Message from jhou

[Anonymous]

Yesterday after reading all of the articles about different Asian countries, I feel I want to say something, particularly about gender issue. When I read a Korean young man with a college graduate working for a crab labor without letting his family know about it, it seems that the economy downturn hits hard globally, and it says a lot about the Confucius' value strongly imprinted in people's minds. On the contrary, the higher education a woman receives, the less likely she will follow her mother's footstep, to become a conventional housewife. Just look at the media and advertisements in Asia, no wonder Asian women feel they are entitled to enjoy as much as freedom as their counterpart, men do for years.

Second, I want to comment on the issue of over populated city Shijiazhuang of China and under populated town in Japan. Japan is surrounded by seas, as opposed to, many economically growing cities like Shijiazhuang is clouded by air pollution and lack of water. As an old Chinese saying that a big sea can cover all sorts of things, you name it, on the contrary, a small pond can only look at the sky about it. A homogeneous society like Japan does actualy not look as rosy as outsiders think it is. Ironically, China might becme a superpower somedays, yet her struggle with overpopulation and environmental issues will exponentially increase throughout the next few years.

Many articles are quite fascinating and interesting to read, yet behind each article also reveals how we humans have to constantly fight with nature and uncertainty. julie