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On Feb. 11th at the TIBE 2011: Book Reading with Peter Weidhaas

MattMcCabe — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 05:50:58 +0000

Category: Book Reading Event
Date and Time: Friday, February 11, 2011 from 14:00-14:30.
Event Title: “A Classic Book Thunders For Itself: German Man of the Year Peter Weidhaas Reads An Excerpt From His Memoir”
Speaker and Host : The Speaker, Chairman of the World Book Exhibition, is Peter Weidhaas, and Host is Bettina Tang.
Sponsor: The Taipei International Book Exhibition
Venue: Author Book Reading Event Area,
Hall 1, The Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) Exhibition Hall
5 Hsin-yi Road, Sec. 5, Taipei 11011, Taiwan

On Friday February 11, 2011, we proudly invite Mr. Rex How, publisher of Locus Publishing Company, to join Mr. Peter Weidhaas’s reading event at the Taipei International Book Exhibition (TIBE) 2011. The first reason is that Locus Publishing Company published the Chinese edition of “Life Before Letters.” Mr. How’s purpose is to connect writers, publishers and readers.

A further reason is that Mr. How and Mr. Weidhaas have been good friends for many years. At this auspicious time, Mr. Weidhaas has come to Taiwan to join the TIBE 2011 and Mr. How will take part in this rare event as his good friend and as a highly experienced publisher.

There will be brief instructions of Mr. How and Mr. Weidhaas and then a few questions will be asked to let the audience gain a greater understanding of their contributions and achievements in the publishing field.

After that, Peter Weidhaas’ memoir “Life Before Letters” will take center stage and there will be a short discussion related to it. Then Mr. Weidhaas will read aloud from a portion of his book.

For more information, please visit:

Maine High School Recruits Chinese Teenagers

MattMcCabe — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 16:11:35 +0000

A public school in Maine is actively recruiting students from China. Stearns High School is located in Minninocket, Maine, a remote town some 200 miles north of Boston and an hour’s drive from any shopping malls or movie theaters. Minninocket receives an average of 93 inches (236 cm.) of snow a year. Chinese students will be paying $27,000 per year for tuition, room and board and for American public schools seeking new sources of revenue, Stearns High’s move is unprecedented.

But one great concern Stearns High has is that, according to U.S. State Department rules, international students are only allowed to study at a public high school for a year, yet they can attend private schools and colleges for a full four years. Dr. Kenneth Smith, local schools superintendent, believes this is unfair and is fighting to change the law. Dr. Smith is now traveling to Beijing, Shanghai and other cities on a promotional tour and he feels Chinese teenagers will want to study at Stearns High because,

They want to learn English, and they want a college education,” he said. “If we can get them into a college here, they will have achieved their major goal.

In addition, “We’re a community full of assets,” Dr. Smith said, pointing to Mount Katahdin, Maine’s highest peak, which looms just beyond the town, and the abundant hunting, fishing and snow sport opportunities that the locals love. “There’s the beauty, No. 1, and the fresh air. And the roads are good.”

Locally-born English teacher Terry Givens also lends her support to the plan:

I don’t want to sound flip, but why not? We won’t know until we get the opportunity to know them and give them the opportunity to know us. There’s something to be said for putting ourselves out there to see if we can be the prize that’s claimed.

Beijing, City of Dog Lovers?

MattMcCabe — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 14:40:58 +0000

In Beijing, there are nearly a million dogs kept as pets. This is remarkable, especially in light of the fact that twenty years ago, there was a “no dog” policy and it reflects China’s economic rise in the world.

Under Communism, dogs played the role of either guards or herders, while the unfortunate ones wound up on someone’s dinner plate. Beijing now has dog swimming pools, dog social networks, and even BYOD (Bring Your Own Dog) movie theaters and bars! It is claimed that a woman in Xi’an bought a single dog for four million renminbi (approximately $600,000)!

Because of the increase in dog ownership, intense debates have sprung up about so many canines crowding the city. One person posting on a Beijing blog questioned the current dog craze,

The resources that you conserve from having less people, you give to dogs? This is a very serious problem. Are you saying that people are worth less than dogs?

Dissident Liu Xiaobo(劉曉波) Awarded 2010 Nobel Peace Prize

MattMcCabe — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 18:06:54 +0000

Imprisoned Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo 劉曉波 has won the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize.

Chairman Thorbjoern Jagland of The Norwegian Nobel Committee gave the following announcement:

Over the past decades, China has achieved economic advances to which history can hardly show any equal. The country now has the world’s second largest economy; hundreds of millions of people have been lifted out of poverty. Scope for political participation has also broadened.

China’s new status must entail increased responsibility. China is in breach of several international agreements to which it is a signatory, as well as of its own provisions concerning political rights. Article 35 of China’s constitution lays down that “Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration”. In practice, these freedoms have proved to be distinctly curtailed for China’s citizens.

For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison and two years’ deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power”. Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China’s own constitution and fundamental human rights.

The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.

Mario Vargas Llosa Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

MattMcCabe — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 18:25:05 +0000

Highly acclaimed Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel Prize in Literature. The 74 year old writer believes that it is the obligation of novelists to probe the meaning of life:

I don’t think there is a great fiction that is not an essential contradiction of the world as it is. The Inquisition forbade the novel for 300 years in Latin America. I think they understood very well the seditious consequence that fiction can have on the human spirit.

Vargas Llosa, who once ran for President of Peru, joins Colombian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mexican poet Octavio Paz as Nobel-winning Latin American writers. He has penned more than 30 novels, plays and essays, including “Conversation in the Cathedral,” “Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter,” “The Feast of the Goat,” “The Time of The Hero,” and “The War of the End of the World.”

Knowing Mandarin Opens Doors in London

MattMcCabe — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 18:46:40 +0000

Recently, The New York Times reported about how knowing Mandarin Chinese is a skill that is in great demand in London’s real estate market. The reason is there are more affluent Chinese property buyers in England’s capital willing to pay in cash, which makes knowing the Chinese language valuable.

Thomas L. Friedman Probes Why America is No. 11

MattMcCabe — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 20:18:59 +0000

In a thought-provoking New York Times article, “The World is Flat” author Thomas L. Friedman tries to find out why America is now No. 11 on Newsweek’s list of the best countries in the world. He explores the cause behind the low motivation of American children to excel at school. Perhaps if modern Americans were more like the Greatest Generation who survived The Great Depression, Nazism, and Soviet Communism, then America would be on the right track.

China and India have been catching up to America not only via cheap labor and currencies. They are catching us because they now have free markets like we do, education like we do, access to capital and technology like we do, but, most importantly, values like our Greatest Generation had. That is, a willingness to postpone gratification, invest for the future, work harder than the next guy and hold their kids to the highest expectations. In a flat world where everyone has access to everything, values matter more than ever. Right now the Hindus and Confucians have more Protestant ethics than we do, and as long as that is the case we’ll be No. 11!

Will China Become Like Japan?

MattMcCabe — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 19:15:23 +0000

Bloomberg Businessweek has a thought-provoking article on the rise of China, past Japan into the world’s economic No. 2 spot, and how Japan might be the model it follows, which may not be the best for China as it would lead to turmoil and disquiet.

Bloomberg Businessweek’s John Lee writes,

Although “capitalism with Chinese characteristics” does not seek to replicate any particular model, its similarities to the Japanese approach are striking. Like Japan in the 1970s and ’80s, China is nearing the end of its reliance on exports and fixed investment to drive growth—and looking to shift toward policies that can enhance domestic consumption. To achieve this, it is seemingly blessed with an authoritarian government that can concentrate on policies that need not sacrifice the country’s long-term interests for short-term political expediency.

Is the OED Dead?

MattMcCabe — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 14:52:08 +0000

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the world’s most definitive work on the English language, may no longer be printed because of the Internet’s negative impact on print book sales. It all boils down to economics: online OED subscribers in America now plunk down $295 annually, while the massive 20 volume set, last published in 1989, costs $1,165. To date, there have been 30,000 sets sold. The print version is commonly found in university libraries, while its price and size render it beyond the reach of the average reader and student. Nonetheless, the 130 lb. OED is the only dictionary that provides examples of English words stretching back hundreds of years in history.

Two experts blame the iPad and e-books for the demise of print books like the enormous OED set:

In the Daily Telegraph, Nigel Portwood, the chief executive of OUP, claims that,

The print dictionary market is just disappearing, it is falling away by tens of per cent a year

Mr. Portwood further commented that printed dictionaries have a shelf life of about another 30 years, with the popularity of e-books and devices such as the Apple iPad and Amazon’s Kindle ever increasing the pace of change.

Also in the Telegraph, Simon Winchester, author of “The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary,” also realized that the switch towards online formats was imminent:

Until six months ago, I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad, I am now wholly convinced otherwise. The printed book is about to vanish at extraordinary speed. I have two complete OEDs, but never consult them – I use the online OED five or six times daily. The same with many of my reference books – and soon with most. Books are about to vanish; reading is about to expand as a pastime; these are inescapable realities.”

For those with limited means, there is always the online Compact Oxford English Dictionary and OneLook Dictionary Search, all of which pales in comparison with the larger subscription-based OED website and its weightier original and unabridged print version.

Lincoln Center Barnes & Noble to Close

MattMcCabe — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:11:40 +0000

More jolting news about Barnes & Noble in New York. Due to a whopping rent increase, its popular Upper West Side megastore on West 66th Street is closing its doors at the end of January 2011. The four-story store has been a neighborhood fixture since opening in 1995, a space where celebrity authors held book signings and book readings for Lincoln Center visitors. It also houses a cafe and a music section, one of the few remaining bricks-and-mortar locations selling CDs and DVDs in New York, with the closings of Tower Records and Virgin Megastores over the last few years. Even non-book buyers are sad to see the location closing.

Meanwhile, billionaire investor Ronald W. Burkle is locked in a dispute for control of Barnes & Noble, whose shareholders believe he is unfit to serve on its board.