One of the nice things about having an early riser for a lover is that they will occasionally have breakfast waiting for you when you wake up. In this area, Lam has come a long way. From being able to only make coffee and tea, he has progressed as far as cutting up fruit, making toast and now has accomplished the ultimate - creating his own ( Read more... )

You know how there are all of those romantic movies where the romantic couple is made up of two people from different backgrounds - usually cultures, but also occasionally classes, etc. And in order to fulfill the requirements of a perfect Hollywood ending, they either manage to overcome the prejudices of those around them to create a better ( Read more... )

One assumes that children can not be inethical about things they have never been taught - don't hit, don't lie, etc ( Read more... )

I try to limit the dinners I attend with Lam that involve people I don’t know for a variety of reasons. My odd eating habits and political opinions often throw a wrench into Chinese sociality which depends upon eating together as a way to gloss over differences and create guanxi (relationships). The dinner I had last Thursday is one such example ( Read more... )

“I wanted to paint. I wanted to live like the French painters I’d read about in books, but I lacked the strength to create such a world in Istanbul, nor did Istanbul lend itself to the project. Even the worst paintings of the Turkish Impressionists - their view of the mosques, the Bosphorus, wooden houses, snowy streets - pleased me, not as ( Read more... )

"Later, with time, I learned that although all men are capable of good and evil, the worst among them are those who, when they commit evei, do so by shielding themselves in the authority of others, in their subordination, or in the excuse of following orders. And even worse are those who believe they are justified by their God. Because in the ( Read more... )

"Later, with time, I learned that although all men are capable of good and evil, the worst among them are those who, when they commit evei, do so by shielding themselves in the authority of others, in their subordination, or in the excuse of following orders. And even worse are those who believe they are justified by their God. Because in the ( Read more... )

It's been almost eerie spending the holidays here in Shantou, although my secret wish to get away without having to actually celebrate something called "Xmas" wasn't actually granted. It all began with… Well, actually, it didn’t all begin with whatever I was going to say because in part that would mean that I would be searching for first causes and ( Read more... )

Recently Lam and I have been talking a lot about the difficulties involved in creating a more equitable society in China. I do not mean to imply that Lam agrees with me, in fact he often doesn't. Yet, the research and writing of the dissertation and the conclusions that I'm starting to come to there, plus the on-going negotiations with Shantou ( Read more... )

Had a wonderful couple of days. Shantou University hosted a conference loosely titled, "The Incorporation of Western Philosophy and the Modernization of Chinese Society," (my translation, I didn't really like theirs) which was attended by all the big names in Chinese academia related to philosophy. Discovered that my Chinese doesn't really extend ( Read more... )