Overseas Chinese Web Guide

New York Times: Solving a Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside a Cookie. Fortune cookies, Yasuko Nakamachi says, are almost certainly originally from Japan. Her prime pieces of evidence are the generations-old small family bakeries making obscure fortune cookie-shaped crackers by hand near a temple outside Kyoto.

I heard the hidden messages in moon cakes explanation while growing up. In the end, I see the fortune cookie lesson as a reflection of our business world. Some people/companies are inventors, and other people/companies are marketers. For some products, we deeply associate the invention with the inventors, and for other products we associate them with those people or companies that drove them into mainstream. You can sit around all day wondering why Japanese restaurants don’t serve fortune cookies or why most computers run Mac OS (yeah!) or Windows (boo!) instead of Xerox OS. Everything looks obvious in hindsight.

Christian Science Monitor: Opposition Win May Bring Taiwan Closer to China. The resurgence of Taiwan’s opposition party, the Kuomintang (KMT), which picked up a majority in Saturday’s parliamentary vote, could usher in a significant thaw in cross-Taiwan Strait relations with China, especially if it goes on to win the presidency in March.

It’s all relative, I guess. If someone had asked me to name the pro-China opposition party in Taiwan, I don’t think I would have guessed the Kuomingtang. For some reason, the American media does not apply the term “opposition party” to American political parties. Despite President George W. Bush’s contentious term in office, we still refer to the “other” party as Democrats or the Democratic Party. Certainly, not the Democratic opposition party.

As for being pro-China, I think that is a misleading description. Sure, they may not harbor strong Taiwan independence sentiments, but as far as accepting a seat as a mere province of the People’s Republic of China, I’ll believe it when I see it. One possible road map to eventual unification is the Hong Kong model. We are 10 years past 1997 and Hong Kong is as vibrant and successful as ever. However, Hong Kong and Taiwan do possess vital differences in population and history. Hong Kong has a population of close to 7 million people, while Taiwan has over 3 times as many. Additionally, Taiwan has a history of true democracy and self-rule which Hong Kong lacks, both in the present day and under British rule.

Basically, since neither China nor Taiwan is looking for a bail out, both parties are negotiating from a position of strength. You don’t give something up, especially your freedom and right to self-determination, unless you can get something as or more valuable in return. So, as I see it, the real question isn’t whether the President of Taiwan favors unification with China, but whether the Chinese Premier so desires unification that he (or she) is willing to surrender one-party rule. That’s the price of being pro-Taiwan.

Reuters reports that New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is no longer seeking to be the 2008 Democratic candidate for President. No surprise here. With three strong candidates running ahead of him, it would be tough to catch one of them, let alone all three. I’m glad that Governor Richardson has abandoned the race since that candidate is tainted in my mind with the entire Wen Ho Lee fiasco. Sure, Mr. Lee was never able to prove that Governor Richardson leaked details of the investigation in violation of the Privacy Act, but I would never vote for that man.

Chris Anderson calls the partnership between NBC Universal and Microsoft to broadcast over 3,000 hours of live and on-demand content at NBCOlympics.com the first “Long-Tail Olympics.” This should be great news for table tennis fans in the United States. Sure, we can catch our regular basketball, track and field, swimming, diving, and gymnastics events on television, but I’ve never seen Olympic table tennis before. Hopefully, this will be one of the sports that will fall within the 3,000 hours of coverage.

By now, most people have heard about the recent tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo. As expected, the survivors who were attacked by the tiger have retained legal counsel. I was reading the biography of their attorney, Mark Geragos, and something stood out.

In February of this year, Mark successfully won dismissal of all felony charges, including kidnapping and torture, for his client, Hung Bao Zhong, the recognized exiled leader of the shadow government of China, who has an estimated 38 million followers worldwide.

How is it possible that someone is the exiled leader of the shadow government of China and I have never heard of him? I’ve heard of the Dalai Lama, but not Hung Bao Zhong. After some guessing, I tracked down his biography on Wikipedia, where he is listed as Zhang Hongbao. Political threat? Possibly. Leader of the shadow government? Not likely.

I love Costco. The store offers high-quality merchandise at low prices. This weekend, I joined the mad holiday rush and made a quick dash into the local warehouse store. Near the entrance, the Mountain View Costco was selling exercise equipment: treadmills, stationary bikes, etc. Just in time for New Year. I guess their members need something to help them burn off all the calories from the gigantic boxes of chocolate truffles and other sweets that Costco plies in the run-up to Christmas.

Had dinner at California Cafe in Palo Alto. I had no problem finding the Stanford Barn, but the restaurant was tucked into this small corner that required some effort to locate. The crab cakes, organic greens and mango lemonade were quite tasty. The appetizer comes with two crab cakes. Moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. Good stuff. Loved the delicious blue cheese dressing in the salad. Mango lemonade was equally delicious, but $3.50 a glass without free refills seems a bit steep, especially, when half the glass is filled with ice. With the appetizers hitting the marks, I was looking forward to the entree. However, the meal peaked too early. I had first ordered the braised short ribs, but the waitress told me that they were out. C’mon, it’s a meat dish. Beef isn’t in season? So I ended up ordering the miso glazed salmon instead. The fish was okay, but that miso glaze was nasty. The miso glaze was cloying sweet and has the consistency of a paste. Ick. Fingerling potatoes were good, but the soy wilted kale was excessively salty. The taste of soy sauce was bit overpowering. Had me longing for the miso salmon at Cheesecake Factory.

The New York Times has a Relative Choices blog that focuses on adoption and the American family. One of their bloggers is Jeff Gammage who writes about the experiences of his two daughters, both of whom were adopted from China. He recently wrote about the Chinese language and culture classes that his daughter attends, and he asks whether these classes are enough or too much.

I think this issue is pondered by all Chinese-American parents and not just those parents with adopted Chinese children. How “Chinese” do we want our children to be? Regardless of whether we send them to Chinese school, make them take erhu lessons, or learn Chinese kungfu, our Chinese-American children will never have an identical experience as those children raised in China. And that is okay.

TIME Magazine: Tong. Western Union operators in Boston were puzzled, last week, by a number of enigmatic telegrams sent from their station to various parts of the U. S. The messages appeared, at first glance, to be in code, but a closer scrutiny revealed that they were merely lists of names—Chinese names.

The above passage comes from the September 7, 1925 issue of TIME Magazine. It contains one of the earliest references to Chinatown in TIME Magazine and describes a tong war between the Hip Sings and the On Leongs.

Time: Second Thoughts on the Chairman. Not even Mao was perfect, it turns out. Propped up by two solicitous aides, Ye Jianying, 81, the venerable chairman of the National People’s Congress, tottered up to the rostrum last week to deliver the keynote speech for China’s 30th anniversary celebration.

If you are ever curious about how the West perceives China, head over to TIME Magazine. For example, if you search for Liu Shaoqi, TIME will return results from its historical archives. The earliest reference to Liu Shaoqi comes from October 14, 1979. You can then sort the results by newest, oldest or relevance, or even refine your search by date.