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Jian Shuo Wang Becomes Wang Jian Shuo Jennifer 8. Lee (New York Times reporter, author of 'The Fortune Cookie Chronicles') changed her middle name to the auspicious-sounding number and that is the way The Times uses it. I asked her if it could be pronounced (in English) 'eight' or 'ba' and she said either, though as an American (parents immigrated from Taiwan) she says 'eight'. Incidentally, as the eldest of 3 children born to a couple that entered the US at JFK airport, her first name begins with 'J'. In America it used to be the case that one could use a stage name if no fraud involved, but as you point out, now security for travel and credit means this is less possible. Another point is tht styles change for how married women caall themselves, both in China and the West. I think we should keep track of naming conventions over time, as it indicates Western influences (how easy for others to pronounce) and what parents expect from children. |
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Earthquake and Flee from 18th Floor I hope many people escape or are rescued, and my heart goes out to China. I don't know whether the rest room is the best place, or to go down the stairs, but if you can find the right answer, please tell us. However, please consider another thought. Does your company/school practice good fire drills? It is important to evacuate safely, but also to assemble together and count the escapees. Otherwise it might not be possible to identify who is trapped inside. Many firefighters or rescue workers have lost their lives going into buildings when the survivors have already escaped--this of course was true also in New York on 9/11. Please consider the importance of appointing fire wardens, keeping track of building occupants, and assembling and counting the escapees. This is a simple precaution that is usually overlooked, and it needs leadership and practice to enforce the habit. Another thought is that technology companies bear a special responsibility in such disasters. The mobile phone network collapsed in Sichuan; some 2,300 towers fell down in the earthquake, and the system was jammed. The technology is available to transmit radio signals from handset to handset, bypassing the towers, but it has not been put into place anywhere and so cannot be used when it is needed in such a disaster. In America it will not be implemented because of the dominance of the big cellphone companies. Could Chinese companies respond to the challenge? Would the PRC government cooperate by ceding some power away from the big Chinese telecommunications companies and delegating some power to the local users? Most mobile phones are made in China, why can't China solve this problem and make money from it as well as saving lives? A third thought is to improve earthquake forecasting. You can see here that there are traditional means of earthquake forecasting: http://news.163.com/08/0512/17/4BOSR7O20001124J.html However, most of these reports are after the fact so maybe superstition. More importantly, there was a recent failure of an expensive forecast system in Japan. It is easy to hook a seismograph to a networked computer. Wouldn't the signal travel on the Internet faster than through the earth? We need to improve this forecasting system. Cannot talented Chinese engineers tackle this problem and solve it where Japanese have not? Right now we must deal with the suffering of the survivors. Later this will be forgotten. Will the lessons be learned? Earthquakes, typhoons, fires, happen infrequently. Most people are fatalistic, someone else is accountable. I think if you want to live happily you must think now about these things; during an earthquake you will be too dizzy to decide whether to run down stairs or hide in the bathroom. |