Thang Nguyen 555
Cultures on Collision Course
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Tag: China
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Imagine you can slurp a spicy, mouth-watering noodle bowl on a rainy night. Even when it is instant, thanks to the King of Noodles (they even have a noodle museum in Yokohama). Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Thailand and Vietnamese; all love this staple. http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/marketing/259168/tf-eyes-vietnam-for-noodles Take the Korean and Vietnamese samples. Both are known for North and…
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50 years ago, you would have been chased out of the pub had you painted these scenarios: the US can’t wait to open off-shored manufacturing centers, Gaga as a mermaid on wheelchair, and 90% of the population will shop at Wal-Mart, stocked with 99% Made-in-China merchandise. Dude, in the 60’s, we were living the American…
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“We are ‘creatures of information’”, “in the library of Babel, seeking information past and future”, says James Gleick in the Information. We might look in hardback and paperback, print books and e-books, newspaper and news broadcast, but we are still after the information. It reminds me of a line by St Paul “though now we see…
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In some cultures, people felt ashamed to put on clothes, or if they dressed at all, they would go to the middle of the house in plain view instead of the far corner (where it would draw more attention to the act of changing). Au contraire, at 24-hr fitness, I notice most of the corner…
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Stories of tourist boats that capsized, ship builder that went default on loan payment, and fishing boats got intimidated by a gigantic neighbor, kept coming out of Vietnam recently. When you live along a coast that spans from San Diego to North of Vancouver, sea-related incidents are bound to happen. The latest dispute centered in the…
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Paradox: doomsday for all is not coming, doomsday for one, anytime (especially when you are old). Dilemma: too big to fail, the book then the movie (might not make it big at the box office). Irony: got to have a job to land a job (hence, the growth of internship i.e. free labor). Underneath it…
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With Kindle, one can download library e-books and save a trip to the library. (no more browsing video titles like Yoga for beginners, Yogurt for vegetarians….). Just search, type in your ID and click “borrow”. I first noticed that huge book, entitled KNOWLEDGE, with a fine print which says, “Printed in China“. Now, even those outsourcing jobs are…
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I clicked on the “Place Order” button, and a few days later, arrived the used paperback copy of Small is Beautiful, by E.F. Schumacher. Its tag line ” Economics as if People Mattered”. I thought I had that same yellowish copy somewhere after years of moving around. Back then, graduate students already drove small cars…
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The Economist has a timely expose on “the Tale of two expats”. http://www.economist.com/node/17797134 It is written from a British perspective. If it were for the US, an entire section would have to be added in (given the background of Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese Internment Camp, and 80’s Yellow Peril). It’s hard for America to…
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