Different Results for Different Propaganda Campaigns

September 20, 2010

The concept for this post came from an exchange of ideas with A Modern Lei Feng.

On January 20, 1961, President John F. Kennedy said, “And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Then in March of that year, President Kennedy signed an executive order that authorized the Peace Corp Act, which resulted in some controversy. (A Peace Corps History)

If history is any sign, many of the laws passed after Kennedy’s premature death did the opposite. Instead of Americans helping the country, the country ended up helping Americans.

LBJ’s Great Society program to aid urban renewal and a wide-scale fight against poverty turned millions into wards of the government and added billions to America’s current deficit. (two views of LBJ’s programs may be found at Free Republic.com and a New York Times Opinion Piece)

Then in 1963, a public relations campaign – similar to what Kennedy called for in his 1961 speech – was launched in China.

It was called the “Learn from Comrade Lei Feng” campaign.

Lei became the symbol of nationwide propaganda; the youth of the country were encouraged to follow his example. Source: Wikipedia.org

In essence, the campaign to learn from Lei Feng was to read Chairman Mao’s books, obey Chairman Mao’s words, and be Chairman Mao’s good soldier.

Maybe Mao borrowed the idea from Kennedy.

See China’s Great Leap Forward

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Barbarians, a Matter of Opinion

September 19, 2010

After I wrote Superior versus Civilized, which mentions that for millennia the Chinese considered everyone outside of the Middle Kingdom a barbarian, the subject stuck in my head.

Why?

As I researched the “Superior versus Civilized” post, I ran into Blogs where Westerners were calling the Chinese barbarians for a variety of reasons.

In this post, I will focus on the opinion in one Blog.


Warning, the images in this video are graphic and bloody.

The Blog, Animal Abuse in China, attempts building a case that the Chinese are barbarians in these words, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be determined by the way it treats its animal China tortures animals while little children laugh and cheer..Help the animals who cannot help themselves from this horrific life of torture. Thousands die daily from torture! WE MUST PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON CHINA!!”

I copied and pasted the “opinion” above as I found it. However, if that opinion were true, most nations are guilty.

Watch the YouTube videos to see what I mean.


Warning, the images in this video are graphic and bloody.

In fact, many of our neighbors are animal lovers but  still eat meat, and there is a lot of pain and suffering that takes place from feed lot to a sanitary package in a super market.

I don’t eat meat, but I’m not an animal lover. I don’t hate animals either. I’ve been a vegan since 1981. Imagine all the animals that didn’t suffer, because I stopped eating meat for health reasons.


Warning, the images in this video are graphic and bloody.

Let’s refer back to that opinion where it says, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be determined by the way it treats its animals.” 

If true, America and all Western nations are filled with barbarians.  Passing laws won’t change the behavior of people you might consider to be barbarians—wherever they live.

If you don’t believe that, study what happened in America during prohibition.

I’m going to borrow an “edited” sentence from Jesus Christ that says, Let the nation that has no guilt cast the first stone.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to this Blog, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

One Tough Mezzo-soprano from China

September 18, 2010

She describes herself as a girl from China who came to America with $45 and knowing two words of English, “Merry Christmas.”  Source: SFGate

When Zheng Cao burst onto the San Francisco Opera scene in 1995, she played Siebel in “Faust.” Since then, she’s performed in opera houses throughout North America, Europe and Asia.

Today, an inspiration, the Shanghai-born Mezzo-soprano has defied the odds of surviving stage four lung cancer and a diagnoses that said she had six months to live.

More than a year ago, she received a death sentence when cancer was discovered to have spread through her body. Months later, she would learn that the rigorous treatment plan had dramatically reduced the cancer threat.

“This is the most impressive response I’ve seen in my life,” Dr. Rosenbaum said.

Zheng Cao’s tumors either had decreased in size, were no longer visible or no longer considered active.

To learn more about Zhen Cao’s journey, visit her Blog at Caring Bridge.org.

Zheng Cao holds degrees from the Shanghai Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music.

While studying, she worked as a singer on the Holland American cruise line where she met Troy Donahue in 1991.

Donahue said that “We were very serious, very committed to each other. It’s the greatest relationship I’ve ever had in my life.” Source: Troy Donahue at encore4.net

Zheng Cao and Troy Donahue were engaged until his death in 2001. She turned 44 on June 9, 2010.

See China’s Got Talent Too

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to this Blog, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, China, Chinese women, disabilities, health care | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Business is a Global War

September 18, 2010

Like war, running a successful business is a challenge. To win, you cannot be merciful and give your competition the edge in price or quality.

If you read or listen to the media or Blogosphere in the U.S., it sounds as if China is the only country that is unfair in business.

However, there’s much that goes on most Westerners never hear or admit.

For example, the U.S. might be China’s biggest customer but that only represents about 18% of what China sells to the world.

In fact, Suite 101 listed a decline for Chinese 2009 global exports, which was estimated to be $1.19 trillion (in U.S. Dollars), and China imported $922 billion worth of products from other countries, down 18.5% from 2008.

Matthew Knight for CNN reported that Business is war, learn from the battlefield….

It seems that a few U.S. businesses may be listening and learning – at least the survivors, who are too busy counting profits.

According to the China Law Blog, several U.S. companies that manufacture in the U.S. and export to China dropped prices as high as 70% when a Chinese company started to compete by selling similar products.

When that happened, the Chinese companies had trouble competing because the prices of the U.S. equipment were dropped well below the prices set by domestic manufacturers in China.

After all, isn’t all fair in love, war and business and to the victor the spoils.

When U.S. once manufactured and sold more than 90% of U.S. cars globally, we didn’t hear GM, Ford or Chrysler complaining about the competition because they were the winners – now some Americans complain. 

Isn’t that the same as being a bad sport?

“It is a well-known fact that 80% of small businesses fail each year in the United States…. One key reason is that many people…have no idea what they’re getting into”. Source: Googobits.com

See Doing Business in China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to this Blog, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Homeless

September 16, 2010

The East Asia Forum (EAF) reported September 1, 2010, on the impact of the global financial crises on China’s migrant workers.

It turns out that the impact wasn’t as significant as first thought in 2009 as most laid-off workers went home to the rural, collective village farms.

Two years after the world economy collapsed, the EAF was surprised to discover that migrants who stayed in the cities suffered very little.

Instead, workers who stayed in the cities continued to work while about 15 million migrants, about 10% of the workforce, went back to the farm, where they had already worked on average 52% of the year helping grow the food China eats.

The EAF suggested that small landholders, since most Chinese in rural China cannot own or sell the land they farm, should be allowed to sell their land and that China should move toward a universal welfare system.

Huh?

In America, which has a universal welfare system, when a worker loses his or her job, he or she collects unemployment benefits until those benefits run out. The next choice is to become a homeless beggar.

A report on PBS says that since 2007 there has been a 12% increase in homelessness and that about 2.3 to 3.5 million people in the U.S. experience homelessness.

The suggestion from the EAF that China must allow rural peasants to sell the land they farm is wrong.

As long as those farms exist, few people have to go homeless in China. Being a poor peasant farmer may not offer many choices in life, but it has to be better than sleeping in an alley in Shanghai and going hungry.

It was difficult to discover how many homeless people there are in China.  It appears that most who are homeless lost their homes through floods, earthquakes and other acts of nature and live in tent cities while the government has new homes built.

See China’s Stick People

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to this Blog, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | America, American culture, capitalism, China, Chinese Culture, Communism, cultural differences, family values | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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