否极泰来 Piji Tailai

Yes and no. Today is May 4.  In 1919, the student movement in Peking (Beijing) had helped to change modern China in many ways: political, social, cultural and even the government. For more information, please visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Fourth_Movement#Birth_of_Chinese_Communism However, as compared to more than 5,000 years of Chinese history, what are the real significant changes over the past 100 years after the fall of Qing dynasty. From dynasty to no dynasty, from one man rule to one party rule, what really have changed? Many attribute the Chinese achievement to economic development. For this, we are only looking at the recent history.  China is now the number two economy in the world. Not to forget, she used to be number one for several hundred if not thousand years in history.  Even the military weak Song dynasty, its economy could be as big as one-third of the world economy. This is why people mentioned (and emphasised) about the Chines...

Italy under Berlusconi   is a country of beauty.  There is a joke that he has transformed the country into a place of pretty girls, handsome men and entertainment - a mini culture revolution of placing beauty over capability, intelligence, and quality.  When people are looking for jobs, the interviewers will first consider their ‘looks’ and their competency, capability, intelligence and suitability become secondary.  Berlusconi with his playboy character has transformed Italy into a ‘face’ looking country. People are learning soft skills and want to appear in the televisions (some controlled by him), entertainment circle, to get famous quick and some have lost their interested in study and work.  It will need to take time sometimes to ‘correct’ the culture change under Berlusconi government.  Few years ago, I also heard of another 2 jokes about Italy . The first one is about who are Italians. When you are in  Milan , anyplace in Milan is Italy ....