Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Coalition of the Annoyed




Pat Flowers has a gentle grace for one of these Harlem Stride piano gents.  This version of “But Not For Me” was recorded in 1945, two years after his hero Fats Waller passed.  Maybe I was just unduly influenced early on by Teddy Weatherford and his “I’m going to commit aggravated assault on these keys” approach when I first began this investigation into this school of playing last week, but as his name suggests, Mr. Flowers is dancing around ever so sweetly.   Born in Detroit in 1917, he was apparently chums with the gent I featured a few days back, who also had a gentle attack, the one David Lambert. 

Catching my breath back in Beijing a few days on the road.  A number of folks hit town today and I need to shift to “welcome to Beijing” mode.  At least we have some blue skies and reasonably temperate weather.  Heading to meetings in Shenzhen with a suit on was no fun.  The ‘heat of things to come.’  My first meeting there, I pleasantly demanded the young lady figure out how to get the air-conditioning.  Beijing remains temperate and dry. 



As expected, the Vietnamese people did not take kindly to being taught a lesson in elder brother opportunism.  Dozens of foreign owned factories were torched in protest near Ho Chi Minh City.   The Chinese Foreign Minister protest and told Vietnam to come to its senses.  But what did they expect?  Ironically the protestors greatest damage was done to factories owned by South Koreans and Taiwanese.

Anti Chinese sentiment is never far below the surface in Vietnam.  This is precisely the sort of escalation that lead to the Boat People exodus out of the Cholon in the late 1970s with the cut your nose to spite your face response by the Chinese to teach China lesson that backfired and which they do not seemed to have learned from.  Interestingly, not unlike China, the other reform oriented Communist Party in the neighborhood, is concerned that protests in the streets, can cut both ways and lead to anti-Party sentiment and calls for greater democracy, particularly if the government looks weak.

The Philippines meanwhile has issued new official protests to China Inc. suggesting that new construction is happening on one of the atolls. China has thus far remained silent on the matter.  But taken together the activity this month suggests a new, more assertive strategy, to lay physical claim to territory and dare other countries to do something about it.  This may be efficacious to a point, as ownership is usually the better part of the law.  But do the Chinese leadership really believe their rhetoric and do they know when to stop?  For now, ASEAN is still fractured and not willing to speak as one.  But this highly visible activity will surely drive many complicated neighbors together into a coalition of the annoyed.  All China would need to do is make a physical play for the Spratlys to bring Malaysia and Indonesia into such a “coalition.”  One hopes China has a sense of where to stop, pause and think, free from the high-octane vapors of their own rhetoric. 



On a lighter note, my stepson, who moved from Shandong to be with our family in San Francisco, when he was fourteen or so and who now lives in Tokyo, shared with this link to a new TV show called “Fresh Off the Boat”, a comedy about a Chinese family adapting to life in the U.S.   The story of immigration of just about anybody to the U.S. remains 万古长新[1]

While some of the gags are predictable and the mom’s accent sounds more Korean than Chinese to my ears, it is mirthful and one can imagine a few gut laughs pending.  Appropriately my stepson pointed out that “minus the white dad, and the restaurant, that was us”, which isn’t far off.  Later it occurred to me that I had meanwhile subjected my daughters who moved to China as little ones, to some hall of mirrors version of otherness in the opposite direction.  I’ll show them the trailer and see if they want to try to write a treatment for “Fresh off the Plane.”

                                                                                                                                                   




[1] wàngǔchángxīn:  to remain forever new (idiom)

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