Leadership and Nationhood

Opening 

“What is the biggest surprise in your life?” Can you pick one easily ? I can pick one easily. Today, I would like to share the biggest surprise in my life, which is an experience living in Taiwan. 

Body

In Singapore,  I made several same mistakes. (Note: start acting, trying to be comical as sensitive topic) I saw an Indian speaking an Indian language with side to side head tilting, and I asked, “Do you come from India ?”, he answered “No I am Singaporean”.  I saw a Chinese who speaks Mandarin, then I asked “Are you Chinese?”, he answered , “No, I am Singaporean”. I saw a Malay lady, she told me ”I am Singaporean”. In Singapore, there are different ethnic groups, they speak different languages, eat different foods, yet, they call themselves as Singaporean. 

I came to Taiwan from Singapore. In Taiwan, some people say. “We are Chinese, not Taiwanese”. Some people say “We are Taiwanese, not Chinese”. (Note: end acting)  People are divided on its own identity.  People in Taiwan speaks the same language, and eats the same, and looks like same.  I was so surprised why people in Taiwan are divided, unlike people in Singapore.  This is the biggest surprise in my life.  (Note: pausing)

After researching, I have an idea to this question.  To answer this question, let me quote from Lee Kwan Yew’s book, Hard Truth . 

Quote ”Nationhood is an artificial creation, it’s an artefact of how you divide peoples of different races into countries that govern themselves ”Unquote  (Note: prepare small leaflets, so audience can read the same quote to understand)

(Note: by showing a picture of Indian bank note)  In India, bank notes has 17 languages, illustrating the diversity of the country. One day, I asked my Indian colleague, why India can be united as one country despite of the huge diversity?  He answered, because of Mahatma Gandhi.  Back then, the Britain rules the most of the world, they are formidable,  but Mahatma Gandhi defeated the British empire with non-violence. We all respect him. Mahatma Gandhi created the country, India and created the people, Indians.

In Singapore, no matter which races, Indian, Malay, Chinese, and even Japanese, all respect Lee Kwan Yew,  he established the country, Singapore and created Singaporean. 

In China,  Sun Yat San, excluded Manchurian ( 滿族; Mǎnzú) from Chinese to defeat Qing Dynasty.  After defeating Qing Dynasty, Manchurian becomes a part of Chinese, in order to keep the country size as big as Qing Dynasty. 

In the Bible, the old testament, Moses led the twelve tribes  to the new land, and created the Israelites. 

These four examples has one thing in common. The great leadership leads to the Nationhood.  

Closing

Back to my question, why people in Taiwan looks all the same but divided ?  I have concluded myself that one reason is lack of great leadership at the level of Moses, Gandhi, although these prominent figures rarely appear. If Taiwan had such an equivalent leader, great enough to unite people, there would not have been the division. 

Let me repeat the quote from LKY,   Quote “Nationhood is an artificial creation” Unquote, and the great leadership leads to Nationhood. 

Note: 

Feedback 1: The conclusion is not definitive, as there should be many factors. 

Feedback 2:  Better to use a quote from a scholar (Benedict Anderson, or Ernest Gellne - recommended to read “Peasants into Frenchmen”)

New Economy

Opening

The last time I got a feedback, my topic is too educational.  So today, I would like to pick up a more relaxing topic, which is Economics!

Do you know there is a big thing happening in the world economy?  Right now, right here, world economy has been changing like a crazy.  And traditional corporates are facing serious challenges.  I would like to share what is the ground shaking.

Body 

MRT.  Train operations, ticket sales, ticket checking, and announcement. All are automated nowadays, no human. Why we use technology instead of human?  Because they do not need salary!  Look at MRT, what is the additional cost to allow one additional customer to ride on a train?  The additional cost is very marginal, because it is automated.  The cost to produce additional unit of output/service is very marginal.  And you may be able to provide the additional output/service for free, if already a sufficient number of customers. 

Take another example. Taxi.  We all know that taxi fee is the same, regardless of one customer or two customers.  Why?  This is because the marginal cost of the additional one customer is negligible. This means, when you drive, if you can find a person sharing the same destination at the same time, then you can give a ride to the person and earn additional money. And nowadays, it is indeed possible to find people, sharing the same destination at the same time, by using smart phone.  In this way, taxi companies cannot compete pricewise with you, because you will go to the destination with or without the sharing of the ride.

Banking industry.  One cent costs nothing for each individual, then if we can aggregate one cent from millions of people easily and it can be a pool of lending with no interest.  This aggregation will be possible with the advancement. Can traditional banking make a business with no interest? No, because traditional banks need to pay dividends, salary, expenses.

The advancement of IT is very fast.  The Internet has becomes faster from analogue line to Optical fiber by more than ten thousand times. iPhone CPU has becomes faster by 50 times from the first iPhone to iPhone 6 in the past eight years.  PCs are getting smaller. We have desktop PC, and moved to laptop PC, and now stick PCs , the same size as USB stick . All of these advancements allow us to utilize our idle time & idle resources more easily, and posing great challenges to traditional cooperate profits. 

Closing

If no additional cost, then price can be zero for additional unit of an output. And if we can aggregate each individual’s idle time, or fully automated, the additional cost can be zero.  IT technology advancement makes these only easier and it poses great challenges to traditional corporates. And there are already so many names to this new economy, such as, sharing economy, collaborative economy, zero marginal economy, and sharing economy. You can name it.

Politics - with Chinese civilization

Opening

In Chinese, we say:

Mongol, 蒙古(Ménggǔ)

Korea, 朝鮮 (Cháoxiǎn)

Southern china,  閩南 (Mǐnnán)

Do you think these phrases have any political issues?  Yes, there is a huge political issue.  I would like to explain about this issue and would like you to know where the issue comes from. Once you know, you will have a better view in Chinese Civilization.

Body

So what is the issue? I said:

蒙古(Ménggǔ) meaning “ignorant and old” in Chinese character 

朝鮮 (Cháoxiǎn) meaning  “government and small ”

閩南  (Mǐnnán) meaning “insect”

Do you think it is right to call others in such a demean manner? More examples:

America is 美國 (Měiguó) meaning,  “the country of beauty”

Germany is 德國 (Déguó) meaning,  “the country of virtue”

China is  中華,( Zhōnghuá) meaning, “center and flourish”

In Japanese,  America is 米國 (Mǐ guó), which means “the country of rice”, why rice ? Americans eat bread!  Sorry, a political dispute raised, because of Chinese character…. This kind of political dispute never arises in English. America is America. Germany is Germany. They are just names corresponding to sounds without having meaning.

Another example is 一國兩制 (Yīguóliǎngzhì). Normally translated as “One country, two systems”. But “一國(Yīguó)” can be interpreted as:

“A country”

“One country”

“Single country”

“First country”

“United country”

一國兩制 (Yīguóliǎngzhì).  Does this mean, a country of two systems as Hong Kong claims? Or two systems controlled by one country, as China claims. This is the big political issue.

So, the question is why such political issues can easily arise in Chinese language?  This is because Chinese characters do not carry only “sound”. Characters are symbols, rich in images and meaning.  This power of the language works as the double-edged sword to open up the additional space of the intensive demand for politics over its interpretation.

How does the ancient Chinese cope with this issue?  Let me share some examples to describe certain aspect of Chinese Civilization.

1.  In ancient china, Chinese characters are not for everyone, but only for elites called 士大夫 (Shìdàfū).  These elites studied for the imperial examination and memorized many textbooks.   The elites can reference to the textbooks, recite the usage of each character to argue meaning over characters. Therefore, the elites can always win in arguments with non-elites.  

2.  The complexity of Chinese character results in the situation where only elites can write. This makes sure that the spread of ideas to be only one direction from the elites to the non-elites.  

3.   In English, you hear “Yoshi”. Once you learned phonetics, you can write down “Yoshi” by using alphabet. On the other hand, in Chinese, we need a “political authority” to determine which character should correspond to the new sound “Yoshi”.  We need to follow people, instead of following principle/rules in this way.

4. Cultures & values

Confucius insists the importance of loyalty.  

The list can continue, but the key point here is, Chinese Civilization is formed around how elites influence non-elites, without being known.

Closing

Let us get back to the question. Why the political issues arise in Chinese Civilization. This is because Chinese characters are symbols. Elites can determine which syllable, such as “Yī” to correspond to which symbol. Once symbols are given, such as “一”, we still can argue “一 (Yī)”means, one, single, first or what. In Chinese civilization, there is more space to be political.  And elites have privilege to determine which syllable to correspond to which symbol, and its interpretation. This can be compared to the political power of the religious authorities, by having privilege to interpret the bible.

Education, A Contrast between Western and Eastern

Opening 

Seven countries. This is the number of my educational exposure to different countries. I went to a university in Japan and U.K. My kids went to school in Singapore, Japan, and also attending to American school. Also here in Taiwan, I have opportunities to talk to parents or kids who studied in either China or Taiwan. My wife was a teacher in Zimbabwe. Based on my high exposure of different countries’ educations, I would like to share two stories, to contrast between Western and Eastern.

Body

The first story is about elementary school education. The very first question, which being rendered in American school, grade one science is, what is the difference between Hypothesize and Infer? Can anyone answer this? The answer is, hypothesize is not based on facts, but infer is. In science, everything is a hypothesis, not a fact until it is proven with an experiment, in a way anyone can induce the same outcome. Once we turn a hypothesis into a fact with an experiment, then we can forecast future or do some reasoning based on the fact. This is “infer“. In science there is an order. 1) Hypothesize, 2) experiment to turn a hypothesis into a fact and 3) infer based on the fact. Other topics covered are, opinion and fact, cause and effect, compare and contrast, so on.

In American school, there is a vivid focus on understanding concepts and use the concepts to identify facts, instead of memorizing facts for exams. The next story is about university education. I studied Economics in Japan and UK. In Japan, professors say, “I understand Keynes”, “I understand Marx”. What is wrong with it? In U.K. Professors say, “I will create a better economic theory than Keynes”, “I will go beyond Marx”. Professors in U.K. are oriented to challenge the current status quo and develop economics further. On the contrary, some professors in Japan, their focus is trying to understand what has been developed, translate them. As a result, professors in Japan take those as authorities, respect them, and try to use their authorities to establish their own.

I still remember in U.K. a professor told students, Economics is a social science, there will be no absolute right or wrong, so write something in exams, and then you might get some scores! His remake strikes me to realize how much free space there are with social sciences, and it was a quite contrasting with an authoritarian attitude of some in Japan.

Conclusion

The two stories highlighted the vivid contrast between Western and Eastern education. The difference is not superficial, but fundamental, rooted from the difference of culture and history. One is more focusing memorizing facts, and the other is focusing on understanding concepts to find out facts. Another example was, one is more focusing to follow the path of forerunners, the other is more focusing on to create a new path. I believe these differences in education will influence upon how people see the world, and it is important to know about it for mutual understanding across different countries.