Entries Tagged 'Chinois' ↓

My grandmother had for many years been practising Buddhism before being converted to christianism at the end of her life. Being the eldest grandchild I had always accompanied her to her weekly trip to the various temples to make her weekly offerings. Though uneducated, as she never attended school, she knew from tradition, the stories about the gods and deities to venerate. She always made sure to spend some time over the statues representing Kwan Yin who she told me is the only feminine who dispenses mercy and compassion.

David, the brother in law of my wife and my friend sent to me today this paper cutting:

Thursday August 21, 2008

Nicholas Kristof’s column in the New York Times today contains a sentence about the Chinese “goddess of mercy,” Guanyin (Kwan yin), that I don’t think is accurate. But maybe Kristof is right and I’m wrong. Kristof writes,

When the first Westerners arrived and brought their faith in the Virgin Mary, China didn’t have an equivalent female figure to work miracles — so Guan Yin, the God of Mercy, underwent a sex change and became the Goddess of Mercy.

You may know that Guanyin is a manifestation of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara. My understanding is that until the time of the early Sung Dynasty (960–1126), the bodhisattva was portrayed in art as male. From the 12th century on, however, in much of Asia, Avalokiteshvara took the form of a mother-goddess of mercy.

During this time there were Nestorian Christians living within the Mongol Empire, but I don’t believe the Nestorians venerated Mary. All the reference books says the first Catholic missionary to China was John of Montecorvino (1294-1328), who arrived in China in the early 14th century, when a female Guanyin was already well established in Chinese Buddhist iconography. For this reason I don’t think there was a direct connection between Guanyin and Mary.

However, it is interesting to me that during the 10th through 12th centuries, when the image of Guanyin was becoming popular, the veneration of Mary also was on the rise in Europe. Was there some cultural cross-pollination the historians don’t know about? Or some other factor that made mother goddesses particularly appealing during that time?

There are two countries that interest me both for more or less the same reasons: They cover both vast area of the globe, and are the biggest countries in population head counts; they are both countries where economic growth are the highest this decade, India is geographical near Mauritius and China is my country of birth. With different political systems, both nations have chosen different paths to solve their respective challenges.

I am tracking these two countries by reading what I can grab on them either on the BBC, the media or any where else.

Recently I found a weekly economic digest on the happenings in the 2 countries on a pod cast: – Radio BFM’s Chine Hebdo & Inde Hebdo. Last week’s shows were on the impact of rising demand on Energy, oil & coal for these countries on world ecology and world prices on Energy.

La présence des entreprises chinoises sur la scène mondiale est aujourd’hui incontournable. Et pourtant, nous ne les avons pas vu venir… Comme le chat, elles ont cette aptitude à bouger très vite, à sauter et à retomber sur leurs pattes, quelle que soit la hauteur de la chute. D’où tirent-elles leur force ? Pouvons-nous nous en inspirer ?
À travers des allers-retours continus entre Chine et Occident, entre pensée chinoise et philosophie occidentale, Sophie Faure développe la métaphore féline. Les qualités indispensables à cultiver dans l’environnement actuel, marqué par l’ambiguïté, l’incertitude et la complexité, sont justement celles qui définissent le mieux les entreprises chinoises. Loin des considérations habituelles sur le “péril jaune” ou le “miracle chinois”, ce livre nous invite à nous interroger sur chacune d’elles :

• l’audace,
• la persévérance,
• la fluidité,
• l’intelligence mouvante,
• le lâcher prise,
• la perspicacité,
• le sens de l’équilibre,
• le discernement…

Toute personne désireuse de mieux manager trouvera ici des clés précieuses pour explorer d’autres voies, en changeant de regard et en osant une pensée plus mobile, plus adaptable.

Ainsi après ses premiers livres : Manager à l’école de Confucius, et Enseignements d’un dirigeant asiatique, elle écrit « Mettez du chat dans votre management. »Sophie que j’avais rencontré en décembre 2005, m’a annoncé la sortie de son livre la semaine dernière et j’attends de le lire.

Je savoure en ce moment mon deuxième livre d’ André ComteSponville : Petit traité des grandes vertus. Ce n’est pas un livre à lire comme un roman : c’est plus rapproché d’une mangue savoureuse que je prends plaisir à délecter en petit morceau. Au chapitre quatre, il parle de la tempérance. Je dis bien qu’il parle : la lecture des passages me donne tellement  envie de les lire à haute voix comme si l’auteur me parlait.

 La tempérance est la vertu que j’ai apprise depuis ma tendre enfance de mon grand père. Etant enfant, vous pourriez imaginer l’enthousiasme que nous, les enfants, pouvions avoir  à jouir de nos jouets. Grandpère, en nous offrant ces jouets ou en nous faisant goûter à un quelque plaisir, nous disait toujours avant : ce que je vous offre doit être utilisé modérément pour apprécier sa juste valeur. En toute chose, soyez modérés. En Hakka chinois il avait le mot approprié en disant ‘juste assez, c’est suffisant’. «  La vertu qui surmonte tous les genres d’ivresse. » est ce que je retiens d’André ComteSponville.

Pour vous mettre l’eau à la bouche je vous livre le chapitre II, «  De la tempérance et du plaisir » tiré d’Ethique à Nicomaque d’Aristote :-

Chapitre 2

On est généralement d’accord sur les points suivants : (1) la tempérance comme l’endurance font partie des états vertueux et louables, et, d’autre part, l’intempérance aussi bien que la mollesse rentrent dans les états à la fois pervers et blâmables. − (2) L’homme tempérant se confond avec celui qui s’en tient fermement à son raisonnement, et l’homme intempérant est celui qui est enclin à s’en écarter. − (3) L’intempérant, sachant que ce qu’il fait est mal, le fait par passion, tandis que le tempérant, sachant que ses appétits sont pervers, refuse de les suivre, par la règle qu’il s’est donnée. − (4) L’homme modéré est toujours un homme tempérant et endurant, tandis que l’homme tempérant et endurant n’est toujours modéré qu’au sentiment de certains à l’exclusion des autres : les uns identifient l’homme déréglé avec l’intempérant, et l’intempérant avec l’homme déréglé, en les confondant ensemble, tandis que les autres les distinguent. − (5) Quant à l’homme prudent, tantôt on prétend qu’il ne lui est pas possible d’être intempérant, tantôt au contraire que certains hommes, tout en étant prudents et habiles, sont intempérants. − (6) De plus, on dit qu’il y a des hommes intempérants même en ce qui concerne colère, honneur et gain.

In May 1946, my father France Pak Lin got the permission from Grand father to marry Lise Francette Ah Lim on the condition that they would soon after move to China to prepare the grounds for the return of the family back home in China. My grand parents wanted my mother to learn to speak Hakka and to embrace the Hakka culture. Soon after, they boarded a ship to Hong Kong. After a short stay in Hong Kong they traveled to Mei Shien via Swa Tow: sea ferry to the port of Swa Tow from Hong Kong and by a river barge up stream from Swa Tow.

They had never travelled outside Mauritius before. Their knowledge of English and French were helpful. Fortunately, father had many Mauritian friends settled Hong Kong of the like of Edouard Leung and Li Wan Po, who helped them during his transit in Hong Kong.

Poor mother, an island young girl on her first trip to foreign land, pregnant of me, her first child, migrating to a small village in China where she could hardly communicate with the extend family and relatives. It was hard time there. There was no running water nor had any toilet in their home. She had to learn to live in a farm in remote China. The ways and means of living as well as the standard were well below what she was used to before.

When the time of delivery came, mother told me that she was taken on a bicycle from the ancestral home and farm to the hospital managed by German catholic nurses in town. It was in the hospital that I visited in 1999: 52 years later that I was born.

Only a few months after my birth, the situation in South China became unbearable for my parents: they lived the invasion of hooligans in the province and the imminent civil wars reaching the region. Father immediately got me and mother in a flight on a small military aircraft to SwaTow whilst he got on a river barge to the port. That was my inaugural aircraft flight. Then together, all three of us took a sea ferry back to Hong Kong where we stayed for sometime in Wan Chai at St Francis hostel before catching a steamer to Mauritius.

My recent sojourn in France caused me to miss out the president’s dinner of the Chinese Business Chamber (CBC). Year in year out, I was always present to the annual function of the chamber to which I belong. On my return, my friends told me that the dinner was an exceptional one this year. Each year, it was the opportunity to listen to an overseas guest speaker. I recalled the addresses of Mrs. Moni Lai Stor, who spoke of ‘Chineseness’ and Ms.Peng Wen Lan who shared with us her life story of an overseas born Chinese to become the top TV telecaster of CCTV in China. This year, a Mauritian member of the Chinese community addressed the CBC on the theme of Hard Work.

Some time ago, in my earlier blog days, I wrote the story of my wife’s father in June 2006: ‘les tribulations des immigrants venus a Maurice’. Chief Justice Bernard Sik Yuen speech this year is much alike the story I wrote before. I was glad to have been able to read the speech on the website of the CBC.

My mathematics training generates the following formula: N + P = H W

Necessity coupled with Perseverance seems to yield Hard Work. May my fellow

Co-members of CBC understand and practice the formula especially when ‘Necessity’ in today’s context has loss its potency in comparison with our fore father’s days in the last century and ‘Perseverance’ is not a common value in the zapping world of today.

“The extraordinary overlap between human and chimpanzee genomes does not result in an equal overlap between human and chimpanzee thoughts, sensations, perceptions, and emotions; there are considerable similarities but also considerable differences between human and nonhuman primate brains. “From Monkey Brain to Human Brain” uses the latest findings in cognitive psychology, comparative biology, and neuroscience to look at the complex patterns of convergence and divergence in primate cortical organization and function.” This is the essence of the work published by ‘Stanislas Dehaene’ who I had the chance to listen to yesterday thanks to the internet. He also published earlier another book: The number sense: how the mind creates Mathematics.

“But how then did the brain leap from this basic number ability to trigonometry, calculus, and beyond? Dehaene shows that it was the invention of symbolic systems of numerals that started us on the climb to higher mathematics, and in a marvelous chapter he traces the history of numbers, from early times when people indicated a number by pointing to a part of their body (even today, in many societies in New Guinea, the word for six is” wrist”), to early abstract numbers such as Roman numerals (chosen for the ease with which they could be carved into wooden sticks), to modern numbers. On our way, we also discover many fascinating facts: for example, because Chinese names for numbers are so short, Chinese people can remember up to nine or ten digits at a time–English-speaking people can only remember seven. Dehaene also explores the unique abilities of idiot savants and mathematical geniuses, asking what might explain their special mathematical talent.” I rejoice now because I have arguments to my belief and accepted general saying in my younger days that Chinese are better in maths. No, it is not a racist statement,the differentiation is cultural from educational methods. I understand and accept that my statement is a general statement and may be statically valid with large variances.

Last Saturday, besides spending a good time in company of my friends around a wonderful typical Hakka meal in a restaurant in Port Louis Chinatown, I had the immense pleasure to listen to a talk given by Joseph Tsang Man Kin on Chinese culture. This talk is one of a series of talks organised by the Chinese Cultural Centre on the theme of Chineseness. I am avidly waiting for the next talk.

First of all, I was agreeably surprised by the high quality of the Pooyang hall and the perfect sound systems. I have to congratulate the Nam Soon community for their excellent facility. I almost wanted to claim my 37.5% of Nam Soon descent from my mother’s family side and felt very proud of it.

Joseph TMK made ‘a survol’ of his understanding of the basic differences between the Western and Chinese approaches and culture. We all know very well, for having been educated in the western world, the philosophy which has influenced the western thinking, thus formulated the western behaviour. The great philosophers from Greek era and later the thinkers of the Roman Empire, the Judeo-Christian Church up to the more recent influencers of the last century of the like of Nietze and others, have all moulded the western culture. Whilst not being conversant with the influences of the Chinese culture, I was glad to listen to the experience and learning of Joseph TMK. Reading and learning from the Chinese thinkers of the past will definitely enlighten us on our culture. Unfortunately, not being able to read the texts in Chinese will in some way biase my understanding. Better than nothing! I shall learn of the culture through the translation of a foreign language. Luckily, the culture and tradition which I have received through my upbringing in my family surroundings will compensate some of the dilution losses.

Confucius was at the nexus of Joseph’s discourse. Without doubt, Confucius brought in the greatest influence on modern Chinese. Confucian values are now back after a lull and the attempt by Mao to suppress their influence during the red revolution. The People’s Republic of China is even today promoting the values of Confucius by encouraging the setting up of Confucius Institutes world wide.

At the Q&A session, Joseph TMK mentioned that whilst Confucius focused more on the practical, physical, relational and social aspects of the Chinese behaviour, we have to refer to Xun zi and Lao Tze for the spiritual side of the Chinese.

This talk got me to shoot back to my notes on Chinese and roots.

Confucius

Confucius is the Latinized form of Kong Fu-zi, which means Kong the master. Confucius was born in the small state of Lu in 551 BC and died in 479 BC. This was a time of turmoil, political intrigue, and numerous small wars in the last part of the Spring and Autumn era. Assassinations, bribery, adultery, and other crimes were common even though punishments were severe. In Lu three families contended for the hereditary rulership, while numerous educated aristocrats sought positions in the government, and many suffered poverty.

Confucius was brought up as a gentleman, who took up music, archery, and fishing, although he said he fished without a net and would not shoot at a bird at rest. He was so absorbed in music that once he did not know the taste of meat for three months. He also learned to do practical jobs of humble people such as keeper of the stores and head of the pastures. However, most of the time Confucius was not able to find an official position though he was willing to do anything that did not involve wrong-doing. Perhaps it was his ethical concerns that prevented him from being useful to the rulers of his time. Instead he occupied his time in what he loved the most – the pursuit of learning.

By the age of fifteen Confucius had set his heart on learning; by thirty he felt that he was firmly established; at forty he was no longer confused; by fifty he had a sense of mission in following the will of heaven; at sixty he was at ease with whatever he heard; and when he was seventy, he felt he could do whatever he liked without violating moral principles. No single teacher had a great influence on Confucius, as he tried to learn from everyone. His model, however, was the ancient Duke of Zhou, who had helped to establish the Zhou dynasty. The spiritual connection he felt with the ancient duke is indicated by his regret once that it had been a long time since he had dreamed of the Duke of Zhou. Confucius studied thoroughly the classics of history, poetry, propriety, and especially the Book of Changes (Yi Jing). He believed that if he could spend fifty years studying Changes, he might yet be free of great mistakes.

In addition to teaching, Confucius is credited with editing the Book of Odes and the Spring and Autumn Annals, revising the music and ceremonies, and writing commentaries on the Book of Changes. The main source of his teachings describing his conversations with his students in the Analects (Lun Yu) was apparently written by his students. From these accounts we can see not only what Confucius taught but how he taught and what his attitudes and manners were like. He was said to be free of having forgone conclusions, dogmatism, obstinacy, and egotism. His manner was affable but firm, commanding but not harsh, while he was polite and completely at ease. Zigong said Confucius could get information in a foreign state by being cordial, frank, courteous, temperate, and deferential. Zigong added that this was not the way inquiries were usually made. Confucius had a gentle sense of humor and did not mind being corrected by his own students.

Confucius was particularly respectful of those in mourning and made filial piety or respect for one’s parents a cardinal virtue. He said,

In serving his father and mother
a man may gently remonstrate with them.
But if he sees that he has failed to change their opinion,
he should resume an attitude of deference and not thwart them;
may feel discouraged, but not resentful.3

Confucius cared most about people and was perhaps the first great humanist in history. When the stables burned down, he asked if any person had been hurt but did not inquire about the horses. He recognized the free will of every individual, believing that the commander of three armies could be removed, but the will of even a common person could not be taken away. He spoke of the way (dao), as when he said, “In the morning hear the way; in the evening die content;”4 yet he believed that it was humans who made the way great, not the way that made humans great. Confucius believed that he could even live among the barbarians, because virtue never dwells alone and will always bring good neighbors. He believed that a gentleman should help the needy, not make the rich richer still. Confucius criticized Yuan Si for rejecting his salary of nine hundred measures of grain as governor, because he could have given it to his neighbors.

Confucius never gave up and believed that he was serving by being filial even if he was not in the government. He never expected to meet a faultless person but hoped that he might meet someone of fixed principles even though he saw many examples of nothing pretending to be something. He greatly disliked sham and deceit. He felt he could not stoop to clever talk, a pretentious manner, and a reverence that was only of the feet. He could not bear to see high offices filled with men of narrow views, ceremonies performed without reverence, and mourning forms observed without grief. He hated seeing sharp mouths overturning states and clans.

Confucius believed that his mission was to spread the culture that had been passed on to him by King Wen, and trusting that this was the will of heaven he did not even fear an assassin. He must have believed in prayer, because he said that whoever turns away from heaven has no one to pray to. He hoped that even if he was not recognized in the world, he would be known in heaven. When Confucius became ill, some of his students dressed up as retainers; but the master reprimanded them for this pretense, because he knew he could not deceive heaven. He preferred to die in the arms of his disciples anyway. Although he believed there were others as honest as himself, Confucius felt that no one loved learning as much as he did. Any situation could be a lesson. When walking with others he could emulate the good qualities he saw in others and correct the bad qualities in himself. Confucius did not believe himself to be a sage or even perfectly virtuous, but he did claim unwearying effort to learn and unflagging patience in teaching others.

Confucius believed that people were similar by nature but became different by practice, and thus there are some one can join in study, others one can join in progress along the way, others again beside whom one can take one’s stand, and finally some whom one can join in counsel.

Text extracted from the writings of Sanderson Beck

Last week with great pomp Hong Kong celebrated the 10th year of the reunification of Hong Kong to mainland China. I eagerly watched the celebration ceremonies on both CCTV9 and the BBC during the past weekend. A few days ago, on the French radio, I heard an interview of the director of Alliance Francaise in Hong Kong giving his views on the one country 2 systems as lived in the (SAR) Special Administration Region.

On the one hand, I am still in admiration of Deng Xiao Ping’s idea of creating the one Country 2 systems in the SAR, on the other hand have to admit that it is not an ideal situation whilst democracy is flouted on and off by the central government. I do accept that it is a transitional period signed for 50 years with the SAR communities that has brought economic expansion to Hong Kong and the relative peace to all concerned.

Of course, the situation, as in most compromises, does not bring complete happiness to either side. Not quite a Win-Win situation which brings satisfaction albeit bliss on each side.

Political Democracy

The democratic party of Hong Kong, whose aim is to reach full democratic representation with an independent government, continues to press the central government to reduce the number of nominees in the SAR’s government. SAR’s residents enjoy freedoms which are far greater than their fellow citizens of the main land. Depending on one’s lieu of abode though being in the same country one would enjoy differentiated fundamental freedom rights and be subjected to another set of constitutional(basic) law.

Freedom of Speech

They have a freedom of expression and views, unacceptable on the main land, yet not as extensive as a full western democratic country would allow. China Government does not allow any opposing view to their policy and will suppress any attempt to any criticism.

Freedom of Religion

In opposition to the main land rule, SAR’s residents are free to adhere to any religious denominations. Hong Kong’s Catholic Cardinal Zen is allowed to voice out and comment on China’s action. He has been subjected to high pressure from the central government but still allowed to perform his duty. In China the Patriotic Catholic Church is under the government’s control and the Roman Catholic Church with allegiance to the Vatican is officially not recognised.

Cardinal Zen has long been known as the “new conscience of Hong Kong” for his unflinching defence of human rights, political freedom, and religious liberty in the face of criticism from China’s communist government. He has bluntly said that the Chinese crackdown on pro-democracy protestors in Tiananmen Square was “a big mistake,” and called on the government to “tell the truth” about those events. He was also a leading opponent of Hong Kong Basic Law Article 23, a since-shelved national security bill, which in 2003 prompted an anti-government protest by half a million people. Zen is a vocal proponent of a push for universal suffrage in Hong Kong, telling his flock in a 2005 homily that “a path will appear when enough people walk on it.” He has publicly called on officials in Hong Kong to support the aspirations of the people, rather than functioning as spokespersons for the central government in Beijing. At a personal level, he is described by John L. Allen Jr., a Vatican watcher, as “a gracious, humble man, a moderate on most issues. (Extracted from Wikipedia)

Freedom of Entreprise

It would appear that Hong Kong has made its mark as the premium location for Finance and services. Hong Kong financial services’ platform is reckoned to have channelled 60% of FDI of China. At some stage, Hong Kong feared that it would have been superseded by the power and large invested in Shanghai. By the way, let us not forget the ever existing rivalry that has always existed between the north and south population.

So far so good for SAR Hong Kong.

One French commenter said that “You would have thought that main land China with its will and power would have souped up tiny Hong Kong, on the contrary Hong Kong is influencing China to move to greater freedom. With its economic success coupled with the ingenuity, flexibility, efficiency and swiftness the people Hong Kong have become a model for the whole country.”

Who knows may be one day Hong Kong might lead the main land to a new form of Democracy? The Moon Festival,a Chinese traditional has not reentered the Chinese Culture in China from Hong Kong after having been banned by the communist China for decades.

My early work life in aviation has given me a continued interest in the world of aviation. I lived in the 60’s the transition from the propeller aircraft to the jets and the transition when air transport was of the domain of the select few ‘rich and mighty’ to the domain of almost all.

It is forecasted that China would require some 2900 wide bodied aircrafts by 2025 for its needs, based by the trend drawn from the curve of the last decade. No wonder the two world aircraft manufacturers, Airbus and Boeing are focusing on the China market. China itself with such a large market and having achieved a level of technology, it would be natural for China to eye entering the aircraft manufacturing market. From last week world news, it would appear that Boeing is ahead of the game as they have entered into an agreement with the Chinese authorities for exchange of know-how to allow China to enter the industry. Analysts at Airfinance Journal are now evaluating when China will be the number three world plane maker?

The Boeing Company recently held a conference in Beijing to discuss the design and construction of its new 7E7 jetliner. The 7E7 is to be a super-efficient, long-range aircraft pushing the edge in aviation technology. Boeing China president David Wang was quoted in China Daily as saying that Boeing wants more Chinese participation in the program because it sees Beijing as a strategically important part of its globalization strategy. “Boeing should become more Chinese in China,” said Wang, “Twenty years from now, China will view Boeing as a global China brand, not just a global brand….We must be more Chinese in our leadership, and in content… have more designs, capability coming from China in the long term.”

Extracted from China Brief of James town Foundation

At the 2007 Paris Air Show, where Airbus booked firm order of over 400 aircrafts, it was reported that Russian aircraft manufacturers seem to have made some progress in re-organising themselves. The Italians have signed in with the Russians for a fleet of medium size aircraft. Would there be a market large enough for this type of aircraft for China to get involved?