Year: 2011

Some Thoughts on the People’s Congress System

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.10
Some Thoughts on the People’s Congress System
Recently I’ve started paying attention again to the matter of deputies to the People’s Congress, and the immediate trigger was reading a news interview with a “person in charge of the Legal Work Committee of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress” on “independent candidates” having no legal basis. Although I had previously heard that so-and-so was going to run for deputy to the People’s Congress, I hadn’t paid much attention. But when I saw this authoritative explanation from the person in charge of “legal” work, I was startled, and so I looked into the matter. The explanation given by this person in charge is astonishing. I am not…
culture China politics democracy
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2011年6月10日
A Little Commemoration of English Class

Life & Notes2011.06.08
A Little Commemoration of English Class
Today (yesterday) I finished my last English class — though I skipped billiards and lunch — and this was the last class of the graduate English course this semester, and perhaps also the last English class of my entire student life. I have no choice but to write a piece in commemoration. This semester’s English class took up a great deal of my energy. Every week there were one or two writing assignments and one or two oral presentation scripts to prepare, as well as getting up early two or three times a week, occupying most of my study time. Although the total amount of work could hardly be said…
everyday life faith Chinese writing
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2011年6月8日
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?

Culture & Public Commentary2011.06.06
Why Is the Three Gorges Dam Said to Be the Culprit Behind the Drought?
(Note: the image comes from Jandan’s Boring Pictures/original link, for amusement only~) The recent drought has once again made the much-controversial Three Gorges Dam the target of everyone’s criticism: some say the Three Gorges is the culprit behind the drought, earthquakes, and even all sorts of anomalies, while the pundits say that without the Three Gorges the drought would be even worse. So which is it? Obviously, the most “scientific” answer is: we don’t know! This is not like a hypothesis in physics, where we can design an experiment with controlled variables—holding all the other variables constant and looking separately at how things develop with and without the Three Gorges….
culture China technology environment
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2011年6月6日
I Don’t Object to the “Jeanswest Building”

Culture & Public Commentary2011.05.28
I Don’t Object to the “Jeanswest Building”
Recently the “Zhenvis Building” next door has been the talk of the town, and there has been quite a lot of opposition and ridicule, but I basically don’t have much of a negative reaction. Peking University’s No. 3 Teaching Building was long ago renamed “Liu Qing Building,” but we still call it “Third Teaching Building,” and the university’s course schedules and notices still call it Third Teaching Building as well; at most, there’s just one more nameplate hanging on the wall. Tsinghua’s Zhenvis Building can also just continue to be called the Fourth Teaching Building, and it won’t interfere with everyday teaching and life. The only issue is that some…
China scholarship commentary economy
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2011年5月28日
Utensils and Ritual Vessels

AI & the Future of Technology2011.05.25
Utensils and Ritual Vessels
A few days ago I attended a lecture by Li Meng. To be honest, the lecture was rather like scratching an itch through one’s boot, or rather, he merely pointed out where the itch was, and then it was entirely up to us to do the scratching ourselves. The lecture’s inspiration is wholly concentrated in its title; for those of us doing phenomenology of technology, there’s no need to attend the lecture at all—just recite this title a few times over. “Utensils and Ritual Vessels—A Chinese Appraisal of Metaphysics” First of all, we know that Western philosophers of technology, with Heidegger as their leader, carried out a kind of “appraisal”…
China technology media Aristotle
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2011年5月25日
On Smartphones and Tablets: The Advanced Nature of Technology

AI & the Future of Technology2011.05.19
On Smartphones and Tablets: The Advanced Nature of Technology
During last winter break I got a new smartphone, HTC Desire（A8180/G7）. After buying it, I meant to jot something down, and somehow kept thinking I already had…… Today it occurred to me again, so I’ll just toss off a few casual remarks while I’m at it. I hadn’t actually planned to change phones. It started because my mother wanted a new one, and I helped her choose. At first I wanted to pick something like the classic Nokia 5230, but after seeing my parents buy themselves a brand-new 64-bit laptop, I changed my mind. I asked them why they had bought a 64-bit machine, and they said they had been…
technology Web3 internet innovation
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2011年5月19日
Added a Subscription Feature

Site Matters2011.05.16
Added a Subscription Feature
Although I had long kept a Feedburner email subscription link in the sidebar, no one ever used it, and Feedburner can’t send emails right away, so they’re also easily flagged as spam. Now I’ve set up one using the Subscribe2 plugin, and subscription emails will be sent directly from my own mailbox. Registered users will, by default, become subscribers; if you don’t register, you can also enter your email address in the sidebar to subscribe~
blog website
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2011年5月16日
Switched EzEngage to connect with Weibo via WordPress

Site Matters2011.05.14
Switched EzEngage to connect with Weibo via WordPress
WordPress Connect Weibo seems pretty good. It likewise provides the function of logging into the blog with various Weibo and Renren accounts, and it’s much easier to configure than EzEngage. What’s more, it also comes with powerful synchronization features: in the future, after I publish a post on the blog, I can directly sync it to Renren, and even more magically, if, say, you use a Renren account to log in to Suixuan and leave a comment, then I will also receive that comment synchronously under my Renren status updates. So everyone should try to log in on my blog first and then comment in sync whenever possible~~~~ Too bad that…
blog website social media Weibo
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2011年5月14日
The Distinctiveness of China’s Written Culture and Print Culture

AI & the Future of Technology2011.05.14
The Distinctiveness of China’s Written Culture and Print Culture
I often cite McLuhan, Walter Ong, and others on the progression from oral culture to written culture to print culture (see Media, Senses, Space-Time — A Preliminary Exploration of McLuhan’s Media Ontology), but they are basically talking within the context of Western languages. The development of writing there is basically a process of “pure oral speech — ideographic writing — consonantal alphabetic writing — vocalized alphabetic writing (from Greek onward) — alphabetic writing printed with movable type.” Certain Eastern scripts can also be fitted into this genealogy and understood in that way: for example, Arabic and Sanskrit are consonantal alphabetic scripts, and thus preserve context more strongly. However, Chinese writing…
culture China technology media
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2011年5月14日
Three Meta-Disagreements with Analytic Philosophy

Philosophy & Thought2011.05.13
Three Meta-Disagreements with Analytic Philosophy
Dialoguing with analytic philosophy is difficult, because what analytic philosophy does best is precise argument over fine details, and it is all too easy to get drawn into the minutiae of a specific problem. We can hold the opposite view from certain analytic philosophers, but by then we have often already walked into their trap. Just as there are surely all kinds of opposing views within analytic philosophy itself, endlessly debated with great fervor, they especially welcome opposing views; then you present your rigorous argument, accept refutation one point by one point, and still have to consider countless possible counterexamples not yet raised. In this way, once you have won…
philosophy phenomenology logic analytic philosophy
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2011年5月13日