Yahoo under fire

Yahoo's been besieged since it coughed up the identity of an email user at the request of the Chinese government. The user was ID'd as journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in prision for emailing the government's plan to restrict media coverage around the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Last week a Chinese dissident in Beijing, Liu Xiaobo, blasted Yahoo in an open letter to Yahoo founder Jerry Yang. From the Taipei Times:

"I must tell you that my indignation at and contempt for you and your company are not a bit less than my indignation at and contempt for the Communist regime," Liu wrote, according to a translated version of the letter appearing on the Web site of the China Information Center (cicus.org), a news and research clearinghouse based in Fairfax, Virginia.

"Profit makes you dull in morality," Liu's lengthy and scathing message continued. "Did it ever occur to you that it is a shame for you to be considered a traitor to your customer Shi Tao?"

Yahoo, of course, says it's just abiding by the laws of the countries it operates in. But here's an interesting question.

"What if local law required Yahoo to cooperate in strictly separating the races?" asked Max Boot, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, in a widely linked essay for the Los Angeles Times. "Or the rounding up and extermination of a certain race? Or the stoning of homosexuals?"

Bird flu halts global economy?

Here's a scary thought for all those business folks who zip across the Pacific to do business in China: the borders may shut if the bird flu spreads, according to the Shanghai Daily.

"IF a human is infected with the bird flu in China, the country will decide whether or not to close its borders in line with World Health Organization regulations and international practices, a health official said yesterday.

Speaking at a news conference in Beijing yesterday afternoon, Chen Xianyi, director of the Health Ministry's contingency office, said no humans have been infected with the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus on the Chinese mainland to date.

He also said bird flu outbreaks in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hunan and Anhui provinces have been brought under control.

"As to whether we will close our borders, this will be decided in line with international practices and the relevant rules and regulations of the WHO," said Chen."

HanYu -- The new international language?

I'm working on a story about the huge spike in demand for Chinese language courses -- for adults and children. UC Berkeley turns away more than one hundred students each fall for its Mandarin courses because there's not enough space. They've also created a Chinese Minor because students asked for it. Meanwhile, the College Board, which administer standardized testings for high schoolers, plans to offer an Advanced Placement test in Chinese in 2007.

Are you taking a Chinese language course? Drop me an email. kha@mercurynews.com

Xiexie.

By the way, it takes only 18 years to master Chinese, according to Berkeley.

Zaijian Beijing!

Greetings from Silicon Valley. I left Beijing early Saturday morning, having slept all of half an hour. I was crazed for time the last few days, so I'll continue to write about some of my experiences in Beijing. (I was within 20 minutes of Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City but never managed to get there.)

In Beijing, I had to buy a SIM card to get a local telephone number. I was given a binder of telephone numbers to choose from. I haphazardly pointed to one -- but my local friends intervened and suggested others. Their choices were better, they explained, because the numbers were "good" -- more auspicious. They all contained the numbers eight, which in Cantonese is similar to "fortune" and six, similar to "luck" in Mandarin.

The numbers are so coveted you have to pay extra for them, as much as $45 U.S. -- nearly twice what the SIM cost. You also pay extra for easier-to-remember numbers. Sensing I'd have trouble getting my company to pay for good fortune, I chose a standard number. It has two 6s in it. A third 6 would assure lots of fortune but hell to pay.

The pliable bag length fish...

I do have to give Chinese folks some credit: I've encountered more people here who speak English than in Tokyo. But with one billion people, you'd think as much. When I rented a cell phone at the airport, the service woman could not speak or understand one word of English. She relied on an electronic translation dictionary, which spit out completely meaningless sentences. (After 40 painful minutes, I managed to rent a phone). From what I've seen around town on billboards and signs, the electronic translation device is popular. Some examples:

A huge billboard advertising either Marriot hotels or long-term apartments shows a woman in a business suit in a hotel bedroom setting. The copy reads: "Renewed. Refreshed. Refurbished."

An ad in my hotel elevator entices readers to a restaurant offering "pliable bag length fish." The picture shows miniature eel-like creatures.

This is my favorite: "Pulling down bakes traditional state banquet well-known dish on the pig's head." Sounds yummilicious.

Many entrepreneurs have complained that though employees may read and write English perfectly, they can hardly carry on a conversation. I used a friend's office to work the other night. I turned to the only person around and asked if he spoke English. "No," he said. I asked anyways and pointed to my watch: "What time does the office close?" He said something in Mandarin; I told him I didn't understand. He grabbed my pen and scribbled this: "If you don't leave, they will not lock the door."

Hold your breath

I woke up at 4 a.m. to catch a flight to Beijing. I slept most of the way there and when I woke up, couldn't believe what was outside the plane window. Pea soup. A yellow-green haze that enveloped the metropolis below as far as I could see. The only clear piece of the sky was a singular blue line along the horizon, like the lid of a bubble. But somehow, the haze crept above that too.

I lived in Los Angeles, so I thought I knew what bad smog was. But the worst LA smog day doesn't come even close to what's in Beijing everyday. It's like living in fog everyday. Locals say when it gets really bad, you can't see buildings across the highway.

No wonder. Beijing's traffic is the worst in the country. It took me 40 minutes to get to a hotel that's maybe a mile away. Never thought I'd miss LA's freeways. 

How's your mother? And your father?

These were two super nice guys I met on the train back from Hangzhou. On the left is Thomas, a Hong Kong native who works for a real estate firm. Mr. Zhang is a manager at a company that makes baby food.

Mr. Zhang, who sat next to me, saw that I was scribbling Chinese characters and initiated a conversation. With my very, very limited Mandarin, it didn't get much further beyond sharing about our family and work lives, where we live and what I was doing in China. But then Thomas took off his headphones and translated. They both served as great Chinese language instructors during the two-hour ride.

Turns out both of them are fairly happy with their lives. Thomas wants more freedom to information but Mr. Zhang, who is married with a teen daughter, says things are much better now than when he was growing up. He says he doesn't mind getting information that's been pre-filtered. Echoing a sentiment I've heard from many local Chinese, he said: "As long as the economy grows stronger, I don't concern myself with the rest." 

OFFline bloggers

Around Hangzhou's lake, groups of mostly old men gather in circles. Usually one held court while the others listened. According to a local, this is a favorite pasttime of retirees, who congregate in public to talk about government affairs and politics.

I put my digital camera over my head to take this shot. Unfortunately, the flash went off, immediately turning the group's attention to me. They started yelling and shouting. My companion, Yangbin, assured them I was an out-of-towner who meant no harm. He said they were concerned I might be an undercover cop. A real scary-looking one. 

Doesn't get more scenic than this

It's a postcard, isn't it? This is the tourist attraction in Hangzhou, about a 2-hour train ride from Shanghai. It snakes all around one side of the city. With only 4 million plus people, it's considered a medium-sized city.

Though Hangzhou has attracted mostly tourists to its scenic lakes, it's trying to develop a high-tech park of sorts. A number of tech companies are headquartered or have facilities here, including Nokia and Alibaba. It's the first and only city in China that's totally wired for broadband (at least all the homes in the metro area). And the government foot the bill, bringing in 6,000 workers to wire 600,000 homes in just a few months.

I came out to Hangzhou to meet Yangbin Wang, a former Silicon Valleyite who's now on his third start-up in China (the first was acquired). Yangbin's firm, Vobile, provides a Direct TV/TIVO service -- without the satellite, using the broadband connections. He says it's really popular, especially among older retirees who use the service to play mah jong on their TVs. 

Making way for a shopping mall

Shanghai Diaries blogger Dan Washburn and I took a stroll through the alley homes right behind Xintiandi. When the owner, Mr. Hua, asked me what I was doing taking fotos of his home (either that or he was cussing me out), I knew only enough Mandarin to reply: "I'm an American.'' To which he replied, "But you look Chinese." I told him that my father "is a little Chinese" and "I'm a little Chinese." He laughed, probably at my feeble attempt at Mandarin -- and invited us in.

From the alley, you walk into a patio-like room that serves as the foyer, kitchen and shower. The shower is a rigged plastic sprinkler with a hose you attach to the kitchen faucet. (You can see the blue shower and tubes behind Mrs. Liu). That leads to their main room, cramped and smaller than some walk-in closets I've seen in Silicon Valley. This room is their living room/bedroom/dining room. There were stairs to the side, which leads up into a very dark space that is the couple's bedroom.

Dan got this from them: Mr. Hua sells fish at the market during the day. From 5:30 pm to 7:30 am he works a second job at the DKD dance bar popular with expats, either as a bouncer or someone who keeps an "eye on the wine." He works day and night to earn $300 a month.

The government is tearing down his home next. But get this, they're supposedly paying him $250,000 USD for it. Neither Dan nor I could believe they'd compensate him so much, but he even wrote down the exact numbers for us. With the money, he's planning to buy a nearby apartment -- with a toilet -- for $150,000. If we're understanding him right, his hefty compensation is highly unusual since the government has been known to offer very, very little in return for land they seize.

Most of the 100 neighbors in the neighborhood have moved out. Mr. Hua is trying to stick it out as long as he can. The home has been in his family for the last 50 years.

Whose Shanghai?

One block away from the trendy Xintiandi shopping center are old alley homes that are being razed to make way for Xintiandi Two. The homes have been dismantled and the doors, posts, old walls are for sale. (The steel structure just behind the ruins is part of the Xintiandi complex.)

Shanghaing it

I arrived in Shanghai days ago with a hectic schedule, averaging 3-4 meetings a day. I've scheduled a dinner meeting every night, so by the time I get back to my hotel room, I'm pretty wiped. But I plan to be blogging daily again.

One of the stories I'm pursuing here is about the difficulties of doing business in China. One big problem is that workers don't feel empowered to make decisions on their own -- and that can can adversely affect how they perform in the workplace as well as customer service. I found some good examples my first night.

When I checked into the hotel, I was told my room wasn't ready and they would send a maid up to prepare it. I asked to stash my bags there and have the maid work around them. Minutes later, I went upstairs and the room looked clean, bed made, fresh towels on rack. Shortly after a maid came up and was quite confused why she'd been summoned to clean a room that had already been made up. With my month's worth of Mandarin, I tried to explain to her that the room looked clean and she didn't have to do it again. She insisted anyway--and remade the bed, pulling apart the new sheets to put on newer sheets!

At lunch, I ordered tea before we actually ordered our food. We ate from a fixed-menu that includes tea or coffee. I asked if they could count the tea I had already ordered and drunk as the tea from the fixed menu. The waiter waved his hands no and to underscore the point, shook his head too, as if it was the most ridiculous request. Later, I asked for more bread and out came the hands and bobbing head again.

Couldn't they have just charged me more for the bread? My companion, who is Chinese, said that would have required going to a supervisor for approval. And then I'd probably be talking to the hand anyway.

Fruits you'll never find at Safeway

This lovely plate of fruit has been my breakfast every morning in Manila. The red hairy things are rambutan, which are like lychees, but bigger and a little tart. Below them are mangoes, which are plentiful and are available year round. The yellow fruits on the left are jackfruit, a big favorite of mine. You can get them canned in the States, but they lose their fragrant flavor. They make great milkshaes. And on the white and black-seeded wedges are dragon fruit, Southeast Asia's version of a kiwi. 

The funny thing about Vietnamese names

One of the stories I'm writing in the Philippines is about a community of 2,000 Vietnamese who have been living on the archipelago without any legal status -- for the last 17 years. Many are being resettled to the U.S. and volunteers are working in Manila to help as many get as out as possible.

They're doing lots of interviews with the asylum seekers to get their personal stories and family histories, including mapping family trees.
They shared with me some hilarious stories about names.

Most Vietnamese parents choose their children's names very carefully to bring good luck and harmony to their family. Many select names that they hope their child will live up to, such as Thanh (accomplished) or Hung (heroic, strong). The crude translation for my name, Kieu Oanh, is pretty bird.

On the other hand, peasants, the unimaginative and folks without much education sometimes give their kids really simple names after everyday objects and things. Some do so to ward off evil spirits too.

One guy's name is Nhay, or "jump." His wife, Giay -- "rope."

Another fellow came in and filled out his family tree. His grandparents had 11 kids and they named the kids -- I kid you not -- A, B, C, D, E, F, G....His father, in turn, named his kids One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven. Imagine a family gathering, kinda like playing battleship. C-4!

I'll take the Gap T-shirt and, oh, that painting too

Flipping through the newspaper for local events, I spotted a photo exhibition by local photographers called My Manila. When the taxi dropped my friend and I at the address for the exhibition, I thought he'd sent us to the wrong place. It was a shopping mall. We went inside and sure enough, red cubes displaying the fotos were scattered throughout one mall entrance. And the crowd that had gathered were young, teenagers even. Couples held hands as they strolled through the cubes. Little kids with their parents were pointing at the fotos.

My friend Tita says mall art is a common thing in some of the big malls. It was really cool, without pretension -- and enjoyed by folks who probably would never go to a gallery. Now, if they'd only had a cash register nearby where you could ring up the art... 

No hope for the Philippines?

The Philippines doesn't seem to be in good shape by any measure. Now that I'm nearing the end of my stay here, I've been able to talk to lots of folks about it, from senators to journalists to taxi drivers to store owners. Hope is in very short supply around here.

Any discussion of the current state of the Philippines always leads to one thing: corruption. "The No. 1 problem in the Philippines isn't poverty," says my friend Tita Valderama, who writes about politics and government for the People's Journal. "Our biggest problem is corruption."

In fact, the Philipines is the second-most corrupt nation in Asia, according to various studies. Nearly everyone is on the take, with a backlog of 2,000 anti-graft cases in the courts. GMA's husand and family have been accused of taking illegal jueteng gambling money. Average Filipinos are shaken down everyday when they run a traffic light or apply for a driver's license.

My journalist friend, Tita, says she's often offered thick envelopes of cash to write or not write certain stories. Many journalists take them.

Second, everyone agrees the political situation in the Philippines is whacked. And it's been that way for a very long time. The current president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (or "GMA"), has been embrolied in scandal the last few months since the Garci tape turned up, in which she purpotedly tells an election officer in a phone conversation that she wants to lead by 1 million votes in the 2004 presidential election and he says he'll "force it." She denies wrongdoing but has acknowledged that it was a "lapse in judgement" for her to phone an official on the Commission on Elections, but that the Garci tapes were doctored to make her look bad.

Since then, the opposition has unsuccessfully tried to impeach her and she's doing everything she can to fight them off. There are rumors and stories everyday in the paper that she might declare martial law. Last week's spy case story, in which a Filipino-American FBI analyst allegedly stole files pertaining to the Philippines and sent them to GMA opponents, is on the front page everyday. GMA is using it to vindicate herself, calling on the US to reveal which opposition members received the stolen files.

Everytime I ask folks who live here what they think of the situation, everyone shakes their head or clucks their tongue. One taxi driver, Ray, astutely puts it: "The problem isn't this or that administration. It's the character of our government. We need consitutional change."

The opposition has been unable to succesfully harness a people power movement like the one that kicked former President Joseph Estrada, whom Arroyo succeedded. But now there's a movement afoot by the country's elite thinkers and academics--Black and White Movement --which is attempting to galvanize the apathetic middle class into action, as well as civil society organizations. Cielito Habito is a Black and White leader. He's also one of the country's preeminent economists, having served under two presidents. "When it comes to the truth, there's no gray area. It's black and white," he tells me from his office at Ateneo University, where he chairs the Center for Economic Research and Development. "She cheated. We can't just turn a blind eye to that. "

Habito's movement wants Arroyo to step down, and for a transitional government headed by Gloria's VP to call for new elections. He supports former ex-President Corazon Aquino. And therein lies a problem too: the same names always pop up. No one's talking about real change.

Exciting hobbit news...

This just in...
Here's evidence that Hobbits actually lived among us at one time.

More Flores 'Hobbits' described

Unlike modern humans, H. floresiensis has little in the way of a chin

Scientists have discovered more remains of the strange, small people that once lived on Flores island, Indonesia.

The announcement last year detailing a single, partial skeleton caused a sensation when it was claimed to be a human species new to science.

Homo floresiensis, as it was called, was little more than a metre tall and lived 18,000 years ago.

Now, the same team tells Nature journal it has skeletal remains from at least nine of the "Hobbit-like" individuals.

The Hobbit House

Last time I was in Manila, my American colleagues told me about the Hobbit House, pitched to me as a bar staffed by little people. I didn't want to go because it seemed exploitative but also because it sounded plain weird.

But since this blog attempts to shed light on weird things, I shoved my reservation aside (anything for you, dear reader.) For this blog entry, puns would be in tall order...bah-dah-bing..but I'll make that my first and last.

Push your way through the really tight front door of the Hobbit House and you walk into cavernous tavern. On the outskirts of the red-light district, the bar attracts a good crowd of tourists usually, but many locals hang there too. Nearly all of the staff are little people, most standing in at 3 feet.

I got to talking to some of the staff, but then felt really ackward because I wasn't sure of the appropriate way to describe them. So I asked and got a primer. "Dwarves" is a big no-no. In fact, people of this size are referred to as anonu in Tagalog, which translates as "dwarf" -- and they hate the term. "You already see my height. I know my height. Why rub it in?" explains Mhe Ann Crisostomo, 24. "Midgets" is okay, "little people" is fine too. But most, like Crisostomo, prefer "hobbit." For me, hobbits conjure people with large, pointy ears and hairy feet. Midgets are the ones rednecks throw across the room in weird bars Down Under. I prefer "little people."

Turns out the founder of the place, Jim Turner, an Irish-American Peace Corps hippie who came to the Philippines and never left, enjoyed reading Tolkien while getting high on good dope. And one smoke-filled evening, and jobless, he came up with the idea. That was in 1973. He thinks at least 100 little people have worked from him over the three decades, which makes him the single largest employer of little people in the Philippines. "If people think it's exploitation, they should come down and see for themselves," says Turner.

And he was right. It didn't feel exploitative at all, though I did flash some awkward smiles to the staff my first few minutes there. There are no weird costumes, no hairy feet just booze and live music. Folk music even--Cat Stevens and other 1970s-era songs. After about 15 minutes, it begins to feel like any other bar.

The Hobbit House prides itself on being the only restaurant in the world that's owned, managed and staffed by "Hobbits." Turner said he doesn't own the bar anymore. All the workers are stake-holders. They opened a second bar three months ago in a province 1 1/2 hour away.

The folks I spoke to said the job offered them gainful employment (a rare thing in the Philippines where unemployment is around 11 %) and a sense of community. Many live upstairs and next door; a few marry, like Crisostomo's parents.

And the staff has cashed in on the Hobbit mystique. Nearly all of them have been in commericals, TV and films. Crisostomo, herself, has been in more than a dozen shows and films. In the latest, she plays a member of a gang of thieves who break into people's homes. Asked if that casts a bad image of little people, she shrugged, "It's very good money."

The Sweet Smell of Grime

It's been raining on and off since I've gotten here. Sometimes just light sprinkles that take the edge off the heat. Sometimes torrential downpours that leave you sopping wet--under an umbrella. I've heard the loudest thunder BOOMS in my life here. Like mighty Zeus is snapping his horse-whip across the sky.

But the thing I love most about heavy downpours is the smell afterward. The rain unearths the smell of the city; the mixture of dirt, dust and grime lingers in the air. I know it sounds disgusting. But I love it because it reminds me of the smell of Vietnam during the moonsoon rains. 

Kidnappings for ransom in Asia

This is the first reported kidnapping for ransom I've seen come out of Vietnam, from a story in the local newspaper, Thanh Nhien (Youth).

Ho Chi Minh City police rescued a six-year-old child October 9 kidnapped from outside his international school six days ago for a US$100,000 ransom. Nguyen Hoang Quoc Tuan, studying at the International School in Tan Binh District was snatched by kidnappers as he was set to board a school bus home at 4pm October 4.
Police arrested Pham Ngoc Dinh, 25 and Danh Thi Ngoc Dieu, 22 in the case, both employed as security guards at HCM City's premier shopping centre Diamond Plaza.

In Manila, of course, kidnappings of Chinese businessman or their children has become passe. Or even wealthy Filipinos. Dado Banatao, a venture capitalist at Tallwood in Silicon Valley and Filipino-American, says when he's back in the Philippines, he always wears slippers and dresses down so he's not identified as an overseas Filipino and be a target. (He also happens to be on the most successful Filipinos abroad, according to various Philippine publications.)

ZAP! You will stop surfing the Internet!

Interesting story on the BBC new site about China's first Internet addiction center. The clinic is getting an extra 200 beds next year to meet demand and new centres are due to open in other major cities like Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Dr Tao Ran, head of the clinic, said the scale of the problem in China was enormous: "Every day in China, more than 20 million youngsters go online to play games and hit the chat rooms, and that means that internet addiction among young
people is becoming a major issue here. "And it's only recently that the authorities have started to wake up to the seriousness of the problem with more articles in the papers highlighting the dangers of going online for too long," he said.

The clinic itself is part of a bigger addiction centre also
treating those hooked on alcohol or drugs. The internet addicts go on a two-week course involving medical treatment, psychological therapy, and daily workouts. The latter are a key part of the programme. Many of the men have spent every
waking moment in front of a computer screen and have never experienced regular exercise.

 

Praying for a Sale

Look closely at the foto and you'll notice on the left a guy in a white robe. That's a priest -- and he's presiding over mass. In a shopping mall. It's great strategy. If you can't get them to church, why not bring the church to them? 

White's the color

This foto was shot at a local shopping mall. The chick in white is trying to sell the chick in black on a skin whitening treatment. This mall had five such beauty centers.

Skin whitening is big business in the Philippines. That's because Filipinos, who tend to have dark brown skin coloring, have a fetish for pale skin. All drug stores carry skin whitening soaps, creams and masks. Maybe we all do want to be white...

A story behind the story

You won't see this anecdote in my upcoming story for the Mercury News about the Vietnamese refugees who are here in the Philippines. Be warned: it's a toilet story.

Last night, I went to visit a Vietnamese man who escaped Vietnam and ended up in the Philippines in 1989. For a variety of reasons, he hasn't been able to qualify for resettlement as a refugee in the United States. He desperately wants to join his sisters and mother in San Jose. Now, there's a special humanitarian program that was pushed through by legislators such as Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren that will bring over most of the 2,000 remaining Vietnamese asylum seekers. Because Phuoc Nguyen married a Filipino woman, he won't be able to qualify for the program.

Phuoc, his Filipino wife, Anita Acol, and their two young children live in a suburb outside of metro Manila. It takes me nearly an hour and a half, mostly sitting in traffic, to get to their house. It's a cramped two bedroom home with no running water. We get to talking about the house and his two kids, who are sleeping upstairs. He mentions a leaky roof. I ask to use their restroom. He takes me upstairs, shows me a bedroom with the sleeping children. I don't see a bathroom anywhere, but spot a door at one end, so I point to it and he nods. He turns on a light. It's their balcony.

No toilet, but there's a small hole in the balcony floor. There's a garden hose in it. "I knew they were poor, but this is really bad," I think, undoing my belt. I'm ready to pull down my pants and squat over the hole. I look at the hole again with suspicion. It's not big enough if you have to do #2. Just then, the door swings open. "Do you need help?" he asks. I'm afraid I'll insult him or hurt his feelings. "Um...this is where you pee?" He waves his hands wildly and shakes his head. "No, no!'' He apologizes profusely. The neighbors downstairs would be as relieved as I am if they only knew.

Why pay for a steam room when you can be in Manila?

It's 90 degrees outside -- with 90 percent humidity. It's like breathing through a wet towel on your face. It amazes me that people date in this weather. But, hey, I'm not bitchin'.

This is my second trip to the Philippines. I was here last in May, on a fellowship through the Asia Foundation. I saw so many interesting stories that I decided to come back. Flying into Manila Airport, you can quickly sum up the Philippine economy by looking out the airplane window -- slum housing abuts the landing strip and beyond that the high-rises of the luxe Makati district. Every Filipino I talk too despairs about the economy. They say the poor are getting poorer and never before has the disparity gap been wider.

One by-product of the comatose economy: You get excellent, attentive service. Because labor is so cheap here -- minimum wage is the equivalent of $4.93 A DAY , and many don't even get that -- restaurants and hotels teem with staff. I'm staying at a nice Western hotel. When I leave my room in the morning, I'm greeted by a stream of "Good morning maam." Which makes me feel really old. But which also means I have to be nice and cheerful back. And I'm used to snarling until about noon.

This morning, I had to run out for an early appointment, so I took a banana from the plate in my hotel room. I was looking forward to eating the fragrant mango in the evening. When I came back, the mango was gone, replaced by two bananas next to this note:

"We have noticed your fondness for a particular fruit, and accordingly have taken the liberty of personalizing your fruit basket."

Can there be such a thing as too much good service?

We all want to be white??

All the glitzy stores at the Taipei Airport beckon to shoppers with huge ads of beautiful models, like this one at the Pianegonda shop selling very expensive accessories. Here's a disconnect: 90 percent of the faces I saw at the Taipei airport were Asian--and yet all the ads featured models who are white. What gives? From Dior to even Shiseido, white faces are peddling makeup and clothes that supposedly would look good on me -- an Asian woman?

Are advertisers clued in on the secret--that we all harbor white envy? Or can't they get a clue? I for one know that a lot of things that look good on a white woman will NOT look good on me, especially makeup and even certain fabric colors.

That's why I applaud Mac, whose enlightened ad in the Taipei Airport features an Asian woman. And she even looks chic (you know, despite her high cheekbones and single-lid eyes!)

Is it a case of advertisers imposing Western asthetics or are they onto something? Across Asia, women are getting cosmetic surgery to make their skins paler, eyes look rounder with coveted double eye-lids and higher noses -- all designed to make the person look like a white Westerner.

There seems to be a shifting undercurrent. Japanese for years have been swayed by Hollywood movie stars and celebrities peddling Japanese goods. (Check out this funny site making fun of celebs in Japanese ads.) But interestingly, as a recent Los Angeles Times story by Bruce Wallace points out--white faces are losing their appeal. Where once stars such as Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Meg Ryan got paid as much as $3 million to push cigarettes, instant noodles and cars,
Japan is undergoing a "cultural watershed, in which Japanese audiences increasingly embrace stars and celebrities from Asia instead of the West.''

Hallelujah! A big reason for the change is a trend I recently wrote about: Korean cool.

Japan's love affair with Korean actors such as Yon-sama (of Winter Sonata fame) and Korean pop idols is creating a demand for Asian models. Wallace, the reporter, gets this quote from a Japanese ad exec, Tomoko Kamiguchi of Dentsu Casting and Entertainment:

"The Japanese market has changed. We have accepted Asian talent. After 'Sonata,' we no longer have an allergy to Asia."

Ew, your single eye-lid is giving me hives.

Who's a missionary?

I first became aware of Mormon missionaries during my year studying abroad in Spain. I would visit really small towns up and down Spain and would run into Mormon boys in their crisp white shirts in the unlikeliest places. I remember speaking to one who was nearing the end of his two-year mission; he was bummed that he hadn't convinced a single Spaniard to leave the Catholic Church. The Spaniards made fun of the Mormons, who were usually spotted around my little town of Alcala de Henares on bicycles. They had an acronym for them: OVNIS, Spanish for Unidentified Flying Objects.

I haven't seen many OVNIS in San Jose, but at the Taiwan Airport, I was surrounded: 40 of them were on my flight to Manila. Turns out they had just finished their training in Utah and would be scattered all over the Philippines for the next two years. I started talking to them and hence, the foto.

Young, idealistic and clean-cut, they were between 19 and 22. Most had deferred college to go on their missions. Elder Mikel Nelson, who was turning 20 a few days after his arrival in the Philippines, said he had come to "share his happiness" with Filipinos. His bags contained mostly white shirts. And that suit they're wearing? They always have to wear suits when they are travelling. Once they get to Manila, it goes straight into a clothes bag, which gets put in a closet at the main processing center and it stays there until the day they leave the Philippines in 2007.

I do have to give it up to the guys: when was the last time you saw 19- and 2o-year olds who were passionate about anything but the material world.

I blog therefore I am

SOMEWHERE OVER THE PACIFIC OCEAN--Appropriately, I'm writing my first blog entry from the bowels of a plane, en route to Asia. Welcome to OANHderlust.

I'm the Asia Correspondent for the San Jose Mercury News. My job is to explore the rich connections between Asia and the California Bay Area. I'm based in San Jose, but am hoping to get to Asia once a quarter. I'm on my first trip, to the Philippines and China.

Though I've written plenty of stories about blogging, this is my first blog. Why? Cuz I never thought I had much to say. But the more I think about it, I realize that my job affords me access most people don't get. In a day, I might be out in East San Jose talking to a paletero (Mexican ice cream vendor who walks the neighborhoods) about his undocumented status, then onto an interview with Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren and an event where Walden venture capitalist Lip-Bu Tan and I chat about his investments in China.

At OANHderlust, I take you along to explore with me. Though the blog has my name in it, it's not a blog about me, me, me--but the adventures, people and ideas I encounter. Let me take you places you've never been, real and in your head.