Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Los Angeles Times: China speaks out on food safety. Clearly annoyed by the bad press China has been getting, officials Thursday also denounced media reports that they said exaggerated the nation’s flaws and overlooked the fact that more than 99% of Chinese food exports to the United States in the last three years had met quality standards.

The problem with government-based or corporate-based logic in such a situation is that is is not consumer-based. Do I want to eat food with a 1% chance of being tainted? No. Do I want to eat food with a 0.1% of being tainted? No. I want my food to be safe and fit for human consumption. Because when our food supply is tainted with bacteria, pollution or unsafe chemical additives, people can get severely ill and die. And, there’s no upside to that.

Besides, food safety is a two-way street. As the U.S. beef industry has witnessed, whenever a case of mad cow disease is found in American livestock, no one wants to import our beef. You can pull out all the statistics you want, but it’s a hard sell.

Once upon a time, high school seniors who were not admitted to Stanford University just resigned themselves to spending their next four years of life at UC Berkeley. But now, the fallback to actually attending Stanford University is pretending to attend Stanford University? Seriously, if Stanford doesn’t admit you, then attend your fallback school, get great grades, and try again as a transfer student. If that doesn’t work, you have another shot when it’s time to attend graduate school. However, pretending to be a Stanford student isn’t going to get it done unless it’s all about style, not substance.

While searching for some recipes for a Memorial Day weekend cookout, i came across Hearth and Home, a blog that has quite a collection of recipes with photos! It predominantly features a mix of Chinese, Western and Singaporean/Indonesian/Malaysian dishes. I lump that last group together because I am not sophisticated enough to differentiate them. Besides, all restaurants I go to that offer cuisine from that region inevitably serves dishes from all three countries. Anyways, the reason this blog stood out is because it offers recipes for many favorite foods of mine, which I have not been able to locate in any Chinese cookbooks, including Wu Xi Spareribs and Polo Buns, which is more commonly referred to as Pineapple Buns.

For the longest time, I was also searching for a recipe for Pipa Tofu. The funny thing, I found it in a recipe book that I have owned for over 15 years. Except that it was titled Shrimp and Tofu Dumpling. Now, how am I supposed to realize that Shrimp and Tofu Dumpling is Pipa Tofu. That’s why I like cookbooks with both English and Chinese titles, as well as photos.

Los Angeles Times: Taishan’s U.S. Well Runs Dry. Down a narrow red dirt road past rice paddies, water buffaloes and abandoned farmhouses is the dab-sized town of Wo Hing. Locals know it as Lop Cham Kee village, or Los Angeles village.

The LA Times ran an interesting article about Toisan (Taishan) that deals with the nexus between the Overseas Chinese and those left behind. I remember my first visit to the place where my ancestors came from. In my case, it was a village in Xinhui, instead of Taishan. My first thought was that I should be deeply grateful that those that came before me had left the Chinese countryside long ago. Leaving your ancestral home is never an easy decision. Fortunately, all the difficult decisions and heavy lifting were done by others.

For recent immigrants, if you still have a brother or sister in China, what will become of them or their offspring. In 50 years, when you become a grandparent, what impressions will your grandchildren have when they go to China and visit their granduncle or grandaunt.

New York Times: An Export Boom Suddenly Facing a Quality Crisis. Hoping to investigate why melamine contaminated so much pet food, investigators from the Food and Drug Administration spent two weeks in China this month. [...] After United States investigators left, China issued a statement asking the United States not to punish other exporters of food ingredients for the misdeeds of a few rogue companies, and not to let this become a trade quarrel.

Somehow I am not convinced that only a few “rogue” companies were at fault. Nor was I convinced that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were the work of a few “rogue” soldiers. In both situations, the problem was that the culture and the environment permitted, and perhaps encouraged, such misdeeds to occur.

Now, what of this trade quarrel? The danger for all parties involved in the Chinese export trade isn’t a trade quarrel. Trade disputes are problems between nations that inevitably get resolved after protracted negotiations and political posturing. No, the real problem here is that not a quarrel with the U.S. government, but with the U.S. public. How do you resolve a quarrel with consumers who refuse to purchase your products? This is the type of situation that get ugly fast and not just for Chinese exporters.

How will American importers of Chinese products react? Knowing that the products you import are basically unregulated by the Chinese government, what steps must you take to ensure the safety of your own merchandise? Because all the dollars and cents you are saving by importing from China can vanish in a flash when your product sickens or kills someone. Punitive damages anyone?

Whenever I read any negative news articles about China, I don’t see a society too different from the one we celebrate in America. From a business, legal and political perspective, some analysts may contend that America and China are polar opposites. But, that is not the case. In fact, we are traveling along the same path. The difference is that China is a few steps behind. That’s all.

So, the latest episode involves the use of melamine by Chinese manufacturers in animal feed. That and the occasional mass food poisonings of humans that occur in China but do not garner as much press as when American dogs and cats get ill. Well, we’ll just have to wait for China’s Upton Sinclair to write a Chinese version of The Jungle.

Our feelings were never mutual. The first time I received your unsolicited IM, I politely clicked “Decline.” I was just being sensitive and didn’t want to hurt your feelings. But, you didn’t get the message. Perhaps, you were coached by some marketer to show some perseverance. Surely, I would come around. But, I didn’t. However, your invitations still came…and were left unanswered. Then, I tried to “Block” you. But, you had no clue. You ignored my “Block.” Perhaps, if you tried harder, you must have thought. You did not realize that your insistence was what drove me further away. Now, I have grown to detest AIM Pages, even though I have never given it a try, just because of you aimpagesinvite. If you had respected my initial request instead of repeatedly stalking me and sending unsolicited messages, we would not have come to this stage. How many more times will I have to “Decline” or “Block” you before you realize that there is no future between us?

Palo Alto Online reported that the city utility will be raising water rates.

The commission also recommended raising water rates by 10 percent to generate $2.2 million. A fixed charge of $5 per residence and more for businesses would also be added that is not based on water usage, according to a staff report. Additional money is needed because less water is being used due to efficiency and the loss of large customers. Supply, operating and staff costs continue to increase, however, according to the staff report.

So, if you use a lot of water, your rates will go up. And, if you conserve water, your rates will still go up. Either way, you’ll end up paying more. So, the next time they send you a flyer about conservation, you know where to file it.

Even with GasBuddy.com showing me the lowest priced gasoline in my area, I still rang up a $70 charge. That’s the most I’ve ever paid for a tank of gas. And, while gas prices do fluctuate up-and-down, the general trend is up, up and away. I don’t think we’ll be returning to 99¢/gallon gas any time soon, if ever. In 15 years, when I’m paying $200 per tank, unless cars aren’t using gas at that point, I’ll recall the Spring of 2007 when I only paid $70 per tank and wish for the days of $3/gallon gas.

A typical tour of China passes through the major cities of Beijing and Shanghai with excursions to Xian and Guilin. Even if you’ve taken several trips to China, you probably have never seen some of the sights and sounds found in KQED’s Soundscape of China.

Here are some of the highlights:

• Muslim prayers at a mosque in Kashgar, Xinjiang
• Women inmates sing at a Re-education Through Labor Camp outside Beijing
• Matron singing at an orphanage in Jiazuo City, Henan
• Buddhist monks chanting at Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, Tibet