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The International Residential College was engulfed in controlled chaos as waiters rushed and dozens of students slurped and gobbled their way through noodles, milk tea and barbecued pork on rice.For the mostly Asian crowd at the Hong Kong Student Association’s Hong Kong Café two weeks ago, the bustle and authentic fare were familiar. But for at least a few attendees, the event was an introduction to the uniquely East-meets-West region of Hong Kong.The menu, written in both English and Chinese characters, offered noodle dishes with sides of fried egg, fish ball or bean curd puff, as well as less expected snacks like condensed milk on toast and a root beer float called the Black Bull. This traditional yet Westerner-friendly menu illustrates the two-fold mission of Hong Kong Student Association: first, to support students from Hong Kong at the University, and second, to spread awareness about Hong Kong during events throughout the year.“Previously, we were inward-looking,” said Flora Tsui, a first-year College student and president of HKSA. “We mainly served Hong Kong students. This year, we are branching out to promote our culture.”HKSA aims to host at least two events a month, Tsui said. Some are external, including Hong Kong Café and China Day, which was co-sponsored with the Mainland Student Network. Other events are internal, like the upcoming hike to Humpback Rock and graduation dinner. The most important of these internal events are those welcoming incoming first-year students.“Every year at this time, the admissions office gives us a list of students admitted from Hong Kong,” Tsui said. “We reach out to them and give them advice.”In June, HKSA hosts a new student reception in Hong Kong. They guide new students through each step, from their arrival in Charlottesville to registering for classes.First-year College student Edmund Tse was admitted to the University last spring, and shortly thereafter received an e-mail from second-year College student Nicholas Wu, a fellow Chemistry major. Wu suggested Tse enroll in more advanced chemistry courses and offered advice about housing and insurance.Tse said he and other new students met a total of four times in Hong Kong, including a visit to an upperclassman’s house and to a Korean restaurant. Once they arrived on Grounds, they drove together to a department store to purchase appliances and other dormitory necessities.“Hong Kong Student Association has been really helpful with my transition to U.Va.,” Tse said, adding that now he is exchanging e-mails with newly admitted students.HKSA members generally report a comfortable transition to the University. Many Hong Kong students have an international background or attended international schools in Hong Kong, so they are comfortable on foreign soil, Tsui said. The slower pace of Charlottesville, though, still stumps some students.“Hong Kong is very cosmopolitan,” Tsui said. “Many rank it with London and New York. So, some find assimilating to the more rural context a difficult challenge.”Some students, though, consider the small-town setting an advantage. “There’s not much to do around here, so there is more of a chance to blend into American culture,” Tsui said. “You can attend [fraternity] parties, make Virginian friends and get to know more about Southern culture.“Some students want to leave the hectic pace of Hong Kong and choose the University for that reason, Tsui added. “It’s good for studying, since there’s not much to do but study.” That leaves plenty of time for planning outreach activities like Hong Kong Café, a recreation of an authentic Hong Kong dining experience and one of the organization’s most popular events of the year.“We select the most popular dishes and the most doable dishes,” Tsui said at the Hong Kong Café two weeks ago. She motioned to the packed room. “Right now, it’s equally as busy as a café operating on peak time. There are lots of people coming in, and things get a little hectic. We’ve duplicated it pretty well.”Third-year College student Christine Graff was a first-time visitor to Hong Kong Café. A former member of the Hong Kong national skateboarding team lived in her hall in the IRC last year, but “that’s all I really know about Hong Kong,” Graff said.She spooned the ice cream with red bean and wondered aloud, “What’s a fish ball?” Like a meatball made out fish, the waiter replied.“I assumed it would be like Chinese take-out, but there are some things I wouldn’t expect on the menu, like toast and Sprite with ice cream,” Graff said. “I was hoping there would be something akin to bubble tea.”Originating in Taiwan, this concoction of milk tea and tapioca balls has gained a cult following across the United States. If it wants to keep up with demand, it looks like HKSA already has its work cut out for itself next year.
What determined Barack Obama’s decisive victory in the 2008 presidential election? Politics Prof. Larry Sabato hosted a panel discussion last Tuesday to discuss his latest book, “The Year of Obama.” He was joined by four of his 10 co-authors, Rhodes Cook, Alan Abramowitz, Diana Owen and Justin Sizemore, who addressed this question. As recently as 2004, more Americans leaned toward Republican views. In 2006, however, a Democratic majority began to form, Cook said. This trend was national, and might help explain why Obama won nine more states than 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, including three states in the South, Midwest and West regions. Obama’s margins of victory were substantial, including a record-setting 3 point lead — three million more votes than John McCain — in California, a state with 55 electoral votes.Still, will the Democratic majority last? With slim chances for a Republican win in California during the next few years, the Democrats seem to be here to stay, Cook said.Looking forward to future elections, Abramowitz — a politics professor at Emory University — said he has identified three fundamentals areas that help predict results: the state of the economy, the public’s perception of the incumbent and how long the current party has been in power. These factors are consistent enough that Abramowitz correctly predicted the outcome of the election a year ago.During the last months of his presidency, former President Bush’s approval ratings hovered around 30 percent. In combination with an economic crisis and eight years of Republican power, the election of a Democratic president in 2008 seemed nearly certain.That is not to say that Obama’s group of enthusiastic volunteers was irrelevant to the success of his election, however. Rather, because of these fundamentals, their enthusiasm was expected, he said, and Obama’s promise of “change” resounded with voters.“When the situation favors you, you can spread your message more easily and attract more volunteers,” Abramowitz said.The United States also saw remarkable demographic change during the past several years that contributed to Obama’s success, Abramowitz added. Between 1992 and 2008, the percentage of non-white Americans doubled, from 13 percent to 26 percent.Obama led among non-white voters by 21 points, while McCain won the white vote by 12 points — resulting in Obama’s margin of victory of 9.5 million votes. Younger voters also overwhelmingly supported Obama, as did the growing number of voters with advanced degrees. Given these statistics, the Republican Party must make changes to remain competitive, Abramowitz said.The Republican Party must attract younger, non-white voters, or hope that Obama’s plans fail, Abramowitz said, adding that the party should abandon fundamentalism and refocus on economic issues.“Republicans need to convince Americans that they are the competent party once again,” Abramowitz said. An important factor in shaping voters’ opinions of the government is the media. Owen, a politics professor at Georgetown University, addressed the role of the media in the 2008 presidential election, noting several trends that she predicts will have long-term significance.Voters are turning more frequently to new media sources for election information, she said. This is partly a result of layoffs throughout the field of journalism; with fewer staff members to cover political campaigns, many news organizations are taking advantage of blogs and technology like text messaging. Perhaps the most notable trend of the 2008 election was the rise of user-generated material. “Older new media,” including discussion boards, played an increased role in informing voters. Videos posted to YouTube and social networking Web sites also were highly influential because voters are more likely to trust their peers than an unknown journalist, Owen said.Another trend, the proliferation of citizen journalism, has led to positive and negative consequences. Although these writers can go where mainstream journalists cannot because of newsroom cutbacks, they are untrained and may produce inaccurate information or rumors, Owen said.Owen also noted a decline in the readership of print newspapers and the corresponding increased attention to online sources and cable television. Television remains the most popular source of campaign information, she said.More coverage, though, is not necessarily better coverage, the panelists pointed out. Analysis of news programs like MSNBC and FOX found that at some points of the campaign, only about 20 percent of coverage could be considered neutral, and negative coverage often outweighed positive coverage. Programs frequently filled air time with opinions at the expense of presenting unbiased information to viewers.The public, however, did not necessarily realize that much of the information was biased.“Most of the public doesn’t know about the quality of their information, but it affects their decision-making,” Owen said. After the infamous Tina Fey impersonation of Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live,” a survey found that many voters believed Palin said, “I can see Russia from my house!” She did not.Considering the souring economy, the nation’s demographic changes and the Obama campaign’s expert handling of new media, a win for the former Illinois senator was not entirely unexpected. But as one audience member pointed out, what happened to Hillary Clinton?“Hillary was a greater challenger for Obama than McCain,” Abramowitz said. But a mismanaged campaign led to her defeat.Sharing a conversation he had with an unnamed Clinton staffer, Sabato said he asked what accounted for her failure to win the nomination. Though Clinton’s staff campaigned for the first caucus in Iowa, the staffer said, it considered the following caucuses “irrelevant and didn’t want to waste the money.” Supporters were confident she would gain the nomination after a win in Iowa, Sabato said.“Any acceptable Democratic candidate would have won the election,” Abramowitz said. For factors both within and out of his control, that candidate was Obama.
“I have a very limited vocabulary,” second-year Engineering student Chris Vaccarello said. But when it comes to Scrabble, he makes every word count.A fan of the classic board game since childhood, Vaccarello founded Scrabble Club at the University last spring. The club soon attracted a small, devoted crowd — but not of the type one might expect.“You’d think English majors would be good [at Scrabble], but no,” Vaccarello said during a Sunday afternoon club meeting. “We don’t know what these words mean. We just know they’re words.”He was joined by fellow second-year Engineering students Alex King and Michael Fiifi Quansah. They said Scrabble is a game of math and strategy.Each of the 100 Scrabble tiles is assigned a letter and a point value, based on the frequency of the letter in the English language. The more frequent the letter appears in English, the lesser its point value. A “Q” is worth 10 points, for example, whereas an “A” is worth only one. An expert Scrabble player maximizes the value of every word and secures the all-important triple word score squares, while minimizing opportunities for other players.“A lot has to do with math,” Vaccarello said. “You deal with numbers and points. You ask yourself, ‘Should I wait for it?’”Serious Scrabble players also densely pack their boards. In this game, “bear,” “welt,” “zed” and “hat” were stacked horizontally so that each play created two words at once. Such packing of the board is where new players can make the biggest improvements to their games.“Memorize all the two-letter words,” Quansah said. “There are about a hundred of them.”These words include “qi,” “xi,” “mm,” “sh,” “ae” and “oe.” Though some may not be included in the standard Webster edition, they are approved by the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, King said.“Over the summer, I flipped through the dictionary when I was bored,” Quansah said. There he made some surprising — and high-scoring — finds.“Aa” is a type of Hawaiian lava and “aasvogel” is an African vulture, he learned. The dictionary also contains three different spellings for “aargh.” The most competitive players know almost every word in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, King said.University Scrabble Club members have not yet reached that level of commitment, but there are signs that they are above average players.On this particular afternoon, Vaccarello, Quansah and King played on a Diamond Anniversary Edition Scrabble board. Far from the iconic cardboard model with pink, blue and beige tiles, this edition comes in bright red and blue plastic. It spins, and diamonds are engraved on the blank tiles.Quansah has even greater aspirations when it comes to Scrabble editions. Though he currently owns a $15 travel Scrabble board, he said he hopes to purchase a specific board retailing on Amazon.com that can range from $60 to $200: the Premium Wood Edition.“It’s solid wood and it spins,” Quansah said, adding that the board was endorsed by Oprah Winfrey.Scrabble’s appeal is not only limited to the United States. Quansah, who is from Ghana, said as a child, he often played Scrabble with his father. Shortly after moving to the United States, he discovered an online version of the game.The Web site isc.ro is popular among Scrabble players around the globe, for two reasons, Quansah said. First, the Romanian Web site cannot be sued for copyright infringement. Second, it attracts the likes of Joel Sherman, known to some as “G.I. Joel,” one of the world’s best Scrabble players. Sherman’s top-scoring games can be viewed on isc.ro, where “he plays words no one understands,” Quansah said.But how does a professional Scrabble player make a living? For the best players, the game can be profitable.Scrabble competitions are held across the country, and top prizes can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, King said. He is the only Scrabble Club member to have entered a competition, which was held in Annapolis, Md. Intense “scrabbling,” however, comes with a price.“It cost $70 to enter,” King said, shaking his head. “I should have been better prepared.” Even in the lowest division, players knew every two-letter word and most of the three-letter words as well, he said.Scrabble Club meetings, meanwhile, are considerably more low-key. At Sunday’s meeting, members lazily spun their boards, shuffling the clinking tiles and ruffling through the thick, red Official Scrabble Players Dictionary. The club remains rather small, with about eight members in regular attendance and 20 who occasionally stop in, Vaccarello said.Scrabble has seen a surge in popularity during recent years, and Facebook’s now defunct Scrabulous, which was closed because of copyright infringement, “really rejuvenated the game among young people,” King said.There is no doubt, however, that Scrabble remains a niche market, and the University is no exception.At one point at Sunday’s meeting, a player contested the definition of “gulch.” “You know, like Blood Gulch in Halo,” another member responded. “People still see Scrabble as a nerdy game, just like anything that requires mental effort,” Quansah said.Later in the afternoon, after the complimentary Double-Stuf Oreos had been twisted and consumed, King made the final play and tallied the scores.“I have 231, Chris has 259, and Fiifi has 206,” he said.Quansah considered this.“Respectable,” he said.They then wiped the clinking tiles from the board, scrambled them together and started again.
Most of us had never visited Shanghai, the modern city of 20 million where we would spend nine weeks learning Mandarin Chinese. But we were prepared for the worst.In the months before our May departure, the American media had not painted a flattering portrait of China.Athletes were warned of smog in Beijing, journalists feared censorship and protesters called for a boycott of the Olympic Games in response to a history of human rights violations.So before visiting China, we knew the news reports. We knew the history, the travel guides. But we had yet to know the Chinese people.Culture shockThe University’s intensive Chinese language program was held at East China Normal University, a leafy green campus with packed basketball courts beside bridge-topped lotus ponds. In the morning, old men and women practiced tai chi by the water as students hung laundry from the windows of their ancient-looking apartments.Girls teetered across campus in frilly dresses and high heels, carrying parasols to protect their white skin. Or they balanced sideways on the back of their boyfriend’s bicycles, barely wobbling as they passed over speed bumps.The outdoor track was filled as late as midnight, but without street lamps, the area was pitch black. Some men jogged in khakis and polo shirts, others chatted on their cell phones — some smoked. One student regularly practiced opera.And at the back gate, there was a feast alternately mouth-watering or gag-inducing: Crawfish, octopus balls, fried dumplings, noodles, meat sticks and more. These cheap, unregulated food stands were staples of the student diet — when not periodically cleared out by police.Men in rolled-up tank tops hacked and spit. Stray dogs roamed the street, and old women rooted through trash to find bottles to turn in for cash. Late-night revelers shimmied under the locked bars through foul-smelling puddles or climbed over the gate’s spiked top.These were our first impressions of China: chaotic, unfamiliar and, frankly, dirty. In those early days, we only saw China for how it differed from the United States.Then we grew close with our teachers, female students in their early 20s. We befriended meat stick vendors, a 9-year old boy on the train, desk attendants and bartenders. With these interactions, slowly we learned to understand, if only slightly, the Chinese.Lost in translationIt may come as no surprise that, in a land of karaoke parlors on every corner, the concept of awkward does not seem to exist. No question is too personal, and no interaction is off-limits, especially when speaking with a foreigner.This could be flattering — to a fault. At a popular tourist destination in Chengdu, a city in southwestern China, we were swarmed by a tour bus of rural Chinese and asked to pose for pictures. We needed only say “ni hao” and were enthusiastically complimented on our — admittedly pathetic — accents.It could also be uncomfortable. My roommate and I were accosted by a teenage girl in a convenience store, who complimented the roundness of our eyes and demanded our phone numbers so she could visit us in America. Many students were in aggressive pursuit of “foreign friends.”One afternoon, a few of us nervously approached a group of Chinese students at a basketball court. We were dressed in orange and blue mesh shorts and T-shirts. They wore cool shoes, tight jeans and complicated hair cuts.The Chinese students were a little taken aback — it was not every day that sweaty foreigners approached them, miming and fumbling the words for “want to play?” But a friendly game developed, and exclamations in Chinglish accented every shot.I leaned against the metal fence and watched. A Chinese man hovered nearby. At a pre-departure orientation, we were warned not to discuss politics, but I was eager to practice my Chinese.First, he asked whether I thought China was safer than America. Didn’t all Americans own guns? he asked. I had a similarly illuminating conversation with one of our teachers. She told me that the Chinese prefer Hillary Clinton. I told her Barack Obama had won the Democratic nomination.“Ah, so Americans think black is better than woman?”I was startled, searched for the word for “issues” or “platform,” and had to settle for “We think both are OK!” Then I thought — well, that wasn’t too far from how the American media portrayed the election, was it?Racism certainly exists in China and does not carry the same taboo as in the United States. Yet this is also a nation obsessed with American basketball players, particularly Kobe Bryant. There may have been posters of gold medalist Liu Xiang across campus, but the students were wearing LeBron James jerseys.In fact, in conversations with younger students, perceptions of the United States were overwhelmingly positive. Middle school students I interviewed described Americans as “independent,” “free” and “open.” They were also fluent in American pop music and TV.Still, many Chinese we spoke with were hyper-sensitive to perceived slights against their country. An icy glare met the Korean student who joked about toxic Chinese products in one classroom activity.Whether it was salary, weight, marital status, nationality or the quality of our Chinese, all were game for discussion. But we learned to avoid anything approaching criticism of the Chinese government. For most of us, raised with political satire and overuse of the word “awkward,” this was a cultural reverse.Spitting, staring and standing in lineOne of the first phrases we learned in class was “I did not expect Shanghai to be such a modern, globalized city!” Shanghai is an increasingly popular spot for tourists, with clubs and restaurants that rival any in New York City. It is the commercial center of China and it will host a world exposition in 2010 to show off its transformation.On weekends, we would often visit the French Concession, an area in Shanghai once designed for French inhabitants, or the Bund, a street filled with colonial-era buildings. Foreigners abounded in these areas, and we found Indian food, Mexican bars and an English pub where a Chinese band played hits by the Who and the bartender looked at us blankly when we ordered in Chinese.But just when we wanted to throw up our hands and curse globalization, a trip to the Shanghai Zoo would put things back in perspective.An American-born Chinese friend explained it to me like this: Americans visit zoos in awe of the animals, not daring to disturb them in their natural habitats. The Chinese are merely amused by their presence.I watched visitors pour water bottles on a bear in order to make it move. Children hopped over fences and picked weeds to feed deer as their parents snapped photos. Many of the animals lived in concrete enclosures, within reach of curious onlookers.No matter how modern and globalized Shanghai has become, distinctly Chinese habits remain. Traffic is terrifying. Bikes and motorcycles weave in and out of lanes — in fact, stoplights, lane markers and crosswalks are more like suggestions than the law. Buses approach within inches of each other — and pedestrians — and horns blare day and night. Yet it was rare to ever see an accident. Before the Olympics, China issued rules to the citizens of Beijing: No spitting, no staring, stand in line and don’t curse. No doubt, these customs might appall an American tourist in town to watch beach volleyball. But we were not so eager to see them go.The spitting, staring and mis-translated signs were just as much China to us as the Pearl Tower, Forbidden City or Great Wall. And if the Chinese government someday succeeds in wiping them out, well, I might just feel a little regret.Coming homeAfter nine weeks and visits to Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou and Shanghai, we returned home.We watched on TV as China delivered a stunning, glittering Olympic opening ceremony on a scale unlike anything the world has seen, or is likely to see again. The Chinese audiences were gracious and polite. We also watched as China blatantly lied about the age of its gymnasts, despite clear evidence.In a way, the Olympics summarized my experiences in trying to understand China. Wherever I went, I encountered helpful, friendly people and beautiful scenery. But the reality of the Chinese government was always in the back of my mind.I still cannot hope to fully understand China, for all of its contradictions, thousands of years of history and billion people. But at least I found stories of my own, beyond the newspaper headlines.
Michael Van Den Bossche answers the door of 1900 Jefferson Park Avenue, an acoustic guitar slung across his chest. He has a frizzled beard, wears an orange Amnesty International T-shirt and running shoes, and his shoulder-length red hair is pulled back in a ponytail. This must be the only residence in town where his appearance seems entirely appropriate.
"The whole world is learning Chinese, Confucius's words are spreading internationally, The whole world is speaking Chinese, Our language makes the world listen up."
Your neighbor to the left is crunching on an egg roll and eying a thick wedge of cherry pie. Stephanie is talking about who got drunk last weekend, and how drunk, and Alexandre is correcting everyone's grammar. A typical dinner among University housemates, right? Not quite.