Lost in Spades

Imagine a land so large as to rival the U.S. and Canada in its breadth and boldness. Superimpose upon this area, multiple mountain ranges, ravines, and treacherously long impasses. Suspend it in aridity, with just 15% arable land and snow reminiscent of polar caps. Chisel its crust with five rivers - carving their way through the midst of the land; sustaining a most idiosyncratic animal and plant life. Finally, stir in it the souls of near 1.5 billion. Though deserved, somewhat misguided is the West’s fascination with the East – a fascination with a plethora of colour, vigour and splendour. Yet therein lay a stillness to imbibe the soul. A stillness only found between the cultural and historical eddies of the collision of diverse peoples over two thousand of years. Nevertheless, perhaps misconstrued is her wisdom and guile – her ‘art of war’. The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is after all only 59 years young. Land Apart from Mongolia, above China’s huge land mass is the equally larg...

The great fear, that bird flu can cause human to human transmission is already likely, according to the WHO. An extended family of seven people recently died of bird flu in the North Sumatra province of Indonesia. The transmission was apparently not sustainable and occurred only during close, prolonged contact. “We believe that the threat is every bit as real now as it was two or three years ago.” (Dick Thompson, WHO spokesman, USINFO, 17/1/07). Asia is on alert again following a recent spate of animal and human bird flu cases in a number of countries. Sixty one of the 161 confirmed deaths from bird flu worldwide since 2003 have occurred in Indonesia. Almost all of these individuals contracted the virus directly from exposure to poultry or poultry droppings. “The Husbandry and Fishery Agency of Jakarta now gives owners of chickens, ducks, swans, pigeons and quails, two weeks to consume, sell or simply destroy these fowl from residential areas” ( http://www.thejakartapost.com/ , 18/1/07...

In his Foreword for Morton and Lewis' China: Its History and Culture (4th Edn), Emeritus Professor of Chinese Philosophy and Culture at Dartmouth College, Wing-tsit Chan, dispels the myth that China is ancient by drawing the distinction between the country - ideologically founded in 1949 - with the political structure of provinces and counties and of superimposed cultures of some 2000 years. "When a Chinese talks about friendship", Mr Chan argues, "he or she will quote Confucius, from the sixth century B.C." The Chinese apparently always look back to history "for concrete evidence and past experience, not much different from the American legal system, which insists on precedents to show why a certain decision has been made." "It is not an exaggeration", he concludes, "to say that the Chinese are among the most historically minded people to be found anywhere."