Discovery’s First Step

March 26, 2010

If you haven’t traveled in China, your opinions about that country are probably wrong. I’ve traveled there often, and I’m married to a woman who was born and lived in China during Mao’s Cultural Revolution.

That’s why I found it interesting to read “The Non-Existence Of A Chinese World View” at Two Fish’s Blog, where Lin YuTang was quoted.

While writing “My Splendid Concubine” about Robert Hart in China, I read “My Country and My People“. Hart is mentioned on page eleven of the 1938 edition. Pearl S. Buck (who wrote the introduction) felt that someone who knows the Chinese should write a book about the people and culture. She urged Lin YuTang to be that author. Even though YuTang’s book was published before the Communist Revolution, this book is still relevant in all things Chinese.

Lin YuTang

YuTang’s style is a mixture of history, philosophy, psychology, sociology with wit and wisdom.

I smiled when he pointed out contradictions about the Chinese way of thinking and helped me discover what motivates many Chinese to act the way they do — even the Chinese in a government often blamed for what they do because they are Communists when in fact, they act that way because they are Chinese.

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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 lusty love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

IMAGE with Blurbs and Awards to use on Twitter

Where to Buy

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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

A Global Misunderstanding

March 20, 2010

“There is nothing wrong with thanking your father and mother, but you should thank your country first,” Yu Zaiqing, China’s State Sports deputy director said. “You have to put the country ahead of your parents.” Source: Vancouver Sun

Yu Zaiqing

What Yu probably meant was “community” instead of “country”. The rest of the piece in the Vancouver Sun goes on with more examples of wrong thinking (by Western standards) from Chinese officials. I disagree with the opinions of the journalist, who wrote the piece, Aileen McCabe, Canwest News Asia Correspondent. Her ignorance of Chinese culture shines.

The reason I disagree is because of Confucius (551-470 B.C.E.), who is considered the founder of China’s ethical and moral system based on the family and his Five Great Relationships. These values have been learned from the family and the community for more than two millennia.

1. between ruler and subject
2. father and son
3. husband and wife
4. elder and younger brother
5. friend and friend

Did you notice the first of Confucius’s relationships? There’s a reason it is number one. Is China supposed to throw out its two thousand years of behavior and thought because a foreigner does not approve?

The first post in this series about Chinese law was Officer in Action http://wp.me/pN4pY-ho

 

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Confucianism, family values, legal system, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The One-Child Tragedy

March 18, 2010

China may have cut off a foot to save a stomach. To be clear, I don’t support the antiabortion movement in the United States. The one-child tragedy in China is similar to the United States where the self-esteem movement fostered millions of narcissists, out for themselves—the everything is “I” people. I’m sexy. I’m going to be famous. I’m going to be rich. I’m going to be the next Bill Gates. And this is before they become a teen.

Studies predict that China will soon be short 24 million wives. It doesn’t matter that China bans tests to determine the sex of the fetus for non-medical reasons. Since the culture traditionally prefers boys, many parents will go to underground private clinics to find out what the sex of the fetus is. If it is a girl, many terminate the pregnancy illegally. With the shortage of women, illegal marriages and forced prostitution (sex slaves) is a problem for the police and courts.

If the growing shortage of women wasn’t enough of a tragedy, there are also the little emperor and empresses—spoiled rotten children. Later, many of these brats end up in marriages that don’t last long. The divorce rate in China among those born around 1980 is the highest of all the age groups because they cannot get along or compromise.

Learn more about China’s One Child Policy

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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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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

March 18, 2010

Based on a novel written by Dai Sijie, who also directed the film.
ISBN: 978-0385722209
Publisher – Anchor (October 29, 2002)

I read Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress soon after it came out.  A few years later, we drove more than sixty miles to see the Mandarin language movie. Checking Amazon this morning, I saw there have been 230 customer reviews for the book with a four out of five star average. This short novel spent twenty-three weeks on the New York Times best-seller list. The author, born in China, moved to France where he learned to read, speak and write French. The book was originally written in French and translated into English by Ina Rilke.

Dai Sijie

The story is about two likable, teenage boys and their struggle after being banished to a peasant village for “re-education” during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Sons of doctors and dentists, the boys work at muscling buckets of excrement up the mountainside and mining coal. Then there is the little seamstress of the title, whom Luo, one of the boys, falls in love with. He dreams of transforming the seamstress from a simple country girl into a sophisticated lover. He succeeds beyond his expectations, but the result is not what he expected.

This link goes to the Mandarin language DVD with English subtitles.

Discover more Chinese cinema through Joan Chen’s Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl

______________________________

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 lusty love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

#1 - Joanna Daneman review posted June 19 2014

Where to Buy

Subscribe to “iLook China”!
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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

3 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Chinese literature, family values, media, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Qianlong Emperor and Google

March 16, 2010

On Friday, March 12, the BBC reported that the Chinese Minister of Industry and Information Technology Li Yizhong adopted a tough stance during a legislation session. “I hope that Google will abide and respect the Chinese government’s laws and regulations,” he said.  “But, if you betray Chinese laws and regulations … it means that you are unfriendly, irresponsible, and you will have to pay the consequences.”

Qianlong Emperor

Google doesn’t get it.  If they read what the Qianlong Emperor (1736-1796) wrote in his famous letter to King George the III in 1793—when China was strong enough to resist external influence—they might understand.

China is a family oriented culture, and the individual is not as important. Public freedom of expression does not fit the Confucian, Taoist foundation that begins in the family where you do not publicly criticize your elders or your leaders and expect to get away with it.

Starting with the first Opium War in 1840 until Mao won China in 1949, China was weak and was bullied by Imperial powers. Now that China is strong, they are saying “NO” as the Qianlong Emperor did.

Discover The Influence of Confucius

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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.

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2 Comments | business, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Confucianism, family values, politics, Taoism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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