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Category Archives: East Asia

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.

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Posted in Korea - Pyongyang Diaries.

4 comments

By qui tacet – February 28, 2010
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.

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Posted in China Trip, Development.

1 comment

By qui tacet – September 19, 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.

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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.*

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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.

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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.

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

3 comments

By qui tacet – June 20, 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!

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Posted in China Trip, Development.

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By qui tacet – June 6, 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.

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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.

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Posted in China Trip, Development.

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By qui tacet – March 3, 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.

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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:

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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.

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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.

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Posted in Bildungsroman, Education, Singapore.

4 comments

By qui tacet – January 22, 2009
Stories from my Grandmothers

(Sun Yat-Sen memorial – Zhongshan, Guangdong) Searching for my heritage… Trans: All that is under heaven belongs to the people.

While in Singapore I had the chance to visit my grandmothers, who I hadn’t seen for a long while. It was during my study of modern Chinese history last year that I realized I knew very little about my grandparents’ past. There is so much of local history that I never learned, because I had opted for a more Western-centric curriculum during A-levels. I suppose I had been more interested in the future back then, but it was partly due to the generational language barrier. After a summer in China my Mandarin has much improved, though not as much as I would have liked it to, but sufficient for most purposes. So I decided to ask about their past.

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Posted in China, Singapore.

1 comment

By qui tacet – January 18, 2009
Finance status hierarchy, Singapore style

(Hong Kong new territories) HDBs are actually pretty nice in comparison.

While in Singapore, I met a friend (local grad) who had recently got a job at a bank, which is quite impressive in this economic climate. However, she does not like it very much, and is looking for a better one – good luck. When I asked her why, she gave me this analogy: “IBD is Orchard Road, PWM is Bukit Timah, and retail banking is HDB.” I guess the prestige-consciousness and status hierarchy of the financial industry has been localized, though I suppose PE isn’t on the radar yet.

Posted in Business, Singapore.

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By qui tacet – January 15, 2009
Game theory and the Beijing subway

(Beijing subway) Lost in an ocean of people…

Despite the frequent exhortations of station attendants to “先下后上” (let passengers get off before you board) and to respect “中华人民传统美德” (traditional Chinese values), taking the Beijing subway at peak hours is like an epic battle.

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Posted in China Trip, Economics.

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By qui tacet – January 5, 2009
Beijing’s dogs and the one child policy

(Beijing) Nick loves dogs!

Despite the ‘one dog policy’, Beijingers still have a lot of dogs. There must be at least a million small dogs in the city – maybe there are more dogs than kids. I walk by dozens every day on my way to work, and usually none of them are leashed. They just roam around while the owner walks behind. You have to be careful because they leave plenty of deposits everywhere (surprising for their size), and dog owners don’t seem to pick up after.

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Posted in China Trip, Development.

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By qui tacet – January 3, 2009
Pyongyang Diaries: Why I went

(Arirang Mass Games, Pyongyang) I wonder what they thought seeing all these fat Chinese tourists.

I try to avoid telling my Korean friends in school that I went to the North, because they always look at me strangely and ask why I would ever want to go there. I don’t blame them – some have family histories and bad memories of the place. The immediate assumption is that I’m some kind of sick tourist that delights in seeing the suffering of others, or worse, that I perpetuate it. But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

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Posted in Development, Korea - Pyongyang Diaries, Politics.

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By qui tacet – January 1, 2009
Practical Languages

(Yonghegong road, Beijing) Actually, I prefer menus with pictures.

I had a conversation with an entrepreneur friend who told me he had hired a Beida grad to join his AI-development team, and I jested that his Mandarin must be much better than mine to have cross-lingual collaboration, to which he replied that he was also learning Spanish. When I asked him why Spanish, he proceeded to list languages in order of the number of speakers worldwide.

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Posted in Business, China Trip, Economics.

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By qui tacet – December 31, 2008
The backdoor to Zhongnanhai

(Zhongnanhai, Beijing) The red sign reads “Long live the great Chinese Communist Party”. A similar sign on the other side reads “Long live the undefeated Mao Zedong theory”

When I was in Washington DC last summer, I really wanted to join a White House tour, but it never materialized – our internship coordinator put one together before I had joined the think-tank. Instead I got to see the Capitol and various congressional buildings through the course of the summer. The closest I got to the White House was with all the other tourists on the South side of the park, peering through the fence, trying to identify which little speck in the distance was the oval office.

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Posted in China Trip, College Life.

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By qui tacet – December 23, 2008
J-dramas, politics, and industry

Yes, once again it’s my not-so-secret obsession… my addiction to soap operas. According to the girl next door, watching dramas has been very unhealthy for my psychological well-being, and I’m inclined to agree. So you may have noticed that my drama consumption has been somewhat reduced of late. Pity I just can’t give them up for good. Here is what I’ve been watching:

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Posted in Japan, Korea, TV Dramas.

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By qui tacet – November 20, 2008
Vote for Wokai in the Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition

Dear friends, I need a five minute favor.

The nonprofit I volunteer with, Wokai microfinance, has been selected as a finalist in the Youth Social Entrepreneur Competition on Changemakers.net. The final round is decided by online voting. It takes about five minutes to register and vote, and you can do this here, but those five minutes can change the world for us. And if you could get your network to do it too, that would be AMAZING!

Read on for why you should do this:

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Posted in China, Development.

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By qui tacet – November 8, 2008
Globalization and the Korean Economy

No, not that Korean economy. The other one. (Pyongyang railway station)

I’ve received some e-mail (fewer than anticipated) asking whether I am still alive, so let this allay your concerns. Some of what has kept me busy since term started are my several writing commitments. One of which is for the Korea Times, in which my essay on globalization, trade and finance has been published in the Nov 1st edition. You can read it here.

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Posted in Economics, Essays & Writing, Korea.

4 comments

By qui tacet – October 31, 2008
Dragon 100 2008

Celebrating my arrival! (Hong Kong)

Someone somewhere has made a terrible mistake: Somehow I have been numbered among the hundred “young Chinese leaders”.

Congratulations! You have been selected as a delegate for the Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders Forum 2008! The Dragon 100 Young Chinese Leaders Forum 2008, will take place in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta Region in Mainland China, 22-30 August 2008, where 100 delegates worldwide would register to our hotel in Hong Kong on 21 August 2008.

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Posted in China Trip, College Life.

3 comments

By qui tacet – July 6, 2008