Why China isn't ready

[NormanPride]

Chinese Pianist plays anti-American anthem (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1350269/Chinese-pianist-plays-anti-American-anthem-Obamas-White-House-dinner.html)


MY MOTHERLAND: THE LYRICS

Large billowing waves on this big river, Wind blowing the fragrant paddies of both banks, There is my house on the bank,

Where I can hear the usual boatman's song As the boat with white sail passes by.
This is my beautiful Motherland, The land of my birth.
On this vast expanse of land, Everywhere is beautiful scenery.

A damsel is like a flower, That refreshes youthful mind, Scaling heaven and earth, Waking the slumbering mountain, As the river changes the scenery.

This heroine Motherland Is where I was brought up, In this ancient land of youthful strength.

Good mountain, water and place, That radiate tranquillity and happiness.
There are good wines for friends who come, And if there be wolves and jackals, We greet them with hunting rifle.

This is my big and powerful Motherland The land of my birth.
On this vast land peace radiates!

Apparently those aren't the whole lyrics, as apparently there is a phrase that refers to Americans as "jackals" and implies that we'll be shot with hunting rifles. Can anyone find any other sources on this? The Daily Mails is, well... yeah.

Should I be mad? I just feel embarrassed for China. This is like the little brother playing a prank and proving nothing more than they're still the little brother.

[delhalew]

Eh, that's what we get for letting that scumbag get off his plane and set foot on American soil.

[badger]

Lyrics to "How Great is Our China" (English translation, of course)


How great is our China!
The largest nation of the largest continent.
Twenty-two administered provinces are one family.
Rich products and fertile land are the first in the world.
Calling this strong nation heaven on earth is not boasting.
Don't you see: Britain and Japan, only three islands, still prosper.
How much more our great China?

Join as one body.
Excite our spirit.
In this new world of the twentieth century,
Strongly soar among fellow mankind of the universe.

How lovely is our people!
How lovely is our people!

This is like the Texas A&M song that is nothing but about beating Texas :rolleyes:

Here's "Revolution of the Citizens"


Overthrow the foreign Powers, × 2
Eliminate the warlords; × 2
The citizens strive hard for the Revolution, × 2
Joint affair to fight. × 2

Laborers, farmers, students, and soldiers, × 2
Make a great union! × 2
Overthrow the imperialism, × 2
Joint affair to fight. × 2

Overthrow the foreign Powers, × 2
Eliminate the warlords; × 2
The Revolution is successful; ×2
Joyfully sing in unison. ×2

I couldn't find it, but apparently the traditional Chinese song that the little girl lip synched to at the Olympics (a less-pretty girl was the actual one signing... yes, she was deemed not-pretty-enough to represent China in the Olympics) has original lyrics something like this: Our home is happy, happy is our home, but if you attack our happy home, we will crush you, kick your arse and destroy you... ok, maybe not that excessive, but even so, they apparently omitted that line at the Olympics :D

[badger]

But really... our national anthem is all about kicking the Brits' arse, so should we really be questioning the Chinese songs? ;)

[Mixer!]

Me Chinese
Me play joke
Me put pee-pee
In your coke

[TheHumanAlphabet]

I don't know if the White House Protocol office vetted these songs prior to playing, if so, someone needs to be fired from this office, IMO.

[Aldebaran]

Fire up the war planes.

[AlboSooner]

I hope we already have boots on the ground

[RUSH LIMBAUGH is my clone!]

Shouldn't we just continue to borrow from them? At a certain point the ever-growing stimulus will kick in, and people will start spending and investing in America again...no?

[Flagstaffsooner]

Why didnt he sing the Kenyan National Anthem?

[Fraggle145]

But really... our national anthem is all about kicking the Brits' arse, so should we really be questioning the Chinese songs? ;)

We won.

[KantoSooner]

Everytime someone plays the Yellow Peril card, I kind of cringe. The facts are out there for anyone who wants to check them. But here are a couple I find interesting:

1. Anyone remember Japan? That's the country that was supposed to sitting on the porch about now, issuing orders to its American slaves out in the field and sipping cold sake.
The tales of woe regarding us relative to China are eeriely similar. So, let's check on Japan now. Huh. A shrinking population (and demographically they will go from a high of 128 mill to somewhere south of 80 with no hope of turning it around til mid-century). An economy that hasn't produced growth in 20 years. Highest suicide rate in the world and ultra high drop out rates.
Real world beater, no doubt.
And who borrowed Japan's neo-mercantilist handbook? China.

2. China is growing at eleventy billion percent per year. Really? Says who? Why, ... China. Do you truly believe statistics published by people who will lose their livlihoods if the numbers don't come in right? All we have are estimates by educated observers. On GNP growth, that's pretty good. On bad debt? On capital sufficiency ratios? Eh, not so much. And the best guess is that China is running fast to avoid a collapse.
Oh, and that growth rate? Don't forget they have 250 million unemployed wandering the countryside. If they don't grow at least 7% per annum, they are facing a revolution.

3. Ah, green hills and rivers....where? Not in China. It is by far the most polluted and eco-destroyed major country on earth. Try these on for size: desertification will, in all liklihood render Beijing uninhabitable in the next 25 years. That's their capitol folks. Under dunes. Next look at the fresh water situation. As in: they don't got none. They're trying now to pipe it to the North from the South, but how much does that add in costs? You can only deflate your way to competitiveness for so long.

4. But, but, they are so much smarter than us. Well, yes. If High School Standardized Tests are the sole measure. But look at what happens by age 25. Note that ALL mid-level and up managers are Chinese. No? Note that US, European and all other non-Chinese companies are stumbling around into walls whilst the nimble and brilliant Chinese run through the doorways? No? That's because it's not happening. Somehow, these Mr. Spocks seem to be pretty normal guys by their mid-20's. And our folks compete just fine. I don't know how that happens, but it does. And the Korean, Chinese and Japanese kids who traded their childhoods for high school test scores and piano recitals might have something to say about the bargain.

The Chinese people are very cool. And in the interior there are areas that look a lot like Texas and Oklahoma...and the people are simliar as well. They love their country and are quite patriotic (one long term thread in Chinese history is the gut level hatred of Chinese or foreigners who sought to tear the country apart). And some percentage are obnoxiously jingoistic about it. I don't agree with the philosophy of the government, but I sympathize with the huge problems they face. The bottom line is that China is no more or less a threat than any other nation of 1.3 billion people would be had they been subtracted from the world economy for 40 odd years and then dropped back in suddenly. Ripples should be expected (and economic ripples are far preferable to a war, which so far we've avoided.)
China is far less a threat than the media would have us believe.

Disclaimer: I lived from 1973 in Japan, Malaysia and Hong Kong and travelled throughout China two-three times per month from 1990-2005. I don't pose as a China expert, but I've got some basis for my opinions.

More so than Pat Buchannon and most of the other talking heads who are counseling panic.

[badger]

4. But, but, they are so much smarter than us. Well, yes. If High School Standardized Tests are the sole measure. But look at what happens by age 25. Note that ALL mid-level and up managers are Chinese. No? Note that US, European and all other non-Chinese companies are stumbling around into walls whilst the nimble and brilliant Chinese run through the doorways? No? That's because it's not happening. Somehow, these Mr. Spocks seem to be pretty normal guys by their mid-20's. And our folks compete just fine. I don't know how that happens, but it does. And the Korean, Chinese and Japanese kids who traded their childhoods for high school test scores and piano recitals might have something to say about the bargain.


If I had to guess, it's a similar story to all the bookworms that we knew back in high school - they experienced the real world from outside their parents' sheltered, protectiveness and they didn't pan out. Or, at least started getting some C's without feeling too guilty.

One bookworm I knew was once an A+ student with the plan to go into the medical field. Didn't happen, and I think it had a lot to do with the college atmosphere. Another bookworm discovered alcohol... before they were of legal age, of course, and flunked most of their first semester classes. Many other bookworms were just a mess... oh man.

[KantoSooner]

My niece (or ex-niece or whatever you call a person who is your ex-wife's niece) is a brilliant young woman of 20, now a college student in Tokyo. She did the full-on school with cram classes before and after school and half days on Saturday routine. Sunday was reserved for kendo and piano lessons. Dam near killed her. She developed facial tics.
She visited here over the holidays with my daughter last year when we had the big snow. We went out to play around and had to teach her how to make a snow ball and snow man. And it wasn't 'cultural'. She teared up a bit. The kid has simply had no childhood.
I'm all for education and have a graduate degree myself, but there needs to be a bit of balance.

[NormanPride]

Yup. Teachers used to scare us with stories of how hard the Japanese school system was. My thought was always "What the hell do they teach? I'm running out of stuff to learn, here!" I don't think they cover much more than we do, but they go over it a lot more.

[KantoSooner]

It's mostly rote mem for insanely detailed tests. If only life were an insanely detailed test....

Seriously, when you look at the scores, these kids do something like 10 points better on a 100 point scale. Very significant. One whole letter grade. Now, look at the fact that they are spending, quite literally, 2,000 more hours per year in class. The question is really not why they are so far ahead, but why the hell they are not further ahead. It's not a very striking endorsement of their school systems.

Mind you, I helped a friend's kid do his college app this past year and YE GODS, I wanted to go strangle his teachers. Yes, it was a rural school, but sonofabitch, this kid couldn't write. and that's not acceptable.

[NormanPride]

They also don't require kids to go to High School in Japan, I believe. It helps your numbers when all the dum-dums go smoke cigarettes and work in a factory before they get a chance to bring the glorious youth's test numbers down. ;)

[SoonerJack]

They also don't require kids to go to High School in Japan, I believe. It helps your numbers when all the dum-dums go smoke cigarettes and work in a factory before they get a chance to bring the glorious youth's test numbers down. ;)

Bingo.

And in China, the ones that go to high school are the ones that have scored a certain level on a test. Very different than here in the states.

[Curly Bill]

They also don't require kids to go to High School in Japan, I believe. It helps your numbers when all the dum-dums go smoke cigarettes and work in a factory before they get a chance to bring the glorious youth's test numbers down. ;)

Truth!!!

[soonercruiser]

Fire up the war planes.

Which ones?

http://members.cox.net/franklipsinic/Other/China%20Stealth.jpg

[swardboy]

I approve this thread.

[C&CDean]

Mind you, I helped a friend's kid do his college app this past year and YE GODS, I wanted to go strangle his teachers. Yes, it was a rural school, but sonofabitch, this kid couldn't write. and that's not acceptable.

I have really been enjoying your experience/take on all this, however, "rural" schools are a heap site further ahead than urban schools. A kid has a much better chance of receiving/absorbing a good education in Coweta than they do in ghetto Tulsa or OKC.

[badger]

Perhaps this is why Oklahoma's standardized test scores are so low. Some states allow kids to drop out and they definitely do. Back in Wisconsin, there were several in my dinky class that basically said "eff it" in the years leading up to graduation and stopped going.

In Oklahoma, as a "no-dropout" state, we send them to "alternative schools."

[NormanPride]

No Child Left Behind has done immeasurable damage to our education system.

[OklahomaTuba]

No more damage than what the teachers unions have done to it.

Can't wait to see what they do with our healthcare!!!!

[KantoSooner]

I have really been enjoying your experience/take on all this, however, "rural" schools are a heap site further ahead than urban schools. A kid has a much better chance of receiving/absorbing a good education in Coweta than they do in ghetto Tulsa or OKC.

My bad to imply that all rural schools suck. Subtract that. The point remains that this kid (who I've known since he was about six - he's no dummy and has a bright, loving family) was woefully unprepared by his teachers. Categorize them any way you wish - they should not be in the teaching profession. The bottom line for me is that I see no reason to panic, but we can do a whole lot better in this country.

[jkjsooner]

I have really been enjoying your experience/take on all this, however, "rural" schools are a heap site further ahead than urban schools. A kid has a much better chance of receiving/absorbing a good education in Coweta than they do in ghetto Tulsa or OKC.

I went to a small rural school. While I was there we were one of the best rural schools in the area.

Because the schools are so small it can vary significantly from school to school. Even within my school, with only 20-30 per grade you literally had very smart classes and very dumb classes. If you were stuck in a grade with a bunch of dummies it sure wouldn't help you...

Also, in a school that size while I think you get a good education (much better than some inner city schools) for the highest performers the opportunities are limited. If you have a brilliant kid you might want him in a place where he can take calculus and AP classes or whatever.

[soonercruiser]

No more damage than what the teachers unions have done to it.Can't wait to see what they do with our healthcare!!!!

BINGO!!!!