Thursday, January 29, 2009

blogger's take on St. Louis -

经过St. Louis

http://bbs.ok6ok.com/read.php?tid=32582

密苏里州, 44号高速两边全是一望无际的森林, 这个州以龙卷风出名. 此时刚过了中午, 午饭是在密苏里.罗拉小镇上的唯一的一家中餐馆吃的, 很差劲! 味道差极了.

不过, 前面的圣路易斯 St. Louis 还是不错的一个城市.

仍在44号高速上, 快到了

进城了, 大城市的气派出来了, 楼大, 路宽, 车多

这立交桥一般, 没有北京上海的大似的,

美国劳动人民生活苦呀, 住不起楼房, 全是平房, 瞧

过了桥, 是华盛顿大学的医学院大楼,

医学院找到了, 继续找本部. 这个大学2003年来过一次.

华盛顿大学的大门, 就是两排树. 这个大学排名还行. 学校校园不大. 和西安交大面积差不多吧. 但学校对面有个公园, 面积比校园大!

学校边上的一条街, 学生很多. 我这是已快开到街头了.

2003.10来的, 2006.5再来, 旧地重游

公园中央了, 里面有一个高尔夫场地,

仍是公园里,

公园里的美术馆, 没进去

美术馆下面有个大池塘, 这是边上的小亭,

公园另一边, 就是64号高速


Sunday, January 25, 2009

Happy Niu2 Year!

一只牛在海边散步,突然一个浪打到牛身上,无数螃蟹齐声喊:“海劈牛耶!”

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Celebrate the “Year of the Ox” 2/8 at Maryland Heights Activity Center

時間:2月8日(周日)下午1:00至5:00

地點:Maryland Heights活動中心 2344 McKelvey Rd.

節目:自助午餐(購自美華餐廳),兒童手工藝展,遊戲區,兒童韻律操表演(City Museum馬戲團提供),扯鈴,平衡特技,軟骨功表演及不叫價拍賣等。

費用:大人14元,3~12歲兒童6元,3歲以下幼兒免費

報名:314-8392739 (Garland)314-3440455 (Laurie)

主辦單位:聖路易領養中國孩子美國家庭協會Families with Children from China-St. Louis





































































































http://www.divineshows.com/stlouis

Divine Performing Arts in St. Louis

Inspired by the spirit of an ancient culture,
Divine Performing Arts brings to life classical Chinese
dance and music in a gloriously colorful and exhilarating show. With an elite company of dancers, singers, and musicians, the New York-based Divine Performing Arts comes to St. Louis this February.

The company’s masterful choreography and graceful routines range from grand classical processions to ethnic and folk dances, with gorgeously costumed dancers moving in stunning synchronized patterns. Its themes are drawn from the pages of history as well as our world today.

State-of-the-art backdrops conjure celestial palaces and pastoral vistas, while groundbreaking music combines the best of Chinese and Western composition. Taking inspiration from ancient heroic legends and modern courageous tales, the breathtaking beauty of
Divine Performing Arts is not to be missed.

Presenter:
Sound of Hope Radio NFP
Co-Presenter:
Mid-USA Falun Dafa Association

Tickets & Venue

Show schedules:

  • Fri, February 6, 2009 7:30 PM
  • Sat, February 7, 2009 2:00 PM
  • Sat, February 7, 2009 7:30 PM

Buy tickets online from:

Information hotlines:

  • 314.516.4949
  • 866.516.4949
  • 314-219-1821 (Available: 24x7)

Ticket hotlines:

  • 314.516.4949
  • 866.516.4949

Ticket prices:

Gen Public: $120.00 $90.00 $70.00 $50.00 $40.00 $30.00.

Show venue:

The Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center

Touhill Performing Arts Center

Address
One University Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63121
United States
See map: Google Maps

Chinese New Year Celebrations in St. Louis February 1st 5:30 at Weixiang Seafood Restaurant on Olive Blvd (use Chinese Pera-kun)

http://www.scanews.com/2009/01/s960/96002/

聖路易六大僑社﹕華僑協會總會聖路易分會﹐亞裔中小企業協會﹐越緬寮華僑協會﹐華商總會﹐美中部韓國華僑聯誼會﹐聖路易中華文化協會﹐聯合主辦『聖路易 華僑春節聯歡晚會』﹐時間訂在二月一日(星期日﹐農曆大年初七)下午五時半開始﹐地點是在 Olive 大道上的味香海鮮大酒樓。節目豐盛﹐將有舞獅﹑財神爺派紅包﹑古箏演奏﹑服裝表演﹑跳舞﹑唱歌﹑摸彩﹑抽獎等等。拫據越緬寮華僑協會會長黃欽益先生的最新 報告﹐晚會已有下列四位廠家慷慨捐助獎金﹕同發麵廠捐出五百元﹑金鳳凰食品公司捐五百元﹐耀池海鮮超市捐五百元﹐蔡國雄先生捐五百元﹐黃會長預備分為二百 元的獎四個﹐一百五十元的獎四個﹐一百元的獎四個﹐五十元的獎四個﹐再加上數份獎品﹐總共會有二十多個大獎﹐到時定能引起一番熱烈的期盼。聯歡晚會中﹐新 舊朋友同處一席﹐美食和人情同享共進﹐節目和獎金相映互彰﹐盛況當是空前。

這『聖路易華僑春節聯歡晚會』的票己經開始發 售﹐入場券每人廿五元﹐三歲以下不佔座位的免費﹐其餘一律廿五元。聯絡人﹕華僑協會總會聖路易分會會長謝惠生(314-434-2892)﹐亞裔中小企業 協會會長趙玉珍(314-609-8960)﹐越緬寮華僑協會會長黃欽益(314-521-3778)﹐華商總會會長蔡國雄 (314-576-4390)﹐美中部韓國華僑聯誼會會長劉人豪(636-532-5092)﹐聖路易中華文化協會會長李漢澤 (314-429-7345)。也可向聖路易兩家中文報社(聖路易時報及聖路易新聞)的門市部購買。

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Super Happy Fortune Cat 新闻




http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/world/asia/15macao.html?_r=1&emc=tnt&tntemail1=y

January 15, 2009
Macao Journal

Chinese Officials Gamble, and Their Luck Runs Out

By MARK McDONALD

MACAO — As mayor of a small city in the Chinese hinterland, Li Weimin started out innocently enough, playing the slots in nearby Macao, games with names like Five Dragons, Chinese Kitchen and Super Happy Fortune Cat.

But he soon began to try his hand at other games, and for higher stakes, financing his increasingly frequent trips to glitzy casinos by dipping into the municipal budget and several real estate firms under his control.

“It was easy for me to borrow or divert money from those places,” the 43- year-old Mr. Li said at his trial, according to a state-run newspaper, China Daily. Eventually he lost $12 million and was sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Mr. Li is one of an increasing number of Communist Party bosses and government officials who, government prosecutors say, pillaged state funds, company accounts and municipal treasuries to try their luck in Macao, which sits just across the border from Guandong Province.

Many of the biggest losers have been sent to prison and at least 15 have been executed. Some have committed suicide. The scandals have become a source of deep embarrassment for the Chinese government, which has now begun cracking down on travel visas for Macao.

While gambling remains illegal in mainland China, it is pure oxygen for Macao, which Portugal handed back to China in December 1999. The tiny territory, which has been enjoying a gambling-tourist-building boom since 2004, relies on gambling for 75 percent of its tax base.

Now the biggest gambling market in the world, Macao has annual gambling revenues higher than the Las Vegas Strip and Atlantic City combined. Among its 31 casinos is the world’s largest, the Venetian Macao.

Much of that prosperity is now threatened, experts here say, not only by the global economic crisis but also by the crackdown on gambling by the government in Beijing. The issue is so sensitive in China that more than a dozen interview requests over the past month were refused by government and party leaders.

A Chongqing official, the head of the local Communist Party’s propaganda department, was accused of embezzling a total of $24 million. Along with a co-worker, he blew at least half the money at the Casino Lisboa here, according to Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.

The Chinese officials who gamble here lose mostly at baccarat, the game of choice in Macao, but they also lose at blackjack, poker and a dice game called Fish-Prawn-Crab. And even though many of them are neophyte gamblers, they often bet thousands of dollars on a single hand.

A 2008 study of 99 high rollers from mainland China showed that 59 had some sort of state affiliation: 33 were government officials, 19 were senior managers at state-owned enterprises and 7 were cashiers at state businesses. They were typically men, between 30 and 49 years old, and lived in mainland areas close to Macao.

The government officials reported losing an average of $2.7 million each, according to the study, which was conducted by Zeng Zhonglu, a professor at Macao Polytechnic Institute. State managers lost $1.9 million each, on average, and cashiers dropped an average of $500,000. Most said their gambling careers lasted less than four years before they were found out.

Their losses at the tables bankrupted at least 10 companies. An editorial in the Beijing Youth Daily said gambling by public officials “threatens the safety of the national treasury,” though it is unclear just how much public money has been gambled away.

“I doubt even the Chinese government knows,” said Desmond Lam, an expert on Macao and Chinese gambling who is currently a senior research fellow at the University of South Australia. “Still, the figure is likely to be very substantial, at least in the hundreds of millions so far.

“And if you include the undetected money, it must be higher.”

China had tried repeatedly to clamp down on gambling by public officials but had never had much success until hitting on the idea of limiting visas. The new visa regulations, which went into effect last summer, limit mainland officials to just one trip every three months, and for no more than seven days, and have been highly effective, gambling analysts and scholars say.

“It has been a very, very serious problem, but it’s better now,” said Mr. Zeng, the author of the study on high rollers. “The mainland government has strict controls over officials coming to Macao.”

But along the way, the restrictions have helped turn Macao’s boom into something of a bust, a connection that was underscored on Monday, when the stocks of Macao casino companies plunged by a fifth after Beijing announced that it would retain the visa controls. Share prices of the companies are down more than 80 percent on average from their highs a year ago.

Casino bosses, tour operators, shop owners, restaurateurs and hoteliers say they are feeling the pain from what Samuel Yeung, the manager of the landmark Hotel Lisboa, calls “the tightening control of mainland China.”

Gambling revenues are plunging and luxury shops are empty. Soaring hotel and apartment towers stand half-finished. Thousands of construction and casino workers have been fired. Last month at the Venetian, half the singing gondoliers on its indoor “Grand Canal” were abruptly fired.

“The government is saying Macao is going too fast and we need to cool it down,” said Davis Fong, a business professor and director of the Institute for the Study of Commercial Gaming at the University of Macao. He cited a freeze on new projects and tighter regulations on the territory’s casinos.

It is as if the gold is running out in the Klondike.

“It’s not so much the global downturn that’s having an effect on Macao; it’s the visa restrictions that are having the most impact,” said Anil Daswani, an analyst in Hong Kong who follows the gambling industry for Citigroup. “Clearly there was way too much capital coming into Macao, and the mainland is trying to cool the economy.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

文化 - 桃花源記 陶淵明




*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PEACH BLOSSOM SHANGRI-LA ***
Produced by Rick Davis and David Steelman.

Peach Blossom Shangri-la (Tao Hua Yuan Ji)
By
Tao Yuan Ming

Translated and proofed by Rick Davis and David Steelman

Note from the translators: This file contains this
well-known Chinese story in both English translation and the
Chinese original. If your computer is not set up to read BIG5
encoding, the Chinese will appear as garbage characters.


Updateŕs note: This file has been recoded to UTF8.

Peach Blossom Shangri-la (Tao Hua Yuan Ji)

By Tao Yuanming [1]

During the Taiyuan era [2] of the Jin Dynasty [3] there was a
man of Wuling [4] who made his living as a fisherman. Once
while following a stream he forgot how far he had gone. He
suddenly came to a grove of blossoming peach trees. It lined
both banks for several hundred paces and included not a
single other kind of tree. Petals of the dazzling and
fragrant blossoms were falling everywhere in profusion.
Thinking this place highly unusual, the fisherman advanced
once again in wanting to see how far it went.

The peach trees stopped at the stream's source, where the
fisherman came to a mountain with a small opening through
which it seemed he could see light. Leaving his boat, he
entered the opening. At first it was so narrow that he could
barely pass, but after advancing a short distance it suddenly
opened up to reveal a broad, flat area with imposing houses,
good fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo, and the
like. The fisherman saw paths extending among the fields in
all directions, and could hear the sounds of chickens and
dogs. Men and women working in the fields all wore clothing
that looked like that of foreign lands. The elderly and
children all seemed to be happy and enjoying themselves.

The people were amazed to see the fisherman, and they asked
him from where he had come. He told them in detail, then the
people invited him to their home, set out wine, butchered a
chicken [5], and prepared a meal. Other villagers heard
about the fisherman, and they all came to ask him questions.
Then the villagers told him, "To avoid the chaos of war
during the Qin Dynasty [6], our ancestors brought their
families and villagers to this isolated place and never left
it, so we've had no contact with the outside world." They
asked the fisherman what the present reign was. They were
not even aware of the Han Dynasty [7], let alone the Wei [8]
and Jin. The fisherman told them everything he knew in great
detail, and the villagers were amazed and heaved sighs. Then
other villagers also invited the fisherman to their homes,
where they gave him food and drink. After several days
there, the fisherman bid farewell, at which time some
villagers told him, "It's not worth telling people on the
outside about us." [9]

The fisherman exited through the opening, found his boat, and
retraced his route while leaving markers to find this place
again. Upon his arrival at the prefecture town he went to
the prefect and told him what had happened. The prefect
immediately sent a person to follow the fisherman and look
for the trail markers, but they got lost and never found the
way.

Liu Ziji [10] of Nanyang [11] was a person of noble
character. When he heard this story he was happy and planned
to visit the Shangri-la, but he died of illness before he
could accomplish it. After that no one else ever looked for
the place.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

Translator's Notes

[1] Chinese nature poet, c. 365-427. This prose story is
one of the poet's most well-known works.
[2] 376-396.
[3] 265-420 (actually two sequential dynasties, the
"Western" and the "Eastern").
[4] A place in present-day Hunan Province.
[5] "...set out wine, butchered a chicken": A stock phrase
meaning to entertain a guest lavishly.
[6] 221-206 B.C.
[7] 206 B.C. to A.D. 220.
[8] A.D. 220-265.
[9] The villagers would just as soon keep their existence secret.
[10] A retired scholar of the Jin Dynasty.
[11] A place in present-day Henan Province.

This translation is based on the SiKuQuanShu text with
editorial emendations and punctuation by the translators. It
was done by Rick Davis (Japan) with help from David Steelman
(Taiwan).

The original Chinese:

桃花源記

陶淵明

晉太元中武陵人捕魚為業。緣溪行﹐忘路之遠近。忽逢
桃花林﹐夾岸數百步中無雜樹﹐芳華鮮美落英繽紛。漁
人甚異之。復前行欲窮其林。林盡水源便得一山。山有
小口仿佛若有光。便捨船從口入。初極狹纔通人。復行
數十步豁然開朗。土地平礦屋舍儼然。有良田美池桑竹
之屬。阡陌交通雞犬相聞。其中往來種作。男女衣著悉
如外人。黃髮垂髫並怡然自樂。見漁人乃大驚問所從來。
具答之。便要還家為設酒殺雞作食。村中聞有此人咸來
問訊。自云先世避秦時亂率妻子邑人。來此絕境不復出
焉。遂與外人間隔。問今是何世乃不知有漢無論魏晉。
此人一一為具言所聞皆歎惋。餘人各復延至其家皆出酒
食。停數日辭去。此中人語云不足為外人道也。既出得
其船便扶向路處處誌之。及郡下詣太守說如此。太守即
遣人隨其往。尋向所誌遂迷不復得路。南陽劉子驥高尚
士也。聞之欣然規往未果尋病終。後遂無問津者。

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Peach Blossom Shangri-la: Tao Hua Yuan
Ji, by Tao Yuan Ming



useful links 常用的网站

http://usa.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php

http://zhidao.baidu.com/

http://www.chinapage.com/china-rm.html