Hollywood Takes the “Karate Kid” to China

June 17, 2010

I walked to the local movie theater (June, 2010) to see the new The Karate Kid staring Jaden Smith, which was filmed in China—mostly in Beijing.  It was also the biggest modern movie co-produced between an American Studio and China. The themes from the old movie were there, but I enjoyed this movie more because it delivered something the old movie didn’t—a glimpse at Chinese culture.

The Jackie Chan character lives in a Hutong.  If you want to learn more, I suggest The Last Days of Old Beijing by Michael Meyer. The Great Wall is about an hour from Beijing. I’ve been there too, but I’ve never seen it without people.

The trip to the top of Wudang Mountain, well known for its deep-rooted tradition of wushu (martial arts), took me to a place I’ve never been. Watching Jackie Chang and Jaden Smith climb that long, narrow stairway reminded me of mountains I’ve climbed that took my breath away in gasps with heart pounding.

China may not have elections where eligible citizens , stupid and smart, gets to vote as in America, but James Lassiter, a “Karate Kid” producer, says that in China “The people run the country, so if people didn’t want you shooting in their neighborhood, there’s no authority that can tell them they have to. That’s why it’s called the People’s Republic of China.” Source for quote:  KansasCity.com

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress offers another look at China.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Free Press through Blogging

June 15, 2010

Keith B. Richburg reports in The Washington Post that labor unrest is spreading in China as more workers demand higher wages. He writes, “Various economists, labor experts and activists said there were many more strikes and work stoppages rolling across China…”

Blogging has become the free press of China. The Chinese have more Blogs than any nation on the earth.

On the river in Guilin, China (photo by Lloyd Lofthouse)

Resonance China, a China Social Media Agency, reports, “The numbers of bloggers…saw a huge jump in 2008. This is likely due to China’s internet hitting a critical point, combining social networks, with blog networks with portals, and politically charged events… The drive to express online is a central motivation for the Chinese. Due to China’s strong censorship and control of traditional media, the internet becomes a major destination to receive balanced views, see how others think and react to events…”

iLook China posts demonstrating how the Internet has given a voice to the Chinese appeared in Traveling to Xiamen, China and The Power of Public Debate in China. China may never have a Western/American political system but freedom of expression has arrived.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning My Splendid Concubine and writes The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Speaking English Means Waging War

June 10, 2010

The American Conservative Daily, with air between ears, says this about the fact that learning English is mandatory in China’s public schools, “A nation planning to invade and occupy another nation would learn that nation’s language.”

Republican Elephant

Did the Japanese make learning English mandatory in Japan before bombing Pearl Harbor?

Did Nazi Germany require citizens to learn English before starting World War II in Europe? 

Since when has any nation required its citizens to learn the language of a nation they are planning to invade and conquer? 

When the US waged war against American indians, many indian children were sent to Christian boarding schools and forced to learn English and forget their native language. US citizens were never required to learn any American indian languages.

When the US won the Spanish America war and acquired territories like the Philippians where Spanish was spoken, did the US make Spanish mandatory in the US schools?

When I was in the US Marines and fought in Vietnam, I didn’t have to learn Vietnamese.

The reason China made English mandatory is because America is China’s largest trading partner and China has invested more than a trillion dollars in America.  If you ever visit any of China’s major cities, like Shanghai or Beijing, you may notice that the street signs are in English and Chinese.  On the subways, the voice that announces the next stop says it first in English and then Chinese.

The Chinese are not stupid.  English, thanks to the British Empire (not the United States), is the most spoken language on the planet and is the language of business and science.  If China wants to be successful in a world where business and science are dominated by the English language, the Chinese people must speak English.

See Education Chinese Style

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China: The Roots of Madness – Part 2/8

June 9, 2010

In part 2, British and American power controlled the wheels of industry in Shanghai, Nanking, Hankow and Chunking.  In the steaming south, peasants, working like beasts, plant rice and speak languages most Chinese do not understand.

At the turn of the century, a three-year-old child was the emperor and the throne sat empty. On October 10, 1911, a riot took place that couldn’t be controlled. Five weeks later, the Imperial government collapsed. The Qing Dynasty vanished over night and two-thousand years of Imperial tradition was gone. The Chinese called this time “Double Death”.

The British and Americans could not control what replaced the Qing Dynasty. Students without weapons rioted in the streets. Warlords, who controlled armies, divided China and the chaos grew worse. Life became so cheap, that death was like a bloody circus. However, while the Chinese people suffered and starved, the foreigners live in luxury and controlled China’s industry while being protected by the Western military.

Sun Yat-sen

Chinese students demanded a revolt and Sun Yat-sen called on China to slay the dragon of Imperialism. He said China must start with nationalism, then democracy and finally socialism. The only country that offered help was Soviet Russia. This post was more accurate than Part 1.

Continued in Part 3, The Roots of Madness or return to Part 1, The Roots of Madness.

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Discover A Millennia of History at a Silk Road Oasis

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

About iLook China

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, history, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Greedy Buyers Beware

June 8, 2010

The China Law Blog posted a piece about China Product Beyond Your Worst Nightmare and pointed out that in China there are levels of quality five levels below anything you would think possible and for Chinese manufacturers those levels are normal.

For that reason, Dan, who posted the piece, blames US companies that have problems with the quality of Chinese manufactured products for failing to be specific in the contract’s language.

drywall disaster

One example used in the piece was about the tainted Chinese drywall that has been in the US news.  When the defect was discovered, the Chinese drywall manufacturer urged the U.S. customer, Banner Supply, to sell the drywall in other countries—not in the US.  Depositions unsealed Friday by a Florida court judge in Miami-Dade County shows that the US company refused the offer.

US companies that sign these flawed contracts are probably drooling at the low prices and imagined profits and stagger off giggling in a daze at all the money to be made. Greed for flawed products is the blinding motive. I understand because we had a problem with a greedy US contractor over an addition to our California house that had nothing to do with China. We ended up firing him and no addition was built.

Learn more—see China’s Labor Laws

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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