Pattberg: No Division of power will be granted

"The anti-corruption movement causes much more psychological stress, even anxiety or paranoia in all strata of Chinese society: Everyone knows someone who is corrupt, but few want to get involved in any of this. That’s because China is not only cracking down on corruption, it is simultaneously going after the activists, democrats, and dissidents."

--Pattberg, Thorsten (2013), Pattberg spoke with The Wall Street Journal about Xi Jinping's Anti-Corruption Campaign, The East-West Dichotomy, east-west-dichotomy.com

Pattberg in Wall Street Journal: Gewaltenteilung wird nicht gewährt

„Wir brauchen Transparenz. Wir brauchen eine Aufteilung der Macht", sagt Thorsten Pattberg, der als Wissenschaftler an der Peking-Universität zu Ethik geforscht hat. „Es sieht so aus, als ob sie die schwarzen Schafe bestrafen. Sie erneuern nicht das System." --The Wall Street Journal
Go to Wall Street Journal Germany: Chinas Kampf gegen Korruption macht Firmen zu schaffen
Mehr Einzelheiten zur Korruption in China: The East-West Dichotomy (Englisch).

Secrecy and work in solitary are often needed to achieve great things

NO matter if you are an entrepreneur, scientist, or scholar - if you have a great idea, keep it to yourself until you have the product, patent, or copyright, even if that means secrecy or temporarily working in solitary. If you give your great idea too soon, someone else with greater resources might pick it up and realize what should have been yours.
Read at Big Think: If you have a great idea, don’t tell everyone

They did it again (Big Think)

BEIJING - Xi Jinping's Anti-Corruption initiative resembles more and more Mao Zedong's Hundred Flowers campaign. People are encouraged to speak up and against abuses of state power and corruption, only to find themselves facing trial and ending up in prison for subversion of state power or disturbing public order. Looks like Xu Zhiyong joins the ranks of famous dissidents like Liu Xiaobo (Nobel Peace Prize laureate), Ai Weiwei (a world renowned artist), and Dalai Lama (His Holiness). Protest from the US and Europe as usual, but business with China must go on.

Read it at Big Think: They did it again

Pattberg is the real deal (The Benicia Herald)

Road map to Immortality - How to live forever

Funny and highly entertaining piece by Carolyn Plath!

ON THE PATH TO GREATNESS NOW. Found the formula.

It is Thorsten Pattberg’s 12-Step Program: How to Live Forever.

I was skeptical at first. Remember Steve Martin’s 2-Step plan to becoming a millionaire and never paying taxes?

Step 1: Get a million dollars.

Step 2: Never pay taxes.

But no. It’s not like that. Thorsten Pattberg is the real deal. And we’re not talking about a zombie revolution here either. Not that shallow, reanimated walking-the-planet, vampire-living-in-a-casket-during-daylight sort of eternal life.

Pattberg has mapped out how to live forever in the hearts and minds of the Universal History of the World!

That has always been a goal of mine.

Don’t know him? Out of Peking University? Oh Pattberg’s the guy. He’s featured on Big Think right alongside authorities on brain function and meditation, predicting politics and maps of North Sea bivalves. Yeah. So.

I figured I’d just go ahead and get started. With the legacy thing, you know. No time like the right now.

So, here we go. Just gonna jump in with Step 1. Ready …

Read full article at The Benicia Herald: Think, Dream, Play: Road map to immortality

Western dominance versus Asian submission

Old stereotypes prove hard to resist

Western mass media and cultural consumer entertainment were compelled to strengthen the objectification of Asia: Asia as an all-perverted –  animalistic if you like –  place of Western sexual dominance versus Asian sexual submission.

During the age of colonialism, Western powers conquered the people of Asia and objectified their women. This is well documented in literature, film, and scholarship: Here the dominant, masculine West; there the submissive, feminine East. This is the second part from a chapter on ‘Gender’ taken from the East-West dichotomy. [...]

Read Full Article at Big Think: The East is femine

Image credit: The World of Suzie Wong (1960)/Paramount Pictures

裴德思：中国人做事需要更多透明，需要划分权力

裴德思 - 北京大学 - 伦理学者 - 2013

习近平：反腐要“老虎”“苍蝇”一起打

前北京大学伦理学研究员Thorsten Pattberg表示，中国人做事仍然需要更多透明，需要划分权力；他们看上去是在惩治败类，而不是改革体制。
 来源：财华智库网 (Read on Yahoo - Money)

Monogamy as a Western Invention? (Big Think)

Revival of Chinese Mistress Culture (Scene from Jin Pei Mei)

We know that views and habits on sex, gender, and relationships are (partly) culturally enforced, and thus not necessarily everywhere the same. There are trends and favorites, and rules and obligations set by religious beliefs, folklore, family values, and group norms. This said, before the arrival of the European imperialists in Asia, the Hindu, the Chinese and Mongols, the Japanese, the Persians, the Arabs, etc. all preferred many wives, or one wife and concubines on the sideline, often as much as a man could afford. This all changed when the Western powers conquered the Eastern civilizations, but it is worthwhile mentioning that what the West practices and believes in when it comes to gender roles, it is far from universal and in all probability won't last forever. In fact, we are already seeing the Western departure from the Christian dogma of monogamy toward a more liberal (or shall we say "promiscuous") society in which divorce is common and having mistresses in vogue.

Read at Big Think: Monogamy as a Western Invention?

Cultural Fascism and White Vocabulary Policies in Major US publications

"The west cultivates the dangerous notion that “knowledge only exists if it’s the West that knows it”. The consequences are far-reaching."

"Expats among themselves:Unfortunately, their journalists and editors, all Western educated, seem to have little knowledge and interest in the Chinese tradition (they couldn't tell your author what rujia or a shengren was); they jet in the country from one English-language conference to another (they don't speak Chinese), and are mostly looking out for English-speaking compatriots or Chinese ABCs in China to help them fill their pages. That the Chinese people for the last three thousand years have all kinds of jia, jiao, and xue (schools, practices, and teachings), and their own terms, categories, taxonomies, and archetypes of wisdom that the West might want to learn, understand, letting alone to know about seems to be beyond Science's mission to create a Chinese-free world of knowledge. As the historian Howard Zinn once remarked: "If something is omitted from history, people have no way of knowing that it is omitted." It is rather sad."

Read at Big Think: Cultural Fascism - Science Magazine: No shengren, please!

Exploring the origin and the future of cultural differences

"What then is the true problem with Europe? Why don't the European nations unite and become 'one'? I will argue that in the past 2,500 years of its history, there has never been the concept of 'oneness' or 'harmoniousness' in the European collective mind." 

Formally established in July 1, 1952, Foreign Languages Press (FLP) is a comprehensive publishing house targeted at the international market; it specializes in editing, translating and publishing foreign-language books for readers abroad. It also publishes foreign-language textbooks, reference books and books in Chinese.
(Available in bookshops, libraries, and at Amazon HERE.)

Germany's Deutungshoheit and Interpretational Sovereignty in the Euro Zone and European Economics

by The Yen Guy - A Blog About Sovreignty and Seigniorage

"The German word Deutungshoheit is defined as interpretational sovereignty and connotes supremacy in all things, the result being German economic, banking, credit, and military supremacy, over all of the Eurozone.

German linguist Thorsten Pattberg relates Deutungshoheit is a German word meaning “having the sovereignty over the definition of thought,” sometimes also called “the prerogative of final explanation.” 

Economic supremacy. Germany is an export powerhouse, something attained by striving to make the best of products, by keeping wage increases low, and by making products people want, which has generated a current account surplus for years."

Read at Economic Review Journal: Through Deutungshoheit, Germany Will Rise To Rule First The Eurozone, And Then The World

Pattberg: Catching up with the Chinese

"Maybe it is time for Germany's dichter und denker to retire their old prejudices and start taking Chinese political theory more seriously."
Read at Big Think: Catching up with the Chinese

Amy Chua is provoking a nation: Parenting - Why some cultural groups seem to do a better job

Some hard-working but insecure moms and dads may find in Ms. Chua's new book exactly what they were looking for to make them and their children succeed in life: become more Chinese and marry a Jew. Just kidding. Here's her book again.
Read at Big Think: Parenting - Why some cultural groups seem to do a better job

Thinkibility: Key Concepts as Optical Fitlers

by Asa Jomard and Gijs van Beeck Calkoen

This great website for creativity and an open mind sets some of Dr. Pattberg's ideas in the right context. Invaluable insights from psychology and spirituality that are highly challenging for cultural policy makers and politicians: Just how much foreigness do we allow to enter our heads?
"Optical filters are devices that selectively transmit light of different wavelengths. They absorb some wavelengths of light – that is, colors – while transmitting others. Optical filters define what we see and what is left out.

Key concepts and filtersKey concepts do exactly the same with what we perceive. They strengthen or weaken information, change “colors”, let things out or vary the contrast. As you will see in the image below a key Western concept like “University” colors the way Westerners interpret the Chinese concept of Dá Xué."Read more at Thinkibility: Key Concepts as Optical Filters - Thinkibility Boost.

Pattberg: How to Live Forever: 12 Steps

Most successful spiritual leaders have much in common: they have powerful personalities, they touch the hearts of the people, and they all climb through more or less similar developmental stages in order to be recognized by society.

Read it at Big Think: How to Live Forever: 12 Steps

Pattberg: Chinese Top Universities Plagued With Corruption

"Xi Jinping’s massive crackdown on corruption has finally reached the ivory towers."
Read at Big Think: Chinese Top Universities Plagued With Corruption

How I got into Harvard and how this could work for others too

China Studies at Harvard: Panel including Ezra Vogel, William Kirby, Dwight Perkins, and Wilt Idema; Harvard China Review, April 2010

Harvard University is global brand name and a great career booster, especially for international students, but how to get in? I recently shared my story with Gherardo Liguori from Italy. Some of the advice in it we believe could work for other people as well. Read the interview HERE.

Chinesischer Yuan als Ersatz für den Dollar?

Gold, Reformen: Wird China den Dollar vom Thron stoßen?

13. September 2013 von Bürgender

China-Experte Dr. Pattberg von der Universität Peking sagte in einem Interview, dass China den Yuan als nächste weltweite Leitwährung etablieren möchte und es bereits einen Plan gibt, um dieses Ziel zu erreichen. [Read more at GEGENFRAGE]