Vulcanhammer: The "Cult" of China Experts is hardly new

The Cat 'Buff' of Vulcanhammer (c) Vulcanhammer

Quick shoutout and thanks to Vulcanhammer for this kind endorsement:
"It also puts a new twist on this “white privilege” meme that we hear so much of these days.  Most propagators of that meme would like us to think that such is a purely right-wing phenomenon.  But this is not the case, as the list of experts Pattberg reels off shows.  It’s one thing to mouth a multicultural agenda; it’s quite another to actually do it successfully.  In the case of China, we’re nowhere near that point, and I’m not holding my breath on that changing any time soon." -- @Vulcanhammer

I agree. US-journalists acting as social justice warriors or, worse, para-political units, won't stop their smear-campaigns against China until the nation finally disintegrates. This could happen any time, any year soon. There's malevolence in the air. On a bad day in Europe, you can smell the pure hatred and witness the blaming of Asians for all the problems in the world. As one German farmer once explained the silliness and dangerous simplicity of Western propaganda: "Even our cattle now believe the West is our savior and that the East is evil." The situation is that toxic.
READ HERE THE ARTICLE AT ASIA TIMES WE ARE REFERRING TO.

Pattberg: The War on the War on English (Video)

"Chinese authorities are waging a war on American culture and the use of English." --Dexter Roberts

If there's a war on language, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is the English one against all others! 

It has been shown -over and over again- how European translations of all things Asian have directly misinterpreted those other civilizations, and robbed the Asians of their originality, their inventiveness, and their intellectual property rights. This great destruction of foreign words follows the history of the Europeans like genocide, colonialism, and orientalism. [...]

See article 'China's War on English' by Dexter Roberts:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-22/china-moves-to-protect-its-language-from-english
Read War Against 'The War On English' at Big Think:
http://bigthink.com/dragons-and-pandas/war-against-the-war-on-english
Watch Video 'Knowledge is a Polyglot' by T Pattberg:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPDKQw6wfvA
Website:
http://www.east-west-dichotomy.com/about-the-author/

Twitter: @worldethics

The End of Sagehood and the Last Sage of Europe (Video)

In this essay, Dr. Thorsten J. Pattberg discusses the difference between sages and philosophers and saints. He compares the sage cultures of the East with the philosopher culture of the West, and calls Jesus Christ 'the last sage of Europe' because the "messiah" cunningly deprived human beings of their highest wisdom and delegate it all to God.

The German 'Chinabild' is virtually Chinese-free

New Pattberg Video Library at WeToldYouSo1 - Have a click!

The famed essay "Diary of a Mad Imperialist - Why Nations stay in abusive relationships" is now available in video format! Read about how German Orientalism is alive and kicking in Shanghai.

Chinese Students at Harvard and Cambridge (Video)

There is the joke that Xi Jinping's "Chinese Dream" was really about being able to send all your kid to a US Ivy League school, such as he sent his daughter to Harvard. Bo Xilai sent his son to Harvard, too. In fact, in China everyone knows someone who has a son or daughter in America. China has a massive brain drain problem.

Yale, Princeton, Harvard, or even Cambridge University in England, are considered the ultimate upgrade for the taizidang, the spoilt and well-to-do sons and daughters of China's elites. It is estimated that 85% of the rich are planning on leaving China, or sending a kid to a Western top university. Rich Chinese entrepreneurs are donating millions of dollars to US institutions just to boast with their affiliation.

Meanwhile, Peking and Tsinghua envisioned their universities to be world class and are investing millions of rmb in prestige projects. Will their efforts be enough to stem against the massive Chinese brain drain?

NEW: WeToldYouSo1 is an Educational and Activism Channel - Plz Subscribe!

WeToldYouSo1 is an educational and activism channel. As of Oct 31, 2014, we became the media library for 'East-West Dichotomy' (website) and 'You've Heard About It' (blog). 

Our main focus is on language, empire, political theory, philosophy of history, and East-Asian thought. The channel's admin is Mya.

Den Konfuzianismus nach Deutschland bringen

BERLIN - Die ewige Wiederkehr. Ich besuchte die Realschule Bockum-Hövel, und lernte den Beruf des Justizangestellten beim Amtsgericht Hamm. In 2001 verließ ich Deutschland -mit dem Abitur vom Abendgymnasium Hamm in der Tasche- und ging nach Schottland. Seither studierte ich Sanskrit, Chinesisch, Philosophie, und Geschichte an den Universitäten Edinburgh, Fudan, Tokyo, Harvard, und Peking. Ich hatte immer Glück unter großen Namen zu studierte, wie z. B. unter dem Indologen Michael Witzel in Harvard, unter dem Philologen Ji Xianlin, unter dem Taoisten Gu Zhengkun, und, später, unter dem Neukonfuzianer Tu Weiming. Ich erhielt als erster Deutscher den Doktorgrad von der Peking Universität. Seither publiziere ich in Asien und Amerika. Die Rechte auf meine bisherigen Hauptwerke, The East-West Dichotomy und Knowledge is a Polyglot, wurden von China’s Foreign Language Press erworben. Der Verlag druckt u. a. die Werke Maos und Lenins. Ich besuche Deutschland und meine Familie alle zwei Jahre, aber hier als Philosoph und Schriftsteller zu leben und zu schaffen, das stelle ich mir schwierig vor. Einen "deutschen Konfuzianismus" gibt es (noch) nicht. In diesem Sommer schauten wir uns Berlin an. Berlin, das wär schon was...

World Community Agog Over China Resurrecting Confucianism

BEIJING - About 2,565 years ago a wise and aristocratic Kong Qiu came to the world, 551 years before a certain Jesus of Nazareth, nutcase and son of a penniless carpenter, was born to a virgin. The reason why we all live in the year 2014 of our Lord Christ today is because Jesus declared himself the son of the Jewish God, and the king of Jews on top of that, which got him nailed to a cross by an angry mob of Romans and Jews. To get back at them, he resurrected. The rest is advanced political sciences.

Others don’t equal Confucius to a religion at all. He never called himself son of God. Instead, he got himself an education and a real job. Since he was an academic, historians would compare him to Plato, the Greek philosopher. Either way, Confucius probably is to East Asia what Jesus Christ and Plato are to the West: the spiritual and the ideological master source. [...]

Read full article at China Daily on how Xi Jinping, China's president, aims at resurrecting Confucianism.

Jesus Christ, Confucius (Image credits: Jtonystl/Flickr; STATIC6/Flickr)

Diario de un imperialista demente: Por qué los países mantienen relaciones abusivas

No podemos ni debemos convertirnos en chinos, y de corazón tampoco lo queremos. No debemos buscar un sentido ideal o superior de la vida en China o en ninguna otra cosa del pasado; de otra manera nos perdemos y nos adherimos a un fetiche.  (Hermann Hesse, 1921)

Hace unos 111 años, el emperador alemán Guillermo II, despidió el Cuerpo de Expedición Oriente-Asiático desde el puerto de Bremen a China, enviado a fin de reprimir la resistencia de China al imperialismo europeo. Sus órdenes eran inequívocas: llevar la civilización a China, no mostrar piedad ante los reaccionarios y dar a China una lección memorable para que ningún chino se atreviera a mirar con recelo a alguno de nosotros. Por cierto las cosas han cambiado desde entonces.

Han inventado aviones. La ministra federal de Educación e Investigación y su delegación de altos funcionarios volvió a aterrizar en Shanghái. La megalópolis china del delta del río Yangtsé es más populosa que la capital alemana, Berlín, Hamburgo, Múnich, Colonia, Frankfurt, Stuttgart y las siguientes mayores ciudades alemanas en conjunto. Es impresionante. [...]

From the English 'Diary of a Mad Imperialist', translated by Rebelion.

Pattberg: Deutscher Justizangestellter ging zum Philosophieren nach Schottland (June 2001)

Aus dem Archiv (6/2001): Thorsten Pattberg beginnt im Oktober ein Studium an der Universität in Edinburgh. Justizangestellter machte Abitur am Abendgymnasium in Hamm:

This was featured in our local newspaper, WA, back in June 2001 upon my departure from Hamm, heading for gorgeous Scotland and the University of Edinburgh. What a great adventure and journey into the unknown... but also... at the age of 24: so much loss (job, car, house) and separation from life-long friends and my dear family. My ultimate goal, then as now: To become the next Hegel, or at least a better Schopenhauer, no kidding! :-D

Confucius : Flavors.me

China, Shengren, and the Rise of the Junzi:

This is fun! Flavors.me offers a neat, sophisticated web-act. Ideal, we think, for individual portfolios, activism, web presentations, and all kinds of art projects. (The upgrade to full-fledged website/blog status -including your own domain name- is possible against a reasonable annual maintenance fee.) Ours was inspired by Marc Perton who is also the Vice-President of Content at Big Think and builder of useful internet things. Image source: xiaokedou.

Der Konfuzius aus Bockum-Hövel

WE enjoyed a splendid, unforgettable summer time in Hamm, NRW, seeing livelong friends and staying, for four full weeks, with my beloved German family! And, what a rare honor, upon our departure, to be so generously featured in the Westfälischer Anzeiger (WA) as a messenger of learning and the Confucian way:

Source: WA, 29. August 2014, 'Vor 13 Jahren verließ Thorsten Pattberg seine Heimat zum Studieren'

日媒:中国国家人才流失 学子日益迷恋常春藤

Image: Tsinghua University in Beijing - China experiences massive 'brain drain', says Thorsten Pattberg in Global Times

    日本《外交学者》7月31日文章，原题：中国对常春藤联盟的恋情  不投资本国高等教育，中国将无法缓和人才向西方大学“流失”的趋势。中国学子对哈佛大学趋之若鹜，并非秘密。正如体坛精英加入顶尖俱乐部，中国的年轻才俊也被名牌大学所吸引。如今外国顶尖大学也正以前所未有的规模吸引中国尖子生。

　　这并非仅限于哈佛。无论是加州大学伯克利分校、耶鲁还是剑桥，一流学府都充满中国的年轻才俊。对个人这是好事，但其黑暗面就是国家的人才流失。

　　最新证据源自中国富豪潘石屹夫妇对哈佛的巨额捐款。这本非什么稀罕事，却在中国社交媒体上引发众怒。作为商人，潘氏夫妇或许期盼其“投资”获得某种形式的回报，除了让企业扬名立万，或许还能把自家亲朋好友送进哈佛。鉴于照顾家庭和朋友是儒家传统根深蒂固的组成部分，大多数中国人对此并无异议。其实若拥有相应财富，许多批评者可能也会这么做。但人们关注的是：他们为何不投资中国教育？

在数学、阅读和科学技巧等方面，中国学生(普遍)表现得更优异，这点众所周知。那中国的大学为何无法跻身世界前列？

　　美国施瓦茨曼集团捐赠3亿美元，北大聘请哈佛大学燕京学社前社长……

北京正竭力扭转中国的人才流失趋势。例如，作为培养“未来世界领袖”倡议的一部分，清华吸引了

　　中国需要拥有本国的哈佛(及耶鲁、普林斯顿等)。这完全可以理解。中国学生具有积极进取的冲劲和竞争优势(这些因素正推动他们在全世界取得成功)。然而，只要中国精英不相信自己的文明，并将财富投向别国的教育事业，唯有奇迹才能把中国从历史的沉睡中唤醒。(作者裴德思，王会聪译)

2014-08-02 02:02:00 来源：环球时报 责任编辑：赵衍龙 作者：作者裴德思，王会聪译

More Than 150,000 Read The East-West Dichotomy

Featured this month in China Today magazine:

Does a universe of differences separate the two hemispheres that make up Eastern and Western cultures? Or, even in our multicultural world, has the phenomenon always been that of either the West wind dominating in the East, or the East wind dominating in the West? Is equilibrium between the two great cultural systems of China and the West possible?

RELATED The Chinese Really Love Harvard (And Turning It Into A Chinese Outpost) -Thought Catalog

German scholar Thorsten Pattberg has been comparing the cultures of China and the West in his online blogs since 2009. His in-depth philosophical, aesthetic, and sociological analyses include cultural comparative studies – from Zhuang Zi to Jackie Chan, from the Confucian concept “Heaven and men are a unit; they form the one” (“天人之际，合而为一”) to the modern Olympics slogan “One World, One Dream,” and from Plato to Nicolaus Copernicus.

RELATED The Resurrection of Non-Western Civilizations -Big Think

The author’s vivid language and apt examples that pinpoint similarities and differences between Eastern and Western cultures touch as well on contemporary social topics. In the process of writing, Pattberg has also communicated online with his readers, so further piquing their interest.

Around 150,000 people in the U.S. have read and downloaded his articles, which have now been compiled and published in the book, The East-West Dichotomy: The Conceptual Contrast between Eastern and Western Cultures. [...]

READ MORE AT: http://www.chinaculture.org/info/2014-08/12/content_556302.htm

Pick a face (or two)

Haha, this is hilarious! Check out this online avatar creator PICKAFACE.NET!

The 2014 Berlin Espionage Scandal And NSA Surveillance Of German Citizens

US-German Relations in the Wake of NSA Surveillance of German Citizens

"Soon, the soccer after-party and media shindigs will be over, and Berlin gets sober again. German politicians from left and right are trenching in for a US revenge. It won’t be pretty. Ask any senior official or diplomat from Vietnam, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, Japan, China, or any place really, what happened when their governments tackled US interests: economic penalties, political manipulations, and personal defamations."

[READ FULL ARTICLE on Dissident Voice ]

Strange World of Tokyo Akihabara

The World of Akihabara: Strange Akiba, Electronic Town, at JR Akihabara Station in Tokyo. A space for computer nerds, comic freaks, toy collectors, and all those other other ‘otaku' -geeks | via Tumblr

There is a sociological concept called the "East-West dichotomy

Good point by Jay Walker. The East-West Dichotomy indeed marginalizes African cultures (and South-American ones, by the way), but that is largely because European imperialism and colonialism took care of their traditions -with fatal consequences for their declining significance in World history, as we know today.

Likewise, the Slavic territories (Russia, Eastern Europe) and the Middle East were not mentioned enough in the book, partly for limited time and research, but also because those cultures either allied with the West or the East; never did they command or constitute a hemisphere of their own. Islam is largely considered an Oriental cultural system, while Russian-Orthodox is considered an Occidental cultural system respectively. I am well aware that these are generalizations (which are inevitable in philosophy), and that there are plenty of Western elements in Islam (it is, after all, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion) borrowing heavily from the Judaic-Christian tradition; and likewise that a case could be made for the Slavs, because of their geographical destiny, to be thinking people of the East, which by their historical loyalty to Christianity and their fondness of the Greco-Hellenic tradition they are clearly not.

In the end, however, we still talk about "the East" and "the West", and all people, no matter from which part of the world, see themselves as belonging (or leaning toward) either the Eastern hemisphere or the Western hemisphere; while someone who claimed he belonged to nowhere or fell in between, I'm afraid, has no meaningful category to hold onto.

"Politically-minded people and others express it when they allude to "the West", "Western ideas" or make statements about the "East", or "Eastern philosophy". Basically, the East-West dichotomy is used to identify and categorize all world cultures and political systems by way of a single, rigid, binary socio-political model. Dividing the world by who and what is "Western" & "Eastern." Thorsten J. Pattberg reveals his own flawed reasoning with such an over-simplied deduction of the world, in his book The East-West Dichotomy." --Jay Walker, Love Hate Black White

在中国引发知识分子关注的燕京学堂，外国人怎么看？

裴德思, 系北大毕业的
比较文学博士, 目前在东大.

十个选择燕京学堂的理由：

　　1.北京大学在中国的大学里首屈一指；

　　2.燕京学堂提供“燕京学者”称号，地位很高（终身受益）。

　　3.北京是政治、经济、文化之都，北京大学所属的海淀区有168所大学，适于学习、研究。

　　4.少见地提供全额奖学金。住宿和教学条件比绝大部分中国大学生强。项目筛选条件严格，你会觉得自己是被选中的那一个，如同X战警、儒家的君子一般。

　　5.能够见到世界闻名的学者，更别提世界的领导者、商人和顶尖的政治家了。

　　6.北大的学位在中国举足轻重，甚至超过哈佛。

　　7.北大的校园美丽，生活便利。五道口临近中国硅谷，有充满活力的夜生活。

　　8.中国有很多美食，适合旅行。你的奖学金足够负担这些。

　　9.结交可以长久交往的、有价值的人，中国人叫“关系”。按照项目要求，你的同学将是“未来的世界领导者”。来到这里，就像中了一张社交彩票。

　　10.世界已经进入了中国时间。

作者裴德思（Thorsten Pattberg）， 德国籍，系北大毕业的比较文学博士，曾在北京大学高等人文研究院任职，目前在东大。

上文参考了@宝中堂的翻译，致谢！
宝中堂: 原名李俊，毕业于北京大学哲学系。科幻作家宝树，著有《观想之宙》，《古老的地球之歌》。