Loud Thoughts

I grew up knowing few forms of alcoholic drinks: hard liquor (BaiJiu: 白酒), milder rice wines (HuangJiu: 黄酒), and beer. Honestly, the idea is getting others drunk and staying sober at the same time. Social cohesion and the capacity to hold liquor are more important skills than the ability to distinguish the finer flavors of the drinks.

Much older, I met Kathy and a group of wine fanatics. They taught me this new alcoholic drink called grape wines. (And yet many years later, Crawford taught me whiskey.)
I learned how to swirl, hold the glass to the light, sniff, sip, and make some comments. Those who really know me will snicker, “Sin-Yaw has no taste buds on wines.” They will be right and we all knew it does not matter. The real important skill is not to be able to tell the difference between a $15 bottle and a $20 one, but to appreciate the drink and enjoy the company or the foods. As Rich said, “The lubricant of conversation.”

Recently, I found out that a few people in China are at the same stage I was many years ago. “This is cool,” I thought. “How about wine tasting in China?”

As far as I have observed Kathy’s parties, this is how:

1. Decide a theme: First choose a theme for the tasting. This is usually arbitrary and up to the host. The typical theme surround grape varietal or region: Shiraz, Cabernet, Southern Italian, etc. At the same time, choose a price guideline for the participants.
2. Infra-structure: Wine-tasting parties need many glasses, a spit bucket, a clean water source to rinse the glasses, and a stain-resistant surface.

   Glasses should be transparent and easy to swirl. They don’t need to be expensive. Spit bucket is for throwing away wines: a normal and perfectly OK thing to do. Some people intend to taste many wines and do not wish to get drunk. Others simply do not like the wine enough to finish the glass. Water is for rinsing the glasses. Some people prefer to rinse the glass before trying a new wine. Lastly, wine pouring can be nasty on delicate surfaces.

3. Foods: Foods serve to cleanse the palate. In between wines, it is necessary to remove the tastes of the previous wines from your mouth. Eating simple, non-spicy and not too salty foods are best. Crackers, french bread, and simple cheeses are popular choices.

   Coffee, either ground or beans, is the best olfactory cleanser. Sniff the coffee in between wines to restore fresh scent.

4. Wines: The host should secure enough variety and quantity for the participants. Average person can consume about half a bottle without too much trouble. Each “serving” should be about a quarter glass or even less. The point is to taste wines and not drink them.

   The host should make sure the drivers are sober before leaving. This means at least an hour without taking any alcohol before driving.

   Of course the focus of the party is to talk about the wines just tasted. Some kinds of note taking devices will enhance everyone’s knowledge and memory.

Internet offers wealth of information on this subject. I read the quick online wine-tasting course and went to UC Davis site for its tasting wheel too.

Now I am ready to be invited.

Wedding ceremonies are all so lively and ancient. They throw me back to my youthful days when passion won over brain frequently. As I watch the procession and the rituals, I imagine the lives ahead of them: births, happy days, bitter ones, and ups and downs.

Thousands and millions of people married, raised families, and vanished. Everyone of them, however, lived through the same anticipation, excitement, and a bit scare. Wedding rituals are all ancient, like the budding of flowers, and so fresh and alive.

This sand ceremony was performed fittingly on a beach wedding. There were 3 bottles: two smaller ones filled with different colored sand and a large one empty. During the ceremony, the couple took turn pouring sands into the large bottle until it was full. The symbolism is simple. This is me, that you, and the larger one us. The “us” part is forever. But I still get part of myself and you too.

Isn’t that beautiful?

The Beijing News (新京报: XinJingBao) reported on September 15th that 10.3% of people in Beijing are Wangs (王). That's 1.16 millions people: the largest family name in Beijing. I knew very few fellow Wangs, but am proud to be one of them. We Wangs are doing pretty good.

What's the rationale of I feeling cool?
Proliferation of our genes is only natural. After thousands of years, this instinct has evolved to the flourish our communities: family, villages, neighborhood, profession, employer, hobby, or whatever. We like our communities to thrive. We will go very far to make sure of it. It's genetic.

Contrary to communities themselves, their governance is nothing natural and almost purely political. Some of the communities are inclusive, outside members are welcome. Others are exclusive and even hostile to outsider. Human societies spend lots of energy to govern just the membership of communities. You learn a lot about the community observing just from this angle. Check out religions: how can a pagan convert? What rituals? Does it expel (usually by shunning, once in while by killing)?

It appears not at all instinctive for communities to be inclusive. That takes courage, leadership, open-heartedness, and open-mindedness.

For the nation, Wang (王), Li (李), Zhang (张), Liu (刘), Cheng (陈), in sequence, are the largest 5 last names. I learned that, over thousands of year, Wang is the most popular choice for foreigners to choose as their Chinese family name. The name is associated with royalty and is easy to write. So, openness and inclusion pay off for this community.

If mature societies legislate slower, China has certain reached adulthood. More than a decade of debate and many, many drafts
later monopolies will become unlawful this year.
Look closer. There are few concepts to send MN's (Multi-National Corporation) lawyers into study sessions.

In addition to the prevention of businesses squeezing out competition with predatory means, China's anti-monopoly laws prevent administrative monopolies: those protected by governmental barriers. Tobacco, transportation, stele-communication, and postal services are examples at national level, tourism and agriculture at regional. Is it an administrative monopoly, say, to stop issuing new taxi permits in New York city?

MN's worry the economic security clauses that govern foreign acquisitions. China now has a legitimate bureaucratic weapon to stall, or stop, acquisitions in name of national security. Does it sound familiar? Remember CNOOC's failed attempt to acquire Unocal? US Congress stopped it based on the threat to US national security. Funny that many US companies, Carlyle group for example, is now crying foul.

Overall, people welcome this law as a signal for modernization. China's latest major legislation is also paving ways for a society of lawyers and lobbyists. The era has arrived, the signs will become obvious soon.

When I was in grade school, YANG Chen-Ning and LEE Tsung-Dao were my heroes. I had no idea why they won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, but they did. And they are my fellow Chinese.

Older, and I entered the computer industry. Soon, I learned about and became so proud of Dr. Steve Chen. Imagine my excitement when I met him earlier this year. I couldn’t wait showing off to Amiram and Mike about my new celebrity acquaintance.

This summer, I was a fly on the wall listening to a conversation between Greg Papadopoulos and Dr. Chen. They chatted about old time and old friends like buddies who have not seen each others for a long time. They talked about utility computing, super computer, grid inter-connect, IT industry, China, etc. The conversation was as riveting as mesmerizing. As a bonus, Steve was lost coming to the meeting place and I picked Greg’s brain for almost 40 minutes. That was a very cool day.

Unlike other returnee entrepreneurs, Dr. Steve Chen went directly to started improving villagers’ lives. Steve observed the horrid poverty and decided to fix it with what he does best: creating a modern IT infra-structure for the whole country. His passion and energy are contagious. Few people walked away without an urge to help his cause.

It sounds so simple hearing from Steve, “I call it grid-in-a-box.” He has a scalable architecture deployable at several levels of government. The idea reminds me of Project Blackbox, or commoditization of super-computing. After hearing Steve, there appears no other way to computerize China.

And I want to help too.

Back in the good old days, few hundreds years ago, civilized and advanced people colonized lands far away from home. With their government's encouragement, they mined ores, exploited natural resources, enslaved natives, and left the wounded land to recuperate, if ever.

Who were those cold-blooded people? British? Spaniards? Dutch? Portuguese? Chinese, it seems, joined the accused list. International Herald Tribune headlined on the miserable state of Zambia. China has invested millions into Africa, like Britain did India, to extract minerals and other natural resources it needs for development. When Africans became wealthier, China then sold them goods made in China, usually at the prices that wiped out the local industries. These countries then entered the vicious downward spiral that has only one ending.

What about the well-known economic theories on comparative advantages? The extreme form of this theory will reach the conclusion that colonization is only economically efficient. The exploited, after all, is more efficient in producing cheap labor and raw materials. Is this where economy fails humanity? Or should those economic theoreticians consider non-renewable resources different?

I don't have an answer. I feel the whole planet earth is polarizing into haves and have-nots. China, India, and few emerging countries are fighting to join the right side. Many countries seem hopelessly stuck on the other side. Soon, the gap will be too great and they will be forever left in the poor.