Running With a tank full of Enthusiasm

March 15, 2011

In 2007, Al Jazeera reported about Jang Hway-min, an eight year old runner in China, who completed running 3,500 kilometers (almost 2,176 miles) in fifty-five days.

Jang Hway-min ran a distance each day equal to one-and-a-half marathons. Her diet was milk, honey and raw eggs (yuck!)

When Paul Allen, the reporter, interviewed her, she said, “I like running. Running makes me happy.”

Her father followed her on a motorized bicycle.

However, similar to the debate concerning Amy Chua’s extreme parenting methods in the United States, Chinese Blogs and editorials in the media criticized the father for child abuse.

Hmm, I wonder how the average soft American parent would react to learn that this happened in the land where “Tough Love” is considered the norm.

Jang Hway-min’s father said, “I am not worried about her health. She is always healthy and never says her legs hurt or that she is tired after running fifty kilometers (31 mile) a day.”

Then in December 2010, The China Post in Taipei, Taiwan reported on a six-year-old marathon runner, Wu Chun-hao, who completed a 42-kilometer marathon (26 miles).

The China Post said, “According to local media reports, the six siblings initially entered the race for fun; they soon grew bored at the constant running and in the final 10-km stretch, little Wu complained of aching knees and broke into tears, which were still running down his face when he crossed the finish line.

“When asked whether it was fun, Wu shook his head. However, asked if he would do it again, the boy bravely replied in the affirmative.

“Breaking records appear to run in the family. Last year’s youngest runner was Wu’s older brother Wu Cheng-en; his sisters, 8-year-old Wu Hui-hsin also became the event’s youngest female marathon runner Sunday.”

Where were the cries of child abuse this time?

Discover Ma Yan’s Story

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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.

Leave a Comment » | China, family values, parenting, Taiwan | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

China’s Communist Revolution or Civil War

March 5, 2011

In Russia and Cuba, there were Communist Revolutions. In China, it was a Civil War. There is a difference.

Dictionary.com says a revolution is an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

A civil war is a war between political factions or regions within the same country.

The United States of America fought a Revolution from 1775 to 1783. The American Civil War was fought from 1861 to 1865. Both fit the definitions.

PBS.org gets it wrong when it says, “Mao Zedong led China’s Communist revolution in the 1920s and 1930s.”

In fact, many Blogs and Websites get the facts wrong with it comes to China’s civil war. 

However, the PBS report clearly shows that in 1923, Sun Yat-sen, known as the father of China’s republic and the leader of the Kuomintang (KMT), allied with the Communist Party (CCP) to strengthen the republic and take China back from the warlords.

Then in 1927, after Sun Yat-sen’s death in 1925, the KMT broke from the CCP shattering the alliance that Sun Yat-sen had formed.

Chiang Kai-shek, the new leader of the KMT, launched a brutal purge to kill all Communists in China.

The CCP had no choice but to fight or be exterminated by Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT. With the support of China’s peasants, the CCP won the civil war in 1949. The US backed the loser.

In fact, both the CCP and the KMT honor Sun Yat-sen as the father of the republic.

In mainland China, the Memorial Hall for Sun Yat-sen is in Guangzhou on the southern slope of Yuexiu Hill and was constructed between 1929 and 1931.

Another memorial hall dedicated to Sun Yat-sen is in Taipei and was completed on May 16, 1972.

So, why do so many call it China’s Communist Revolution when it was a civil war between the KMT and the CCP? Could they be confused?

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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.

4 Comments | China, Chinese history, Communism, history, media, politics, Taiwan | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Yuan-Xiao Festival

February 17, 2011

The Yuan-Xiao Festival, which is also known as the Lantern Festival or the Sweet Dumpling Festival, arrives this time of year.

China Online.com says, “Chinese started to celebrate the Lantern Festival during the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 221 AD) then it regained popularity during the Tang and Song Dynasties.”


Yuan Xiao (元宵节 or 元宵節) is an ancient Chinese tradition that celebrates a new beginning and a fresh start on life.

This is a festival for people to have fun. On the night, people go to streets with a variety of lanterns under the full moon, watching Lion or Dragon Dances, playing Chinese riddles and games, enjoying the typical food called Yuan Xiao (sweet dumplings) and setting off firecrackers.

The sweet dumplings are made of glutinous rice flour and may be stuffed with either a sweet or a salty filling.  Sweet fillings may have walnuts, sesame seeds, osmanthus flowers, rose petals, tangerine peel, bean paste or jujube paste.

The salty Yuan Xiao is filled with a minced meat and/or vegetable mixture.

Traditionally, this day marks the end of celebrations of the Lunar New Year.

Lighting paper lanterns is a tradition during this festival, which is why it is also known as the Lantern Festival. The Lantern Festival was once a version of another Chinese Valentine’s Day but has been gradually losing its romantic allure while the Western Valentine’s Day is gaining in popularity among younger Chinese.

If you pay attention to Chinese holidays, eating is important.  China is an eating culture where family and friends gather to stuff themselves and have an enjoyable time.

Learn more of China’s Eating Culture

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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.

11 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese food, Chinese history, cultural differences, food, history, Taiwan | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Economist on China – Seriously – Part 1/4

January 10, 2011

The wind is blowing and it is raining. When I started writing this post, the Internet and phone had been out for several days. I thought the storm had caused it, but it turned out vandals broke into several junction boxes and cut the lines to thousands of homes. It took several days before being reconnected.

Until you lose your connection to the Internet, you do not realize how much your life has been taken over by the virtual beast.

I have The Economist’s (TE) December 4th issue in front of me. It has a fourteen page, six-part, special report on The dangers of a rising China.

Don’t read much into that title. After reading the report, you will realize the danger comes more from the US than China. One sentence says, “The best way to turn China into an opponent is to treat it as one.”

There’s a message in this sentence the US government should heed.

In fact, as China expands into the world economically and militarily, what happens in the future is up to America more than China.

In Half a cheer for China, which comes before the 14 page report, TE quoted Antonio Chiang, a political analyst and former editor-in-chief of the Taipei Times, as saying, “The point of no return (for Taiwan rejoining the mainland sometime in the future) has already passed”.

Chiang believes that President Ma Ying-jeou’s administration’s goal is to unify with China. If this happens, this will not go over well in the US after selling billions of high-tech weapons to Taiwan.

After all, if Taiwan unites with China, all of those US weapons may belong to China.

This topic will be continued in Part 2. Meanwhile, learn of the 2/28 Massacre in Taiwan

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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.

2 Comments | America, China, cultural differences, politics, Taiwan | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Brutal Dictator and an American Ally – Chiang Kai-shek

October 21, 2010

Casey DuBose wrote a comment wanting proof for the claim that 30,000 were killed during the 2/28 massacre in Taiwan. Here is the proof and more.

Arts & Humanities listed Chiang Kai-shek with other dictators responsible for horrible atrocities and claimed he is responsible for at last one million deaths.

The Taipei Times published a piece on the front page of the paper on Tuesday, February 27, 2007, and said, Former dictator Chiang Kai-shek was a murderer and President Chen Shui-bian said Taiwan’s former authoritarian regime and its leaders were responsible for the massacre of tens of thousands of civilians slain in 1947.

On a site that lists the death tolls for the major wars and atrocities of the twentieth century, Chiang Kai-shek was given credit for 10,214,000 democides from 1921 to 1948.

In another post about Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity, enotes.com says, “From 1927 to 1949, Chiang’s troops used murder, torture and other brutal tactics to wipe out the communists.”

Then Scaruffi.com lists a century of genocides from 1900-2000 and Chiang Kai-shek was credited with the deaths of 30 thousand in a popular uprising in Taiwan in 1947.

I read at the Boston Examiner that several thousand protesters marched in Taipei on February 28, 1947 against the brutality (that took place the day before) but were met with bullets. Martial law was declared and even though things had settled down by the time the Nationalist soldiers arrived the massacre began almost immediately.

East Asia posted an Austrian Perspective by Christian Schafferer, who said the infamous 1947 “2-28 Incident” resulted in ten to thirty thousand civilians killed and Taiwan’s governor executed.

I discovered a book on the topic, Representing Atrocity in Taiwan, The 2.28 Incident and the White Terror by Sylvia Li-Chun, who is the Notre Dame Assistant Professor of Chinese at the University of Notre Dame.

The most powerful evidence comes from the monument in Taiwan to the incident, which says, “Within a few months, the number of deaths, injured and missing persons amounted to tens of thousands.  Keelung, Taipei, Chiayi and Kaohsiung suffered the highest number of casualties. It was called the February 28 Incident.”

Then from the Asia Times, “They slaughtered civilians at random to terrorize the Taiwanese into submission, and carried out a targeted campaign to wipe out the Taiwanese elite – local leaders and intellectuals – who represented the biggest threat to KMT rule. To this date the numbers killed are uncertain, but historians estimate 30,000.”

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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.

Leave a Comment » | Chinese history, history, Taiwan | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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