
As I woke up to October 1st, 2009 this morning, I did so deeply conscious of the anniversary that is being celebrated in China, where huge celebrations are no doubt underway to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Bro, you made an astute point. If China points to 5000 years of splendid and uninterrupted history, why bother with 60 years? But then again, it is hard to escape historical programming of the Chinese logic - where anniversaries are always political rather than national. Successive emperors refer to the years of their reign as a way of marking time. Successive regimes use different symbolic characters "hau" (standards or "call-sign"?) as the manifestation of personal power over the state (later they come to symbolize the respective dynasties). In fact, in the ancient time, thats the first thing rebels change to signify taking charge. So the logic of celebrating the anniversary of the new government on 1 October 1949 is that of a political celebration rather than a national celebration. But in China, this logic is accepted. Likewise, it will also be a political celebration when Taiwan ROC (which sometimes still uses the anarchronistic min guo calendar) celebrates the Centennary of the 1911 revolution in 2 years time.
But I have no doubt in my mind that the real celebration is China's breathtaking renaissance as a nation. That is a celebration that takes place each and every day by hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese as they head for university, change a job, expecting to live to old age, make a phone call, experiencing a nation at peace, take a train, get on the internet, go shopping, go out when they feel like it, learn about the world, understanding the world of science not super-natural, think about a foreign holiday, having choices in life or simply fall in love or getting divorced; seemingly simple acts that represent social progress, economic prosperity and personal liberty that is unprecedented to the lao bai xing, the ordinary Chinese people.
Bro, you made an astute point. If China points to 5000 years of splendid and uninterrupted history, why bother with 60 years? But then again, it is hard to escape historical programming of the Chinese logic - where anniversaries are always political rather than national. Successive emperors refer to the years of their reign as a way of marking time. Successive regimes use different symbolic characters "hau" (standards or "call-sign"?) as the manifestation of personal power over the state (later they come to symbolize the respective dynasties). In fact, in the ancient time, thats the first thing rebels change to signify taking charge. So the logic of celebrating the anniversary of the new government on 1 October 1949 is that of a political celebration rather than a national celebration. But in China, this logic is accepted. Likewise, it will also be a political celebration when Taiwan ROC (which sometimes still uses the anarchronistic min guo calendar) celebrates the Centennary of the 1911 revolution in 2 years time.
But I have no doubt in my mind that the real celebration is China's breathtaking renaissance as a nation. That is a celebration that takes place each and every day by hundreds of millions of ordinary Chinese as they head for university, change a job, expecting to live to old age, make a phone call, experiencing a nation at peace, take a train, get on the internet, go shopping, go out when they feel like it, learn about the world, understanding the world of science not super-natural, think about a foreign holiday, having choices in life or simply fall in love or getting divorced; seemingly simple acts that represent social progress, economic prosperity and personal liberty that is unprecedented to the lao bai xing, the ordinary Chinese people.
In my view, its is not usual for China to be a world power or to be wealthy and held in awe by the world. In fact, that has been the case throughout history for most of its existance. What is unusual is the level of progress that actually uplifted the lives of the Chinese people as individuals. So a bigger and more important celebration this year, in my view, is the 30th anniversary of the reform and opening up era.
While much of China's progress is new, and the uplifting of the common people is new but China's many demons are old and there are many. Life in China today is sometimes still fraught with injustice, corruption, ignorance, poverty and hardship, capricious officialdom and authoritarianism in its many guises. Everyday perils that bedevil the Chinese people like its many natural disasters since the dawn of history.
Yes, it is impressive for China to go through 200 years of industrial revolution within less than 50 years (1o years between 1870-1930, 5 years in the 1930s, 5 years in the 1950s and 30 years since 1979). But it would be far more impressive if it manages to compress the transformation from a medieval society to a modern society - what took Europe 400 years - within that same time. Well, the jury is still out. In many ways, China may need some time yet to be a modern nation. The process is still ongoing and, judging by the changes in the past 15 years, accelerating and mostly in a positive direction.
While much of China's progress is new, and the uplifting of the common people is new but China's many demons are old and there are many. Life in China today is sometimes still fraught with injustice, corruption, ignorance, poverty and hardship, capricious officialdom and authoritarianism in its many guises. Everyday perils that bedevil the Chinese people like its many natural disasters since the dawn of history.
Yes, it is impressive for China to go through 200 years of industrial revolution within less than 50 years (1o years between 1870-1930, 5 years in the 1930s, 5 years in the 1950s and 30 years since 1979). But it would be far more impressive if it manages to compress the transformation from a medieval society to a modern society - what took Europe 400 years - within that same time. Well, the jury is still out. In many ways, China may need some time yet to be a modern nation. The process is still ongoing and, judging by the changes in the past 15 years, accelerating and mostly in a positive direction.
Of course, much of the credit for the transformation goes to the ordinary Chinese people, whose resilience, tolerance for suffering and deprivation, resourcefulness, industry and intellect ... that are anything but ordinary.
However, the CCP can also claim a lot of credit for this because of - or in spite of - the changes it made to China in the first 30 years of its rule. One can never begrudge history. Without its yesterdays China may never have its today and what it can become tomorrow.
Perhaps it could be said that China would have succeeded anyhow, as unlikely as it may seem, under an Imperial Manchu government or as part of Imperial Japan or under any number of wanna-be overlords; or more likely - under KMT's Republic of China. It could even happen earlier or better or with less suffering and bloodshed. Equally, things could actually be even worse. China might not have risen by 2009 under any of those scenarios. Nothing come from nothing - so just may be - none of these will happen without the sufferings that the people have gone through. The real legacies even of mistakes may never be understood until many more years has passed. One will never know.
It is hard to imagine what it was like for the Chinese people in 1949. But I imagine that in people's hearts are wishes for "simple" things like: food, peace, functioning society, order, education and that their loved ones will be safe. One should not forget the fundamentals.
I imagine a set of parents and children being given a choice on September 30, 1949 that their grand-children and great-grand children will have a future like today - but the price is that everyone in that every one of them will have to go through the tragedies of the first 30 years. I suspect, exhausted by a fate their have no control over and out of self-sacrificing long term thinking they will probably grit their teeth and take it. But as practical minded Chinese, they would laugh at what people say about 2009 as fairy tales that could never happen.
There lies the irony of today's celebration. China has achieved the unimaginable but it still saddens me to think of how China had to sink even lower due to its own mistakes just to rise again.
The Man in the Glass – anonymous
When you get what you want in your struggles for self
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
Some people might think you're a straight-shooting chum
And call you a wonderful guy.
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.
He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest
For he's with you clear to the end
And you've passed your most dangerous test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.
And the world makes you king for a day,
Just go to a mirror and look at yourself
And see what that man has to say.
For it isn't your father or mother or wife
Whose judgment upon you must pass,
The fellow whose verdict counts most in your life
Is the one staring back from the glass.
Some people might think you're a straight-shooting chum
And call you a wonderful guy.
But the man in the glass says you're only a bum
If you can't look him straight in the eye.
He's the fellow to please, never mind all the rest
For he's with you clear to the end
And you've passed your most dangerous test
If the guy in the glass is your friend.
You may fool the whole world down the pathway of years
And get pats on the back as you pass
But your final reward will be heartache and tears
If you've cheated the man in the glass.
[Note: I just wanted to find somewhere to keep this poem handy !!]
Happy Birthday PRC
Today marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of PRC! Happy Birthday!
It is debatable whether it is a birthday as such. It may be regarded as more of a winning party (in this case CCP) claiming power of a nation and not founding of a state. It is a day marking the official change of the government of the day.
Admittedly this was accomplished by a civil war and thus PRC could be seen as the second republic. With that we have Oct 1 for the 2nd republic and Oct 10 for the first republic.
Most Chinese may not be concerned with this but fellow Chinese living to the east of the Taiwan Strait and not at ease with the CCP may be.
I won't be too critical today because I am proud and have reasons to be happy of what had been achieved in the last 30 years following Deng's reform despite misgiving I have in many respects of CCP's governance.
Having said that, credit must be given to the Dengist CCP for having managed a 30 years of largely peaceful and increasing more developed China. Broadly between 1840s to 1970s, a period of 140 years, China was in a constant state of chaos (乱世) whether the cause was foreign or domestic. Only in the last 30 years that the real and meaningful changes are brought to the peoples.
Listening to the latest speech of the Premier on the eve of national day reception, I am optimistic that China by 2049 will be a different China. Wen spoke about the vision of a civilised, prosperous, harmonious, democratic, just China. A China that respects ethnic minority and religious practice. A China that is ruled by law.
China being a very large country, there are always signs pointing to different direction. Overall, I am pursuaded that CCP is on the right track. I say this with myself always warned of the fact that there was a generation of Chinese both overseas and mainland who were fooled by the words of Mao, and indeed of any politicians. This generation, if they still live, surely live with regret and anger on one side or they had already vanished.
I have chosen to tender the positive evidence. The recently concluded party meeting sees that the party leadership agreed on tougher party rules on party members requiring the officers to declare assets as well as disclosure of spouse and children's profession and etc. This is intended to
increase the CCP's transparency. Additionally and equally important is that the meeting has agreed to implement ways to increase intra-party democracy.
I was reading a piece of futurist predictionof what China will be in 2049, on the 100 anniversary.
Taiwan will be a federated state of China and the party in power is a splinter group from CCP.
These I regard as secondary. More importantly, by 2049 (I will be 76), what matter will be whether Chinese can live peacefully, comfortably, and with dignity.
By peacefully, I mean peace and safe from internal and external threats to life, liberty and property; comfortably, at the simplest level, I mean creature comfort in harmony with nature and keeping pace with technology; by dignity, I mean conducting oneself responsibly to and gaining not just acceptance but also respect and admiration from others.
Let's China not defined by history but by opportunity!
Happy National Day!
It is debatable whether it is a birthday as such. It may be regarded as more of a winning party (in this case CCP) claiming power of a nation and not founding of a state. It is a day marking the official change of the government of the day.
Admittedly this was accomplished by a civil war and thus PRC could be seen as the second republic. With that we have Oct 1 for the 2nd republic and Oct 10 for the first republic.
Most Chinese may not be concerned with this but fellow Chinese living to the east of the Taiwan Strait and not at ease with the CCP may be.
I won't be too critical today because I am proud and have reasons to be happy of what had been achieved in the last 30 years following Deng's reform despite misgiving I have in many respects of CCP's governance.
Having said that, credit must be given to the Dengist CCP for having managed a 30 years of largely peaceful and increasing more developed China. Broadly between 1840s to 1970s, a period of 140 years, China was in a constant state of chaos (乱世) whether the cause was foreign or domestic. Only in the last 30 years that the real and meaningful changes are brought to the peoples.
Listening to the latest speech of the Premier on the eve of national day reception, I am optimistic that China by 2049 will be a different China. Wen spoke about the vision of a civilised, prosperous, harmonious, democratic, just China. A China that respects ethnic minority and religious practice. A China that is ruled by law.
China being a very large country, there are always signs pointing to different direction. Overall, I am pursuaded that CCP is on the right track. I say this with myself always warned of the fact that there was a generation of Chinese both overseas and mainland who were fooled by the words of Mao, and indeed of any politicians. This generation, if they still live, surely live with regret and anger on one side or they had already vanished.
I have chosen to tender the positive evidence. The recently concluded party meeting sees that the party leadership agreed on tougher party rules on party members requiring the officers to declare assets as well as disclosure of spouse and children's profession and etc. This is intended to
increase the CCP's transparency. Additionally and equally important is that the meeting has agreed to implement ways to increase intra-party democracy.
I was reading a piece of futurist predictionof what China will be in 2049, on the 100 anniversary.
Taiwan will be a federated state of China and the party in power is a splinter group from CCP.
These I regard as secondary. More importantly, by 2049 (I will be 76), what matter will be whether Chinese can live peacefully, comfortably, and with dignity.
By peacefully, I mean peace and safe from internal and external threats to life, liberty and property; comfortably, at the simplest level, I mean creature comfort in harmony with nature and keeping pace with technology; by dignity, I mean conducting oneself responsibly to and gaining not just acceptance but also respect and admiration from others.
Let's China not defined by history but by opportunity!
Happy National Day!
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