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Posts by: qui tacet

Pyongyang Diaries: The People

(Kaesong city) The socialist market economy in action.

I was the last of the tour group to board the train to Pyongyang at Sinuiju, and all the cabins were full, except for a cabin of mostly middle-aged Chinese men. Across from my seat was my Chinese roommate for the tour, a college student from Anhui. As I sat down, my fellow passengers were pointing at one of the guides, the fair lady in a yellow hanbok who never smiled. 朝鲜美女 (trans. Joseon beauty), they laughed, come and join us. If she had heard them, she pretended not to.

Continued…

Posted in Korea - Pyongyang Diaries.

4 comments

By qui tacet – February 28, 2010
Spring 2010 courses

(Beijing) It’s been a fun ride

My final semester, in full quant gear. It’s time to man up and math up. If I have to get out of school, I’m going out with a bang, not a whimper.

Continued…

Posted in College Life, Economics, Politics.

1 comment

By qui tacet – January 14, 2010
Soliciting unwanted advice

(Sun Yat-sen memorial, Zhongshan) Cigarettes in vending machines, probably not such a great idea.

There is a graceless human tendency to wish upon others the ills visited upon oneself. Instead of pointing successors towards short cuts, you relish seeing them clambering through identical hoops.

The author of this particularly insightful observation was describing her experience advising a prospective journalist. She was asked for advice about how to write a book about Africa in a thoughtless way that was not conducive to actually receiving the desired information (it provoked the sentiments quoted), but she offered some very different and still valuable wisdom. In other words, the person got what they needed, but not what they wanted to hear. Unfortunately, it’s more likely that her wisdom was ignored by the intended recipient.

Continued…

Posted in College Life.

1 comment

By qui tacet – December 29, 2009
Rejection Letters, Good and Bad

(Dongdaemun, Seoul) Where does my future lie?

Dear qui tacet:

Thank you for your interest in Boutique Consulting Firm.

After reviewing your qualifications and our present requirements, we regret that we will not be pursuing your application further at this time. Our decision only reflects an attempt to match the talents of prospective employees with our current openings.

Continued…

Posted in Business.

2 comments

By qui tacet – October 24, 2009
Fall 2009 courses

(Chifeng city, Inner Mongolia) Senior year. Gotta work like a dog.

The penultimate semester of my undergrad days. Minimum number of classes, maximum attention to each.

Continued…

Posted in College Life.

1 comment

By qui tacet – September 27, 2009
Sewing and Reaping

(Balinyouqi town, Chifeng prefecture, Inner Mongolia) So more people can hear her story…

Congratulations! In the face of a very difficult selection process, one of your photos was selected to be included in the Weatherhead East Asian Institute and Columbia University’s Photography Society’s upcoming exhibition. This is a strong testimony to your talent, as we received over 130 photos submitted and had room for only 25. The jury was very impressed by your work and looks forward to including it in the exhibition.

Continued…

Posted in China Trip, Development.

1 comment

By qui tacet – September 19, 2009
Business Today, part 3

(Hong Kong IFC. View from RED Bar) It’s a long way up, and a long way down.

Congratulations! I’m happy to say that we’ve finished reading through all 1500+ applications, and your name has come out on top. You should all be extremely proud of your accomplishment, as this was the most competitive year in Business Today conference history (our acceptance rate was even lower than that of Princeton itself)!

You come from over 20 countries and 100 colleges; You speak more than 50 languages, you’ve started your own businesses, you’ve won international awards, and you are all around world-class students. It didn’t take me long to realize that I wouldn’t have been accepted to my own conference.

This will be my third time at Business Today, and I’m looking forward to seeing old friends again. I wish that more of my friends from GIS had been accepted, though. Some of them are far more accomplished than I. Unfortunately, I suspect the selectivity of the program rises proportionally with the cost of flying the candidate over, and for me that’s a $2.25 subway ride.

Posted in Business, College Life.

3 comments

By qui tacet – August 29, 2009
Of government scholarships and signing bonuses

(Sheung Wan, Hong Kong island) Names matter.

Those of my readers from Singapore or familiar with its customs should be aware of a particular social institution known as, among other similar names, the ‘government scholarship’. However, this term is highly misleading, not only to foreign observers but also many Singaporeans, as the institution has only a passing resemblance to what the rest of the world understands the term ‘scholarship’ to mean. Here I propose a different name.

Continued…

Posted in Education, Singapore.

2 comments

By qui tacet – August 12, 2009
Means-testing and extending the undergraduate Tuition Grant Scheme

(Taipei) Competition is a necessary but sometimes insufficient condition for quality.

Two years ago around this time, shortly after my stint at a DC think-tank and a public policy summer camp, I wrote my first op-ed on higher education subsidies in Singapore, and it got some attention from legislators and published in the state media.

The subsidy, the Tuition Grant Scheme administered by the education ministry, is not means-tested and subsidy amounts depend on the specific university and field of study, and is fairly substantial – as much as 75% of full tuition. It is also tied not to citizenship or residency (as is common elsewhere) but to attendance at certain schools in Singapore, namely the local public universities and the vocational and trade schools (the polytechnics and other diploma providers). I use the term public because all of them also receive operating subsidies via the education ministry. Anyone who attends these schools is eligible for the subsidy – rich or poor, citizen or foreign national – but these schools only. I am primarily concerned with its provision at the undergraduate level though in principle my arguments extend also to the vocational and trade schools.*

Continued…

Posted in Economics, Education, Essays & Writing, Singapore.

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By qui tacet – July 22, 2009
Pyongyang Diaries: The Guides

(Pyongyang subway) Everyone takes the subway, even KPA soldiers! Or maybe there really is an underground bunker there.

They were the first to greet us at Sinuiju. That is, after the KPA soldiers had inspected our documents, presented by the mainland tour guide. It was a printout of tour passengers, with our passport-size portrait photographs pasted on adjacent to our profiles. The border guard who came onto the Dandong-Sinuiju train cabin only asked for it after seeing my passport cover of a different shade of red, which after glancing through, was satisfied. I wondered if the reason for his increased vigilance was that mainland Chinese were considered less of a security risk, and that I would have normally required a more intensive background check.

Continued…

Posted in Korea - Pyongyang Diaries.

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By qui tacet – July 16, 2009
Off to Taipei

(Taipei 101 store) Don’t touch the general!

Regular posting will be delayed yet again as I will be in Taipei for the Global Initiatives Symposium at National Taiwan University. GIS is an Asian business student conference, modeled on the St. Gallen Symposium – I met one of the organizers when I went to SGS – except that its Asia focused and not Eurocentric like SGS is. It’s the first time Taida is putting this together, and I’m optimistic that it will be just as professionally organized. This will be my first visit to Taiwan, and a welcome break from my summer of Stata.

Posted in Business, Other Asia.

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By qui tacet – June 24, 2009
Pyongyang Diaries: Escape from Yanggakdo

(Pyongyang station) The train station has a curious architectural style… ionic columns and an eight-sided pagoda-like tower.

As the train rolled into the station, I looked out the window and saw the sign above the entrance: 평양 (Pyongyang). Finally – the capital of the hermit kingdom. KPA soldiers herded us out of the train onto the platform, and down through a dark tunnel underneath the tracks. There were no lights, and it was too dark to make out the red script on the walls, but I had some idea of what revolutionary things they said. Only a few hours earlier that day, I had been in a similar tunnel at Dandong station, except on the walls there were advertisements. I was disappointed, because I really wanted to see what advertising was like in the DPRK.

Continued…

Posted in Business, Korea - Pyongyang Diaries, TV Dramas.

3 comments

By qui tacet – June 20, 2009
In the company of women

(Wudaokou K-town, Beijing) The wrong question?

She’s very pretty, big sister said. She was, and had an unconventional charm, with the features of those pigtailed red-scarved proletarian heroines rallied from rural mountain villages in the middle provinces to hold up half the sky for the great helmsman. She was strong, productive, innocent – As if she stepped straight out of the kitschy Socialist Realism propaganda posters that adorn his dormitory room.

Continued…

Posted in Bildungsroman.

6 comments

By qui tacet – June 8, 2009
Wokai microfinancing China’s development

(Balinyouqi town, Chifeng prefecture, Inner Mongolia) The seamstress I interviewed had used her loan to purchase an electric sewing machine, boosting her productivity. I’ll post the interview transcript soon…

Dear readers, you’re probably aware I’m involved with a China microfinance nonprofit, but just in case you aren’t:

What is Wokai?

Wokai delivers an internet microfinance platform that allows individuals to provide Chinese microentrepreneurs with loan capital. Our organization acts as an intermediary in this process, transferring funds from contributors abroad to microentrepreneurs in China through our field partners. Watch our video presentation!

Continued…

Posted in China Trip, Development.

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By qui tacet – June 6, 2009
Happy Birthday, my friend

Please excuse my poor photoshopping skills…

NEW HAVEN, CT – “Love Story in Yale” (2009, SBS) is the long-awaited sequel to “Wharton Sonata” and “Tsinghua Spring (semester) Waltz“, starring Geoffrey See as the dashing and brilliant business strategy consultant, and Kim Tae-Hee as representative sample Yale girl.

Happy Birthday and Congratulations on getting into Yale! Through our five years of friendship and mostly-healthy competition I’ve been inspired by your ceaseless diligence, prudent foresight, deep compassion, elegant style, love of life and adventure, sheer determination, your exponential rate of accomplishments, and the humility you’ve held onto throughout it all. You’re one of my favorite people in the whole world. Here’s wishing you every happiness and success in the years to come! (incl. w/ hot Yale girls )

Posted in Bildungsroman, TV Dramas.

1 comment

By qui tacet – April 20, 2009
Five years of dramas

(Seoul Metro) There’s only one good reason to watch this drama, and it’s their preppy outfits. Well, okay, there are two, and the second one is not in the ad.

My grandmother took care of me for most of my childhood. She wasn’t aware of any Mozart Effect and let me watch hours and hours of daytime television with her, which back in the early 90s was mostly trashy soap operas on the state-operated Chinese-language channel. (Oddly, my Mandarin never improved very much) Due to the heavy regulations and high economies of scale in the industry, the state channels never faced any competition (outside of TVB imports), and as such they made some truly horrific pablum (they still do). In retrospect, this may have been why trashy soap operas are permanently seared into my psyche now.

Continued…

Posted in Bildungsroman, TV Dramas.

3 comments

By qui tacet – March 31, 2009
Pyongyang Diaries: The Tourists

(Dandong station) The path to the Dandong train tracks was full of advertising (e.g. GOG sneakers). However, the equivalent in Pyongyang station had none.

I heard them chattering away even while getting through security screening at the Dandong station entrance. Thirty to forty (2 busloads worth) of middle-aged mainland Chinese people old enough to be my parents were clustered on hard plastic seats around the tour operator’s flag. I was the only ‘foreigner’, but thankfully I don’t look too different. Just younger. Hopefully if I kept my mouth shut, my crummy Mandarin and accent wouldn’t betray me.

Continued…

Posted in Business, Korea - Pyongyang Diaries, Politics.

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By qui tacet – March 26, 2009
Development with eyes open

(Beijing) She was there early every morning outside the subway stop.

Since I was staying with a friend who goes to the Foreign Affairs University, I had quite a walk every morning to take the subway to the Wokai office, and on the way there was a BOC branch office, and right outside was a covered area where homeless people congregated to play chess and chat. The one I noticed the most was this old man, who was always there reading a newspaper. He had a dog (everyone in Beijing has dogs, even homeless people!) and when I was walking back late at night from the subway, I would see them cuddled there asleep.

Continued…

Posted in China Trip, Development.

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By qui tacet – March 3, 2009
Return from Washington

(Metro station, Washington DC) Seems like I’m always chasing after missed trains…

In retrospect, it was unrealistic to think that I could do much reading or homework while attending a conference, much less running one, but things turned out fine on Monday despite having to skip lectures to catch up on sleep. I had a great time, even if it was a weekend with an average of four hours sleep a night.

Continued…

Posted in College Life, Politics.

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By qui tacet – February 23, 2009
Return to Washington, the 2nd

(Metro station, Washington DC) Making my way to the top just to be on the ground floor…

So I’m off to DC for the weekend to run a conference at George Washington University. The last time I was in DC, I never really got to see the interior of GWU (I saw Gtown, SAIS, and GMU), so this will be a new experience, and I get to see all my friends in DC again too. If only I didn’t have midterms next week and problem sets due on Monday, or I would be able to fully enjoy the conference. Conferences are best enjoyed during the summer… but that’s also when its hardest to take time off work to go.

Posted in College Life, Politics.

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By qui tacet – February 19, 2009
Spring semester courses, revised

(Wangfujing street, Beijing) My job prospects if I mess things up this semester.

This has to be my toughest semester, with many long days in class and late nights reading or finishing problem sets. This isn’t because I’m taking the maximum courseload, like my peers who accelerated their graduation by a year or more, but because I’m taking hard classes. This is what my days are like.

Continued…

Posted in College Life.

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By qui tacet – February 13, 2009
Pyongyang Diaries: Getting There

(Beijing station) The Dandong express gets you halfway there.

It was a time-tested trail: Get to Dandong, join a tour group, and cross the border. Geoffrey had done the same, and before him, different groups of Singapore students at Beida. All I had to do was follow in their footsteps. A Korean friend who studied in Beijing had went up to Dandong but decided to stay on the Chinese side of Mt. Baekdu, peering across the border into the land of the morning calm. That was probably the closest she could get with an ROK passport, at least before the Hyundai Asan tours started.

Continued…

Posted in China Trip, Korea - Pyongyang Diaries, Politics.

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By qui tacet – February 7, 2009
Muhammad Yunus speaks at Columbia

(Balinyouqi town, Inner Mongolia) One of his indirect beneficiaries?

One of the best things about going to an ivy school is the chance to listen to world leaders that come to campus quite frequently. Recently, Muhammad Yunus came to talk about the Grameen Bank and his new book on ‘creating a world without poverty’, and I managed to get into the lecture theatre before it completely filled up. I got one of the last few available seats, and there were hundreds of people in line outside (including a Bangladeshi friend) that were quite upset about the seating capacity. Here are my notes from his speech:

Continued…

Posted in Business, Development, Other Asia.

1 comment

By qui tacet – January 31, 2009
Counterfeiting and the Renminbi

(Beijing) Trans: Warning: If we discover counterfeit bills, the police will deal with you!!!

Before going to China, I had considered acquiring RMB from the banks in New York, but decided that the exchange rate would have been poorer since the supply of RMB here would have been very limited. So I brought a stack of US dollars to China with the expectation that I would exchange it there. But when I arrived at Beijing’s terminal 3, I found that the moneychangers there were offering a terrible rate, so I resolved to go out into the city and find a better one.

Continued…

Posted in China Trip, Development, Economics.

1 comment

By qui tacet – January 28, 2009
The Creative Arts Program and the Culture of Success

(Hong Kong tutoring agency ad) No tutors can compensate for a lack of personal motivation.

My little cousin recently received her O-level grades, which were disappointing to say the least. I wasn’t close to her, but I did try my best to make a difference: I emphasized the importance of attending a good JC and getting grades at least good enough to ensure admission to the highly subsidized local universities, if not secure a taxpayer-funded ride to the Ivy schools. I even gave her my extensive collection of college admissions guides – yes, I was that insane about it.

Continued…

Posted in Bildungsroman, Education, Singapore.

4 comments

By qui tacet – January 22, 2009