Day 1 of getting my act together:
4/28/11
Today I read an article by the Deutsche Bank Group, one of the world's leading financial institutions, called 12th Year Plan, Chinese Leadership Towards a Low Carbon Economy published fairly recently on April 4th, 2011.
China's Five-Year-Plan (FYP) is revised at five year increments and serves as the most important blueprint detailing China's near future development, growth, and direction. This article very concisely delineated the major points within China's 12th FYP (2011-2015) and especially highlighted the plan's stress on clean energy and sustainable development. The article lauds the Chinese government for its high goals and tremendous financial investment.
What I find most interesting about this article is that while congratulating China, the writer representing Deutsche Bank, a German financial institution, also purposefully compares it to the “stalled efforts at the US Federal Level”. They could have been alluding to several recent events, may it be the doom of the American Power Act, a bill that would have created a carbon trade market with in the US but ultimately failed in the senate, or and the more recent budget cuts coming out of the House such as as the HR1 bill that slashes the EPA's budget by 30% and also prohibits the EPA from monitoring greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
The article goes on to excitedly proclaim, “gone are the days when commentators expected US carbon policy to lead the way for China to join a decarbonizing world! Rather, it is now China who is preparing for carbon markets by 2013...”
The message of this article reminded me of a point Thomas Friedman evokes in Hot Flat and Crowded (one of my all time favorite books in case you haven't noticed), which is the relationship between world leadership and leadership in sustainability. Friedman urges the US to take on the challenge of green leadership because he sees it as the single most effective way for the United States to improve America's international image, rejuvenate the American economy, and revive American exceptionalism all in one move. He writes in his chapter “Can Red China become Green China?”, “Leadership is not about “after you”. It's about “follow me”...the greatest thing that America could do today for itself, China, and the world is become an example of a country that grows prosperous, secure, innovative, and respected by becoming the greenest, most energy-efficient, and most energy productive country there is.”
Instead of leading the green movement, the US is, as Deutsche Bank puts it, “stagnant”. In the meanwhile, China is making the bold moves that Friedman is advocating for. If indeed leadership in sustainability is connected to world leadership, perhaps becoming green will be China's claim to ascending superpower-dom. At the end of the day, at least one of these two countries will need to do the right thing. If its not going to be the US, let's hope it's China.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Bittersweet departures
ACC is wrapping up and I am sitting alone in my dorm room being sad because everyone is heading back home to the US or traveling around China. I think I would be happier if I too had some kind of definitive physical change that clearly marked the end of my ACC semester, but right now I feel like I'm left in limbo while everyone else is floating out.
I met some really awesome people this semester, including my good friends Marianne Spencer from George-Washington （also native Mississippian), Lily Kaiser from Georgetown （who introduced me to the company Greentech Initiative that I will hopefully be interning for this summer), and of course, Eric Johnson from Tufts, who I also refer to as 江磊. I also enjoyed made a lot of other awesome friends, but with 40 people in our program, its not possible to mention everyone. We had a lot of good times, and I am sad to know that I will not see them for a while. I believe that this will not be the last time we run into each other, because the world is often smaller than we think.
However, as with any society (no matter how large or small), drama is bound to arise. Someone has got to the be the weird kid, the smart kid, the quiet kid, the popular kid, the wild kid, the goofy kid, etc. I've moved enough many times to know this, no matter where we go, the same story plays out every time. However, at ACC instead of falling into one group of friends, this time I really tried to be friends with everyone.
I think knowing that I will be a FroCo next year really motivated me to act more maturely and view all ACC drama differently. When I ran into a problem, I would think to myself, what would I do if I were FroCo Joy? During the course of our program, some students were very harshly (in relativity to the reasoning behind it), and even unnecessarily, ostracized from the group. Instead of distancing myself from everything, I was one of few people who tried to remain friends with them--but it is very hard when all of your friends are talking badly of them. From the perspective of FroCo Joy, would I console them? Ask them to look at things from a different perspective? Try to get the other students to stop excluding them? What kind of FroCo will I be? The laissez-faire type or the meddler? In terms of FroCo-ship, ACC has been good training grounds.
Anyhoo, today I will be moving out of my luxurious hotel "dorm" and into an apartment down the street. While our hotel dorms are reserved for foreign students studying abroad, my new apartment is the kind rented by Chinese students. Before I post any pictures, let me just say there is 天壤之别（differences as great as sky and earth).
I met some really awesome people this semester, including my good friends Marianne Spencer from George-Washington （also native Mississippian), Lily Kaiser from Georgetown （who introduced me to the company Greentech Initiative that I will hopefully be interning for this summer), and of course, Eric Johnson from Tufts, who I also refer to as 江磊. I also enjoyed made a lot of other awesome friends, but with 40 people in our program, its not possible to mention everyone. We had a lot of good times, and I am sad to know that I will not see them for a while. I believe that this will not be the last time we run into each other, because the world is often smaller than we think.
However, as with any society (no matter how large or small), drama is bound to arise. Someone has got to the be the weird kid, the smart kid, the quiet kid, the popular kid, the wild kid, the goofy kid, etc. I've moved enough many times to know this, no matter where we go, the same story plays out every time. However, at ACC instead of falling into one group of friends, this time I really tried to be friends with everyone.
I think knowing that I will be a FroCo next year really motivated me to act more maturely and view all ACC drama differently. When I ran into a problem, I would think to myself, what would I do if I were FroCo Joy? During the course of our program, some students were very harshly (in relativity to the reasoning behind it), and even unnecessarily, ostracized from the group. Instead of distancing myself from everything, I was one of few people who tried to remain friends with them--but it is very hard when all of your friends are talking badly of them. From the perspective of FroCo Joy, would I console them? Ask them to look at things from a different perspective? Try to get the other students to stop excluding them? What kind of FroCo will I be? The laissez-faire type or the meddler? In terms of FroCo-ship, ACC has been good training grounds.
Anyhoo, today I will be moving out of my luxurious hotel "dorm" and into an apartment down the street. While our hotel dorms are reserved for foreign students studying abroad, my new apartment is the kind rented by Chinese students. Before I post any pictures, let me just say there is 天壤之别（differences as great as sky and earth).
Thursday, April 21, 2011
More 北海公园 (Beihai Park)
Perhaps right before finals is not the best time to be updating my blog, but life has been so fun lately and I've got pictures！ ：D
This past weekend was ACC's 中文之夜 （China Night）, which were filled with student performances. I was a serious part of three performances, including impromptu Beijing Opera (never heard of it? that's because we invented it!), a game show challenge, and a movie! For Impromptu Beijing Opera, think Whose Line Is it Anyway + really high pitched Beijing Opera voice + foreigners speaking in Chinese + ridiculous props/acrobatics/costumes, and VIOLA!
As to the game show challenge, we had ACC's most beloved couple (an adorable Buddhist couple from Japan compete against ACC's most extroverted bros). Of course one of the challenges had to be Charades. SO ＦＵＮＮＹ！
Lastly, I also wrote/directed/produced a movie. The movie is basically 75% true and all of the little stories in the movie are vignettes from ACC students' personal experiences. When I get the chance, I'll post it for you to watch!
Of course, any good show is followed by a good after party, and on Saturday night, we partied literally until dawn (The street vendors selling breakfast were out before I got into bed). I was a complete mess the "next" day--let that be a warning to my future self.
AND ＴＨＥＮ！I went to one of mine favorite parks-北海公园. I danced with a group of elderly retirees inside a pavilion on the lake, and the proceeded to play badminton with some old timers near the famous double sided dragon wall. The dancing pavilion reminded me of my high school days when my friends and I used to go to Dance Away, a gathering at the downtown Unitarian Church. There, people from all walks of life (some donning flashy masks, some dancing with feathered boas, and some playing with glow in the dark hoops) gathered to do their own quirky dance. At Dance Away, my friends and I were the youngest participants, which is probably why I found the retirees' dancing pavilion so familiar.
AND ＴＨＥＮ！ Today I visited an awesome professor at 北大 (Beida)University (basically the Yale of China) who agreed to help me with my summer project and introduce me to survey work in China. Unfortunately, it wasn't as much of a done deal as I expected. She was so great and welcoming, but she says that the work that she's currently doing/having her students do is unrelated to my interests and also that at the moment, she doesn't have any full-time work for me. However, she did agree to contact me if they have field work/training sessions. She also provided me a lot of resources to consult as well as names of other professors and organizations that are also involved with public opinion survey work. My summer plans are slowly, but surely materializing! :D
My meeting with the Beida professor was also a good addition to my day. My thoughts on this visit are as such: 1) WOW, BEIDA facilities are so baller. 的确名不虚伪 (the name lives up to its reputation)。2） She told me that after looking through my resume, she really respected my independence. Students from the US (and perhaps more so at Yale) are very eager to pursue their own independent research projects and to 想方设法 (by any means necessary) reach out to professors, which is something Chinese undergraduates don't get much of a chance to do.
Because we were discussing matters that related to academics, I was also often lost as to what exactly she was talking about. I often have this problem when I find myself in a strange situation, and I also have the problem of always pretending that I understand when in actuality I don't. I also have the problem of not being able to differentiate between not being to understand due to gaps of knowledge (for example, not understanding someone when they are talking about quantum physics or the subtleties of laws protecting intellectual property) and not being able to understand due to my Chinese ability.
Dancing Pavilion featured with bonafide old timer hipster
She was really nice and tried convince Eric to dance！
However, because Eric kept on refusing, I took her up on her offer instead and we ended up dancing salsa together!
This lady is in her 80s!
She is a retired optometrist and likes to dance solo. She dances mostly ethnic dances, and I had a good time imitating/branching off from her moves
Guess who!
Getting her stretching on
Badminton! I also played a few rounds, but I was terribly sub par.
This past weekend was ACC's 中文之夜 （China Night）, which were filled with student performances. I was a serious part of three performances, including impromptu Beijing Opera (never heard of it? that's because we invented it!), a game show challenge, and a movie! For Impromptu Beijing Opera, think Whose Line Is it Anyway + really high pitched Beijing Opera voice + foreigners speaking in Chinese + ridiculous props/acrobatics/costumes, and VIOLA!
As to the game show challenge, we had ACC's most beloved couple (an adorable Buddhist couple from Japan compete against ACC's most extroverted bros). Of course one of the challenges had to be Charades. SO ＦＵＮＮＹ！
Lastly, I also wrote/directed/produced a movie. The movie is basically 75% true and all of the little stories in the movie are vignettes from ACC students' personal experiences. When I get the chance, I'll post it for you to watch!
Of course, any good show is followed by a good after party, and on Saturday night, we partied literally until dawn (The street vendors selling breakfast were out before I got into bed). I was a complete mess the "next" day--let that be a warning to my future self.
AND ＴＨＥＮ！I went to one of mine favorite parks-北海公园. I danced with a group of elderly retirees inside a pavilion on the lake, and the proceeded to play badminton with some old timers near the famous double sided dragon wall. The dancing pavilion reminded me of my high school days when my friends and I used to go to Dance Away, a gathering at the downtown Unitarian Church. There, people from all walks of life (some donning flashy masks, some dancing with feathered boas, and some playing with glow in the dark hoops) gathered to do their own quirky dance. At Dance Away, my friends and I were the youngest participants, which is probably why I found the retirees' dancing pavilion so familiar.
AND ＴＨＥＮ！ Today I visited an awesome professor at 北大 (Beida)University (basically the Yale of China) who agreed to help me with my summer project and introduce me to survey work in China. Unfortunately, it wasn't as much of a done deal as I expected. She was so great and welcoming, but she says that the work that she's currently doing/having her students do is unrelated to my interests and also that at the moment, she doesn't have any full-time work for me. However, she did agree to contact me if they have field work/training sessions. She also provided me a lot of resources to consult as well as names of other professors and organizations that are also involved with public opinion survey work. My summer plans are slowly, but surely materializing! :D
My meeting with the Beida professor was also a good addition to my day. My thoughts on this visit are as such: 1) WOW, BEIDA facilities are so baller. 的确名不虚伪 (the name lives up to its reputation)。2） She told me that after looking through my resume, she really respected my independence. Students from the US (and perhaps more so at Yale) are very eager to pursue their own independent research projects and to 想方设法 (by any means necessary) reach out to professors, which is something Chinese undergraduates don't get much of a chance to do.
Because we were discussing matters that related to academics, I was also often lost as to what exactly she was talking about. I often have this problem when I find myself in a strange situation, and I also have the problem of always pretending that I understand when in actuality I don't. I also have the problem of not being able to differentiate between not being to understand due to gaps of knowledge (for example, not understanding someone when they are talking about quantum physics or the subtleties of laws protecting intellectual property) and not being able to understand due to my Chinese ability.
Dancing Pavilion featured with bonafide old timer hipster
She was really nice and tried convince Eric to dance！
However, because Eric kept on refusing, I took her up on her offer instead and we ended up dancing salsa together!
This lady is in her 80s!
She is a retired optometrist and likes to dance solo. She dances mostly ethnic dances, and I had a good time imitating/branching off from her moves
Guess who!
Getting her stretching on
Badminton! I also played a few rounds, but I was terribly sub par.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Bike ride in the afternoon
Took a break from studying 古汉 this afternoon and took off on a spontaneous bike ride on a magnificent day! Seriously--talk about SPRING! I'm just hoping to take advantage of this weather before it starts getting super hot and smoggy.
Also, something to note is that Beijing, for a huge metropolitan does a great job at greening the city (surprise!). Along the bike route I went on today, the entire canal was lined by parks and green space for people from the local residential community to enjoy. Every park (and I will even go as far as saying public space) in China, no matter how small, is utilized to the fullest extent. Parks are especially vibrant places with lots of elderly folks doing their thang like its nobody's biz.
Also found a wall of graffiti. It goes from government sponsored (probably) content celebrating China's 60th "new China" anniversary to just some guy who decided to paint all over the original artwork with content I would expect to find under a bridge in LA.
1) "Loving Beijing Together"
2) Still government sponsored
3) Obviously painted over by a vandal
4) Wall of non-government sponsored content
Also, something to note is that Beijing, for a huge metropolitan does a great job at greening the city (surprise!). Along the bike route I went on today, the entire canal was lined by parks and green space for people from the local residential community to enjoy. Every park (and I will even go as far as saying public space) in China, no matter how small, is utilized to the fullest extent. Parks are especially vibrant places with lots of elderly folks doing their thang like its nobody's biz.
Also found a wall of graffiti. It goes from government sponsored (probably) content celebrating China's 60th "new China" anniversary to just some guy who decided to paint all over the original artwork with content I would expect to find under a bridge in LA.
1) "Loving Beijing Together"
2) Still government sponsored
3) Obviously painted over by a vandal
4) Wall of non-government sponsored content
Monday, April 11, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Blooming Beijing!
The boyfriends wear the blooming flower crowns-- of course!
how to say sneaktastic?
Beijing Planning Exhibition
Wins the award for most amount of impressive technology found in a museum/WOW factor. It also had a 4-D theater that cost less than $1.
The cool model of Beijing. The whole floor is either covered by models or maps
During the light show
talk about detail!
The digital book that you can flip by waving your hand above it
Of course, what city planning exhibition would be complete without a part dedicated to sustainability？
The cool model of Beijing. The whole floor is either covered by models or maps
During the light show
talk about detail!
The digital book that you can flip by waving your hand above it
Of course, what city planning exhibition would be complete without a part dedicated to sustainability？
Saturday, April 2, 2011
长城
WOW! What an amazing experience！ It just rained yesterday too, so the air was as fresh as fresh could be. :)
doing an Amber
the group
doing an Amber
the group
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