Gotcha day

Yesterday was "gotcha day" for our daughter Elizabeth, meaning that three years ago yesterday we picked her up in not-so-beautiful Nanning.

In her honor, a piece from Jesse Walker at reason on the policies that indirectly led to our adoption.

Shanghai and PISA

Several people sent me links to articles about Shanghai's performance on the PISA tests, such as this one from the Christian Science Monitor.

Some thoughts:

1. My Michigan colleague Kevin Miller, who is cited extensively in the article, is a very cool guy. We once ended up stuck at Reagan airport in DC for several hours. I don't know about Kevin, but it was by far the most interesting and enjoyable flight delay I ever had.

2. I am surprised that there was no mention of cheating in the article, not in the sense of the students who took the test cheating on it but rather via strategic manipulation of who showed up on test days. People raised under communism understand how to game performance measures even better than do US educators, whose manipulation of performance measures such as those in the No Child Left Behind Act is well documented.

3. It continues to amaze me how little real knowledge we have about how to educate. That has started to change in recent years with improved research designs but only over the screaming and flailing opposition of many educators and professors of education.

On trade with China

A nice rant on China-bashing.

The author is a bit less optimistic about China than I am - I think people almost always buy freedom and democracy as they get richer. I think he is particularly helpful in trying to think about the issue from the Chinese perspective.

It is really disappointing to see the first African-American president presiding over what is essentially a whole lot of racist China-bashing by people in his party and its enthusiasts in the media. At the same time, the Republicans are just as bad on China and worse on Mexico and Mexicans. In sum, our political class is a national embarrassment. But then what else is new?

On China and the election

I am pretty disappointed by ads like this one from the people at Citizens Against Government Waste and this one from Washington State US Senate candidate Patty Murray. Any one who watches television - even just football - has seen dozens like them.

I'll be glad when the election is over and all the China-bashing political ads, which manage to combine racism and fear-mongering with ignorance of basic economics, come to a close.

In my view, these sorts of ads represent a real embarrassment, both to those who fund and produce them and to the nation as a whole. Ads like these would not make it outside the production process if they did not engender the reactions their producers hope for.

The economic growth that has come to China, India, Mexico and many other developing countries in recent decades has done more to eliminate poverty and improve human welfare than ten thousand blow-dried politicians peddling hope, change, or a return to some non-existent past. We should be celebrating this amazing growth, not blaming it for problems we brought on ourselves.

Yuan or Renminbi?

The BBC sorts out the name of the Chinese currency, which is something I had wondered about ever since I went to Beijing for a conference a few years ago.

Via Marginal Revolution

A more entertaining cultural revolution

The Guardian reports that China is opening its first sex theme park, though I'll confess that the description given in the article does not make it sounds like much fun. What sort of sex theme park lacks strip clubs (of all flavors, of course) and high end massage parlors?

Oh, and you can learn about Jeju Loveland, the Korean sex park mentioned in the Guardian piece, here. It looks like more fun than the Chinese park, but still, one could do better.

Hat tip: marginal revolution

Time to hire a new sinologist

The Telegraph summary says it all:

A respected German scientific magazine has been embarrassed to discover it printed a Chinese-language advertisement for "jade-like girls" and "coquettish and enchanting housewives" across its front cover.

It thought the ad was classical Chinese poetry.

For those who prefer their linguistic confusion in the other direction, the article points to this website featuring mangled English in China.

Hat tip: Charlie Brown

Update on Beijing's Spiritual Civilization Construction Commission

The update on Beijing's "long march" toward civility from the Globe and Mail (Canada's NYT analogue in ways both good and not so good) is here.

My favorite bit is that Chinese people are still allowed to use "comrade" with visitors from socialist countries. Does that mean France? It also raises the question of whether socialists from other countries should refer to someone from China as "comrade". China is socialist in the sense that the one party in the one party state is called the "communist" party, but you would be hard pressed to find a place anywhere on earth where more people will try to sell you more things more enthusiastically than in China.

Hat tip: Christine Gribowski

Trade with China

I recently received this viral email from a friend:

"Are we Americans as dumb as we appear --- or --- is it that we just do not think? While the Chinese, knowingly and intentionally, export inferior and even toxic products and dangerous toys and goods to be sold in American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Bush Administration for perceived errors. Yet 70% of Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended. Well, duh..why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges? SIMPLY DO IT YOURSELF, AMERICA!! Simply look on the bottom of ev ery product you buy, and if it says 'Made in China' or 'PRC' (and that now includes Ho ng Kong), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without. Who needs plastic eggs to celebrate Easter? If you must have eggs, use real ones and benefit some American farmer. Easter is just an example, the point is.. do not wait for the government to act. Just go ahead and assume control on your own. THINK ABOUT THIS If 200 million Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that's a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favor...fast!! The downside? Some American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockp iles of inventory. Wahhhhhhhhhhhh The solution ? Let's give them fair warning and send our own message. Most of the people who have been reading about this matter are planning on implementing this on June 4, and continue it until July 4. That is only one month of trading losses, but it will hit the Chinese for 1/12th of the total, or 8%, of their American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it. Remember, June 4 to July 4. EVEN BETTER. . . START NOW.Send this to everybody you know.Show them we are Americans and NOBODY can take us for granted.If we can't live without cheap Chinese goods for one month out of our lives, WE DESERVE WHAT WE GET!Pass it on, America"

It is hard to know where to start with this. First, China is full of poor people. Buying things from China helps make them less poor. Poor people in China are much worse off, on average, than poor people in the US. Thus, buying goods from China is doing good.

Second, why should we care more about people who live outside some arbitrary political boundary called the US border than about people who live inside it? This seems to me, to be blunt, just morally wrong.

Third, it is certainly true that there is much to dislike in China's treatment of Tibet and in their domestic policy. At the same time, there is much to dislike in the way France behaves as well, and I suspect that the same author is not suggesting that we boycott the French, or the Russians, or basically every country in Africa or any other country whose policy leaves something to be desired. We should beware of glass houses here as well. Our own foreign policy is nothing to be particularly proud of.

Fourth, trade is good. Makes people better off. Comparative advantage, etc.

Sigh.

Exercise advice from China

Hat tip: Ye Zhang

My favorite signs from China

The picture above is from near the White Swan hotel in Guangzhou. We stayed there during the second week of our journey to pick up our adopted daughter.

The picture below is from one of the Ming tombs outside Beijing, which I visited on an earlier trip for a Global Development Network conference. The fifth instruction is the best one.