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THE GIRL WITH THE

MASCULINE NAME

INDIAN ART

OF TAX EVASION

THE SPIRIT OF

JEONG

DEATH OF DIALECTS

RICEMAGAZINESPRING 2014

*

GETTING HALFWAY

THE TRUE PORTRAYAL OF A

FEMALE JAPANESE HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENT

Letter from the Editiorthese pieces, we hope to give an entertaining break from the ordinary and open the doors of exploration. With this in mind, we hope you will find the reading experience a genuine pleasure.

Dare to discover what life has to offer.

Bill SynderClass of 2015

Editor-in-Chief

The ancient Chinese philosopher Confucius once said, “The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.” For the members of Rice Magazine, we are proud to live and act in accordance with these words.

Our goal at Rice Magazine is to present the campus and the larger community abroad a sampling of Asian culture. Whether it’s politics or art, our members provide insight and personal stories regarding Asia’s unique way of life.

More than that, this magazine is meant to spark intellectual curiosity in the broader community and to provide the introduction of a world outside your own. Rice Magazine engages in the diverse nature of Asia – sharing stories, experiences, and current events with the broader community. Through

Rice MagazineEmail: [email protected]

Web: www.ricemagazine.tkPresident

Jim Li Editor-in-Chief

Bill SynderVice President of External Affairs

Lucy HeHead of Design

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A True Portrayal of a Female Japenese Student

The Girl with the Masculine

Name

The Indian Art of Tax Evasion

Death of Dialects

Getting Halfway

The Spirit of Jeong

The Thai

Rene Tsukawaki

Venus Yim

Jihoon Lim

Pritha B

Kaiwen Zhong

Sae Ryoung Lee

Dustin Lee

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THE TRUE PORTRAYAL OF A FEMALE JAPANESE H IGH SCHOOL STUDENT

The True Portrayalof a Female Japanese High School StudentBY RENE TSUKAWAKI

It is six o’clock in the morning in tokyo, japan - just another start of cold, winter day. A Japanese high school girl, A, wakes up, due to the ringing of her alarm clock, which she promptly turns off. A’s room is small but decorated carefully with posters of her favorite idol groups, stuffed plushies of her favorite character, and brand bags she bought using the mon-ey she saved up from her part-time job. A goes to the floor-length mirror she also bought herself, in order to get dressed for school. She changes into her uniform mechanically, which she had hung up the evening before to make sure it would be wrinkle-free in the morning. She buttons the white blouse up most of the way and makes sure that the green and navy pleated skirt is the right length. She has to roll up the skirt from the waist so that it is short enough to look fashionable and un-dorky, but long enough so that she won’t get in trouble with the stricter teachers.

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The cold is never a factor in how short A will make her skirt. Beauty is pain, after all. After putting on the ribbon-tie around her neck, a navy cardigan over her blouse, and a pair of navy high socks over her feet, A is seemingly ready to leave her room. However, she is not finished yet; she heads to her desk to sit down and put on makeup. Part of the reason A has to wake up early every morn-ing is to ensure that she has enough time to be completely pre-pared for school. The school has strict rules regarding makeup so she knows she can-not put on too much. It has to be subtle enough that it doesn’t attract un-needed attention, but also thorough enough, so that she doesn’t look like the sleep-deprived student she actually is. She wants to look more like one of her favorite “dokumos” - amateur models that are featured in fashion magazines. A trades her glasses for a pair of contacts, before putting on concealer and founda-tion to hide the blemishes on her face, and then applies eyeliner, clear mascara, brow liner and blush to define her facial features. The finishing touch is a tinted chapstick she applies to her lips. Now, A can finally begin working on her hair.

She plugs in a hair straightener and wields it carefully once it is heated and ready. A needs to make sure that her bangs - the “pattsun”, or so called “blunt bangs” - are perfectly straight and cover her forehead neatly. A girl’s hair is as important as her life; A knows it is essential to take great care of her hair.

Appear-ance is a big deal in the Japanese society, especially for stu-dents such as A. With everyone in the same uniform, there is not many ways to distin-guish oneself other than from details. If one’s skirt is too long or hair too messy, one will immediately

be judged. A can neither risk being ostracized nor dropping in populari-ty. So even if it means losing an extra hour of sleep, she will make sure she looks perfect for the day. A puts on her navy blazer, with her school emblem embroi-dered on the pocket in the front, and heads to the dining room, where her mother has already prepared her breakfast. There is a piece of toast, some fried eggs, and a few link-sau-sages and sliced cucumbers on her plate. After buttering her toast, A quickly eats everything on her plate. After retrieving her packed lunch box from her mother and saying a

So even if it means losing an extra hour of sleep, she

will make sure she looks perfect for

the day.

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quick good morning to her father who has just gotten up, she leaves her apartment. The apartment is relatively nice with three bedrooms, one shower room, and one toilet room, in addition to the living room and dining room. Like most girls her age, she has lived with her parents and sibling in the apartment since she was little, and has no plans to move out yet - not even after high school. A heads downstairs to the bicycle-lot in search of her bike, which is in the space that is assigned to her apartment. She then rides her bike to the nearest train station, where she parks her bike to get on the next train. It is rush hour, and as it is every morning, A needs to push and shove to get on the train. Once she is on she struggles onwards to reach the small corner by the door, where she knows she can lean against the door and be unbothered. A then immediately takes out her phone - with the phone cover that she has decorated herself - and texts her friends. It is crucial for A to make sure her position in her social circle is still secure, everyday. At the next stop, A’s friend, K gets on, and the two begin to chatter excit-edly. They complain about the early morning, as usual, and talk to each other about yesterday’s episode of the TV drama they’ve been watch-ing. The TV shows in Japan last only one season, and so every episode is

essential to the entire plot. Although both A and K are seemingly relaxed as they discuss the attractiveness of the actors, they’re actually very alert. It is no secret that sexual assaulters are common on trains, so the two are both sensitive to the movements of people around them. They don’t want what happened to their class-mate, H, to happen to them after all. H was not only groped while she was on the train, but also filmed by a creeper who thankfully was caught by the police and placed behind bars.After thirty minutes on the train, the girls finally arrive at their pri-vate school. If the girls had gone to a public school, their parents would have saved money, and the girls would have been able to ride their bikes to school in a short amount of time. However, their parents have high expectations for them, and decided that if they passed the en-trance exam for a prestigious private school, they would be allowed to go. It was important that others perceive A and K as elite intellectuals, espe-cially for their mothers who want to be able to brag to their neighbors and ex-classmates about how well their children are doing. A third-tier public school simply would not do. These kinds of unstated pressures are one of the many reasons A and other students are continuously stressed out during exam seasons. Grades are everything until one enters college. Thus, A studies hard, and is always


ready to sacrifice something more to keep up her grades. In class, A pays attention to the teacher and takes notes, although she is also very aware of her cell phone in her pocket, in case any-one texts her. The classes are mostly boring for her, but in order to pass her exams, she must concentrate. Some days, during break, she will notice a classmate, J, getting bullied. J’s parents are not doing well finan-cially, so J isn’t able to hang out with others and shop or go to karaoke. J’s not fashionable, funny, athletic, or smart either, and has no real friends in class. These factors, unfortunate-ly, makes her an easy target for the bullies. On bad days, students dump the dirty mop bucket water on her. On good days, they merely vandal-ize her desk. In Japanese schools, everyone has their own desk, so J has no choice but to spend hours trying to scrub the insulting words off of the wood unless she wants to stare at them all day. She also has no choice but to eat her lunch in the bathroom alone, unless she wants to listen to people snickering at her as she eats alone in the classroom in complete isolation. Since A is not friends with J, she pretends not to see any of the bullying. However, there is only so much acting A is capable of. Although A does not want to help, it doesn’t mean she is complete-ly heartless - she just cannot risk being ostracized by helping. Just

the thought of being in J’s position frightens A to death. Thus, A escapes to other classrooms during breaks to talk with her friends from those homeroom classes.

When lunchtime finally arrives, A is happy to get

into a circle with her friends and eat her “bento”-packed lunch. This is the one time during the day where A is actually stress-free. As her social status is secure, she does not need to worry about what she says, or how she acts, as she talks to her friends. They complain about teachers, gossip about boys, and talk about the day and their club activities. The after school clubs are a huge part of high school students’ lives, as each student can only join one for the entirety of the year. Students usually stay in the same club for the rest of high school, dedicating a lot of effort and time to the activities. A is in vol-leyball, where she practices hours ev-eryday to get ready for the upcoming prefectural competition. Although volleyball is not an all-year season sport, she is required to practice all year, including the summer, to make sure she gets better everyday. After classes, A heads to the gymnasium where she must work hard and be respectful to her “sen-pais” - upperclassmen - at all times. The team is tense as the national competition is coming up and they all want to avoid being on the bench-

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es. Training is hard and intense as usual, and A is exhausted and starving by the time she is finished, at around six pm. A stops by the convenience store right outside the train station for some food before getting on the train. Since it is cold, A decides to get some hot “oden: - a Japanese winter dish that is a simplified version of hot pot - and after eating it, she goes to the train station. There is no time for her to sit and enjoy the food, or to chat with her teammates. A rides the same train she would to head home, but does not get off at her home station. Instead, she gets off at a station twenty minutes away from her home station, where her cram school is located. Her cram school is compet-itive and strict, where homework is assigned frequently with weekly quizzes, in addition to midterms and final examinations. A, of course, has finished her homework and mentally prepares herself for three more hours of strenuous learning and studying. This extra studying is essential for A to keep up in class, and to make sure she does well on the college entrance exam, which she will have to take in a year when she is in her third -and last- year of high school. That exam will be just as important as the ex-ams she took for high school, middle school, and elementary school, as all determine her level of education. If A does not get into a good universi-ty, it will be much harder for her to

get a good job. At ten pm, A finally heads home. She plays games on her phone as she rides the train in order to avoid falling asleep. When A enters her apartment, only the light in the kitchen is turned on. Her father has not yet returned from his workplace, and her mother and younger broth-er have already retired to bed. A’s mother needs to be up even earlier than her daughter every morning to prepare everybody’s breakfast and lunchboxes. She spends the day do-ing chores and balancing accounts, and cannot afford to stay up and wait for her husband’s return. After taking a hot bath, A eats the dinner that her mother has left for her on the dining table, and heads to her room to finish her homework, before reviewing her notes for the upcom-ing tests that week. The ticking of the clock and some music streaming from her iPhone are the only things that keep A company as she stays up late into the night. When A is finally able to sleep in the early morning, she tries not to think about the fact that she has work tomorrow, or about the stress of living up to society’s ex-pectations of her. Instead, A dreams about the weekend when she can finally go out with her friends to karaoke and shop for a new dress.

Rene Tsukawaki is a freshman at Cor-nell University majoring in English and Economics.

A GIRL WITH A MASCUL INE NAME

10

A down stroke, a bend, a dash. I was learning how to write my name in Chinese. “No no no, this dash should be shorter than the one above,” my mom erased my name and asked me to try again. My Chinese name, Yim Tsz Mong, has thirty four strokes in total.

Every time my mom erased my name, I had to rewrite thirty four strokes. This was probably the 10th time that my mother erased my name. My mom lightly grabbed my hand, guiding me to write my name bend by bend, stroke by stroke. Staring at the vague pencil marks between each crease on my note-book, I tried so hard to hold back my tears. I was four that year, and this was the first time when I wished to have another name, one that would be a little simpler. My Chinese name had caused me countless troubles. It is very mas-culine with the literal meaning of “hoping for a son”. “So, how do you write your name?” people asked me. “Yim means serious, Tsz means son, and Mong means hope”, I responded without realizing that my face was starting to flush pink. I knew exactly what they were going to ask me next. “Please don’t, just don’t,” I prayed, but nope, 99% of them ended up asking. “Haha do your parents really want another son?” They laughed, although they were not trying to be mean on purpose. I was around five when someone first

A GIRL WITH A

MASCULINE NAME

BY VENUS YIM

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEVIN MA

11


explain my name to everyone now, when everyone else had a name giv-en by their parents? In Chinese culture, choosing a good name holds great importance. In fact, there is an old adage that says, “The fear of being given a bad name is greater than the fear of be-ing born with bad fate.” My parents told me that that was why they paid

a fortune to the physiognomist, whom they were introduced to, hoping for a name that would bring me luck. However, I could not help but think this name was the per-

fect example of a bad name because of all the troubles that it brought me. I remember in elementary school when everyone finished reading half of the first page in the exam paper, I was still finishing my thirty fourth stroke. Yes, this name brought me luck, all the bad luck that it could possibly get. My mom does not be-lieve in superstitions anymore, and she said my name could have anoth-er meaning of “faith in child”. This did not convince me, and the realiza-tion of the source of my name simply added on to my grudges against my own name. My relationship with my Chinese name transformed after I went to America as an exchange

asked me this question. Over the past twenty years, I answered this question over a hundred times and began to hate telling people about my Chinese name. Mortification followed me because almost every girl in my class had a feminine name, with gorgeous words like “poem”, or “flower”. Yet, out of fifty thousand Chinese characters, I got these three masculine words.I was in kindergar-ten when I joined the Road Safety Pa-trol, a uniformed group that seeks to promote road safety. My mom scowled when she found out that the uniform was a pair of shorts and a shirt. “Maybe the uniform is unisex,” I answered with an innocent smile. I wore the shorts to school the next day, and I was the only girl who was not in a skirt. Apparently the person who was responsible for distributing uniforms thought that I was a boy when he saw my name. I was so ashamed to own such a masculine name, and I thought my parents really wanted another son at that time. I asked my mom when I got back home, just to realize that I was named by a physi-ognomist. A physiognomist. Not my parents. How was I supposed to

I was named by a physiognomist.

A physiognomist.

“

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student in grade twelve. “Yimm..Tszz..Mong?” a lot of people could not pronounce my name properly. “How do you pronounce Tsz without any vowels?” Being the only Chinese girl in that school, pronouncing my name became almost like a game for them. “You have to clench your teeth when you say Tszzzz”, as I tried to teach them how to pronounce it. “Zzz? Siiiii??” None of them could get the pronunciation right. Even if they got the pronunciation right, they got the tone wrong. “There are six tones in Cantonese, and you were saying the first tone just now. It should be in the second tone in-stead,” “Geez they sound exactly the same to me, this is too hard,” they all moaned. “Actually I go by Venus”, I gave up and told everyone my English name instead. A few months later I changed my name on Face-book to Venus Yim, so that it would be easier for people to find me. Since then I was known as Venus. I no longer heard my Chinese name. “I like your Chinese name, it just suits you so well”, one of my closest friends told me in a casu-al conversation. Every one of my closest friends in high school called me by my Chinese full name. “Why is ’Yim Tsz Mong’ missing from your Facebook profile?!” My friend real-ized the change in my name soon af-ter I changed it. After all these years of struggle with my name, I started to appreciate the uniqueness that

my name entails; I have never met a single person with the exact same name in my life, except for that time when I saw the name in a book, only to realize that it was a guy’s name later. Maybe my name is cool, maybe those flower and poem characters do not suit me. I started to miss hearing my Chinese name from the other end of the hallway, and the sense of intimacy that I had with the friends who called me that. Nowadays, hardly anyone calls me by my Chinese full name. Even when I go back to my home-land, Hong Kong, during breaks, I still introduce myself as Venus to the people I meet for the first time. Last summer, I did my internship in Hong Kong, and I noticed that ev-eryone in the workplace called each other by their English names. It is a universal practice for people to call each other by their English names in the work place. Perhaps calling names in a second language allows people to be distant from each other. I almost felt like I would be crossing people’s personal boundaries if I called them by their Chinese name. Perhaps the simplicity in English pronunciations allows for effective communication between co-workers.I write down Venus Yim on all my test papers now, and it takes me less than half the time taken to write down my Chinese name; most people call me Venus now, and it takes them less effort in pronunci-


a special place in my heart for “Yim Tsz Mong” and for all of those who still call me that. I am constantly changing, every day, every second, and I know that I am probably no longer the Yim Tsz Mong with the personality that I had when I was known as Yim Tsz Mong. I also know that in the future when I get

married, I will probably not be called Venus Yim anymore, but I will always hold on to my Chinese name, my identity, and this special piece of myself. As I know, somewhere out there, there are some people who are waiting for me to come back, so they can give me a huge hug, while screaming at the top of their lungs, “Yim Tsz Mongggg I missed you so muchhh!”

ation. However, I realized that the complexity in these Chinese charac-ters demonstrates the depths of my friendships with my closest friends. People still ask me the same ques-tion I was first asked when I was five, but now I know that the feeling of shamefulness has faded away. Perhaps because there are millions

of Michelles, Alices, Joannas, and even Venuses out there, but there is only one Yim Tsz Mong. These three characters encompass the precious friendships between my friends and me, the struggle I had with it, and the culture behind it. I embrace every good and bad part of it, as it shaped how I developed. Yim Tsz Mong is me, and I am Yim Tsz Mong. Even though most people call me Venus Yim now, there is still

Venus Yim is a junior at Cornell University majoring in Development Sociology.

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The Indian Art of Tax Evasion

BY JIHOON LIM

Over the past 50 years, India has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Starting in the 1990s, the Indian government

openly pursued free market principles, which played a key role in establishing India as one of the top 10 countries with the highest GDP. Over the recent years, however, one of the most persistent problems, if not most overlooked, has been tax evasion.

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THE INDIAN ART OF TAX EVASION

Even with growths in GDP and the number of millionaires every year, the Indian government

has constantly faced a budget deficit due to tax evasion. As of 2011, the revenue loss from tax evasion mounted to 14 trillion rupees ($314 billion). In December 2012, the finance minister of India, Palaniap-pan Chidambaram, claimed that only 2.89 percent of the population filed income taxes. Out of 1.24 billion people in India, only about 36 million paid taxes, while members of the upper class did not contribute to helping the Indian government raise revenues. According to Tim Sullivan of the Associated Press, the wealthy indulge in luxury and materialism. It is not uncommon to find many members of the upper class and the nouveau riche shopping for some of the most expensive cars and designer brand goods. However, these people seem to “disappear” during the tax season, and the number of people who earn more than 10,000,000 rupees (roughly $185,000) per year stands at only 42,800. According to the World Wealth Report 2013, India has 152,750 millionaires. The numbers suggest that there are hundreds of thousands more of Indians who earn between $185,000 and $999,999. With an income tax rate of 30% for the top earners, the government could have generated billions of dollars over the past few

decades, but hundreds of thousands of undisclosed income statements reflect one of India’s most pressing issues. That is, the rich take advan-tage of the loopholes and the flaws in the system. Many people realize that even if they avoid taxes, they will not be charged of any crime, which “encourages” more people to do the same. However, dysfunction of this extent cannot be solely attributed to the wealthy themselves. Even though the rich are most prominently blamed for tax evasion, India’s tax problem also stems from the tax system itself and the inequalities in society. The pro-gressive tax regulation itself allows many Indian citizens to become exempt from taxation. Those earn-ing below 200,000 rupees (roughly $3200) do not have to pay taxes, which equates to more than half of the Indian population. The Indian government also gives tax breaks on agricultural income, which has ben-efitted hundreds of millions of farm-ers and at the same time, has made them a powerful political interest group. The government faces a diffi-cult situation, in which its source of funding is severely limited because it cannot impose taxes on those who do not earn enough to pay them. At the same time, the politicians do not want to risk their political career by taxing those who help them stay in power. Part of this dilemma relates to growing income inequalities, as

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gross inequalities prevent upward social mobility. According to BBC, about 42% of the Indian population lives on less than $1.25 a day, and this in-dicates the percentage of the popula-tion that lives below the poverty line. Since the early 1990s, the inequality gap has widened significantly, due to free market policies and tax cuts that did not benefit the poor. A report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated that in 2011, the top 10% of the income earners have 12 times the wage as the bottom 10% com-pared to 6 times in the early 1990s. Such growth in inequality reflects inefficiencies in the Indian gov-ernment. It demonstrates that tax evasions occur because the rich take advantage of bureaucratic incompe-tence. In addition to this, the Indian government also has difficulties in generating tax revenues because of corruption and cheating that run deep in the political system.The motives of tax evasion often come from government corruption. “Why should I pay my taxes while the politicians are getting richer and richer every day?” asked an anony-mous businessman in a question that echoes the sentiments of millions of Indians. The rationale behind tax evasion is that more and more people are realizing that even if they pay taxes, most of their money will go into the pockets of politicians.

People distrust government officials, and have little faith in their govern-ment. Many tax evaders in India often seem to associate corruption with incompetence. That is, they do not fear tax officials, even if the government initiates a nationwide crackdown on tax evaders, because they realize that they can bribe the officials without punishment, and that policy changes take a long time to be fully in effect.The only way the Indian government can generate more revenue is by be-coming more efficient and less prone to venality. Corruption has played a large part in the growth of income inequality because a substantial por-tion of the government revenue went into the pockets of already rich poli-ticians. A more efficient and compe-tent government will spread a sense of responsibility among the rich because there will be consequences for tax evasion. A more competent government will also create a larger source of revenue, and the taxpayers will become less prone to cheating because they realize that the govern-ment is using their taxpayer money for public goods. However, creating a larger source of income remains a difficult task because many of the politically powerful groups have benefitted vastly from the current system.

Jihoon Lim is a sophomore at Cornell University majoring in Statistical Science and Economics.

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BY DUSTIN LEE

Do you speak Canto? Mando? Or is it Fujianese? What do these three have in common? They all belong under the larger

umbrella known as the Chinese language.

Death of Dialects

The

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THE DEATH OF DIALECTS

local states. Looking at the language situation in present day China, one can see that it has similarities and differences to the language situa-tion in earlier China. The idea of groups having their own dialects that represents themselves, their fami-lies, and their communities is still prevalent. The difference between the common language back in the dynastic days of China and Man-darin today is that Mandarin has become more than just the language of government affairs; it has become an international language in which business is conducted and which for-eigners are learning. With Mandarin becoming ever more important on both a domestic and global scale, one can truly understand why local languages are fading away. Shanghainese, as one can guess from the name, is the local tongue of Shanghai natives. For those of you who have heard Shang-hainese used in conversations, there is no doubt that it is very distinct from Mandarin. For those who have yet to hear what Shanghainese is, a quick search on Youtube will do. Currently, there is an estimate of 14 million Shanghainese speakers in Shanghai. Although this might seem like a large chunk, when compared relative to the number of Mandarin speakers in mainland China, i.e., 953 million, this number is very small. Qian Nairong, a Shanghai Univer-sity Professor of Chinese Language

The Chinese language family consists of a variety of local Chinese dialects and languages. With the

birth of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Mandarin became the official language of the country. However, with the China Region being as large as it is, there is no doubt that many still speak their local tongue. Not to forget, there are many Chinese immigrants, in coun-tries all over the world, who have established local communities where their local tongues are highly preva-lent such as Chinatown in New York City and Vancouver in Canada. With Mandarin being a compulsory part of education, the newer generations of Chinese are losing their connec-tion with their local tongues. Many people see this as an important issue that communities should address. Since the beginning of Chi-nese history, varying dialects have always been present. Early China, prior to the establishment of the Shang dynasty, was populated with clans and tribes that spoke their own dialects. With changes in society and the formation of larger states, each state had their own defining language. Because each region had their own dialect, these languages played a role in defining how peo-ple identified themselves. However, there was a need for a common lan-guage such that the central govern-ment could communicate with the

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and Literature, has stated: “Since 1992, education reforms in local schools has emphasized Manda-rin and restricted the learning of Shanghainese.” As a result, he says that the younger generation today speaks very poor Shanghainese. As more and more people are noticing this effect, there has recently been a push towards establishing more programs for the younger gener-ations to learn Shanghainese so that they can carry on the future of the dialect. For example, famous Shanghai come-dian, Zhou Libo has published a Shanghainese dictionary of slang such that anyone who is interested can understand his local dialect better. In addition, the local government has been pushing for both small and large initiatives in preserving the dialect. From propos-ing the idea of adding Shanghainese announcements on the subway to looking for pure speakers, they hope to establish a dialect database. De-spite how challenging it may be, it is interesting to see how far people are willing to go to preserve something that truly represents their heritage and culture. Fly three hours south to

Hong Kong, a city down in south-ern China and we can see a similar situation of conflict between Man-darin and their local tongue. Being a British Colony for 100 years, Hong Kong was not affected by the educa-tion reforms that Shanghai and other Mainland cities had to face. Hong Kong society was able to continue speaking in their local tongue, Can-

tonese. The only other compulsory language at that time was English, which was not a competitor to Can-tonese. Canton-ese is a southern dialect native to the Canto region where people from Guangdong prov-ince in Mainland China and Macao

also know how to speak it. In ad-dition, Cantonese has traveled all over, largely due to the large immi-gration of Southern Chinese during the early mid-1900s. As Hong Kong transitioned back to being a part of China in 1997, there was a shift in importance from Cantonese to Mandarin. Many local schools began to offer Mandarin and there was a shift of what language was being used in the business world of Hong Kong. According to the 2001 Hong Kong Census, 96.1% of residents could speak Cantonese while only

“With Mandarin

becoming ever more important on both a domestic and glocal scale, one can truly

understand why local languages are fading

away.

THE DEATH OF DIALECTS

34.1% knew Mandarin. Fast forward, in 2011 census and 95.8% residents can speak Cantonese while 47.8% can speak Mandarin. Although there is a small drop in Cantonese speak-ing residents, there is a significant increase in residents who know Mandarin. The jump in Mandarin speakers shows a clear sign that Mandarin is ever growing in the city of Hong Kong. Only time will tell if Cantonese will start diminishing in Hong Kong. By then, it will be interesting to see how both the local communities and the government respond to such a change. Across the border of China and Hong Kong, Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong province, residents also faced their share of fighting. In the summer of 2010, the local government was asked by the central government to reduce the number of Cantonese broadcasting television channels and to increase the number of Mandarin ones. This no doubt sparked a controversy within the city and led to a mass gathering. Just like the Shanghainese, the actions of the Guangzhou resi-dents represent how people will fight to preserve their local tongue. This dialect phenomena can also been seen outside of China in the diaspora Chinese communities throughout the world. The early Chinese immigrants brought their local tongues to their new countries of residence and formed communi-

ties that spoke primarily the local dialects of these immigrants. With Mandarin becoming a global lan-guage, many education systems are offering it in classrooms as a foreign language. Even outside of China, in New York City, the fading presence of Cantonese can be felt. Since 1909, the historical New York Chinese School has been offering Chinese classes to the New York City com-munity in Cantonese. In 2009, the ratio of Mandarin to Cantonese classes was 3:1. It is evident that Mandarin has also spread to the Chinese diaspora community. At the same time, in Ithaca, Cornell has been offering Cantonese classes for many years. Despite the number of Mandarin classes outweighing that of the Cantonese classes, it is inter-esting to see that education institutes are also preserving the local tongue of Guangzhou and Hong Kong resi-dents.

Dustin Lee is a junior at Cornell University majoring in Chemistry and Asian Studies.

RICE MAGAZINE

Getting HalfwayBY PRITHA B

GETT ING HALFWAY

I was seven years old when I first encountered the vast

strangeness of Kolkata, India.As a second grader, who had just

taken her first flight on an airplane and then arrived to find a three-story house that she had seen only through her mother’s drawings on scrap pieces of paper, I was beyond excited. I wanted to ride in the rikshaws I’d seen on the dirt streets. I wanted to stop at

the local vendors to drink water from a whole coconut. Ironically enough, the first thing I did after arriving at my grandparents’ house was sleep under a moshari - a mosquito net; too jetlagged to stay awake past 10 a.m. When I woke up, it was 7 o’clock in the evening, and I started to cry because I was scared of staying awake the whole night through.

In the three weeks that followed, I

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learned to reorient my sleep pattern. I found food to consist primarily of white rice (which I hated) and lots of fish (which I eventually grew to like). I met relatives whom I had never seen or heard of before, and when they asked me in Bengali to sit on their laps, I obliged dutifully. When they questioned me in broken English about how I was doing in school and what I liked to do, I would answered

with yes or no in Bengali and then scurry away to play.

My mother grew up in a joint family, in which grandparents, aunts, uncles, and my other relatives all lived together in the same house. Thus, there was a boy who lived down the hall from my grandparents. I would learn months later, to my surprise, that he was my uncle. At the time though, he was fourteen years old, went to an English-medium school, and was the closest thing I knew to be my best friend. In those three weeks, we were never seen apart from each other. From early morning to when I was told to go to sleep, we would sit on concrete floors and play board games, like Ludo and Chutes and Ladders. I would dress up in his cricket gear as he taught me how to bat on the flat roof of the house. He accompanied my parents and I when we went out to tour the Victoria Memorial or the Kolkata Zoo, and pointed out sweet shops and toyshops on the way – the shop signs written in the elegant Bengali script, which I could never decipher. It didn’t matter, though, because my uncle would always translate them for me into English. He was my best friend for many reasons - but at the time, the most salient was the sheer fact that he was the only one who could literally understand me.

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GETT ING HALFWAY

Bengali, or Bangla, as most native speakers refer it to, is derived from the Indo-European language family. It is the fifth most widely spoken language in the world, by the people in Bangladesh, India and Singapore. It even surpasses Hindi (by one spot), the national language of India. It’s ironic, therefore, that it took me almost two decades to rediscover a language that is not only prevalent in a number of Asian countries, but is also my mother tongue.

Before I started school, I was inundated in Bangla. Vocal waves of it came to me in the form of my parents and grandparents, and I was never exposed to anything else, until I started preschool. School for me became a time of learning and

forgetting: learning English and the American culture; forgetting Bangla and refusing to look back. I remember dinners of rice and daal being replaced by chicken nuggets, french fries, tacos and Chinese takeout – upon my request. America was the melting pot, and the culture that had defined me was melting away. My parents did attempt to teach me to read and write in Bangla – they got books so that I could learn the script and had me practice, as kindergarteners practice tracing the letters of the English alphabet. But eventually, they too became preoccupied with work to keep it up, and I took advantage of it by staying silent and responding to them in English. It wasn’t because I didn’t like my culture – I just didn’t know what it was anymore. A dichotomy existed in my mind, and I didn’t know which side of the coin to land on: being an Indian within my family or an American amongst my friends. At the time, it made more sense to side with the “greater good.” I chose the face of the coin in which I grew up. Being comfortable in at least one culture was easier than feeling out of place from both. Right?

Coming into Cornell, however, something changed. Perhaps it was the intrinsic nature of college that

RICE MAGAZINE

made me feel as though I needed to feel better defined, better prepared for the real world. Or maybe the fact that I increasingly found that the blurring lines among cultures were becoming more definite, that there seemed to be an inherently focused view on creating distinctions – not to isolate people, but to make them more aware. Either way, I found myself in Bangla class. I found other students who wanted to learn Bangla because they were motivated to study in India or were native speakers like me. I was once again opening those books that I had once had purposefully put away. I was tracing out letters once again, combining them into words that I once knew. * * *

I DIDN’T KNOW WHICH SIDE OF THE COIN TO LAND ON: BEING AN INDIAN

WITHIN MY FAMILY OR AN AMERICAN

AMONGST MY FRIENDS.

PHOTOGRAPH FROM HOPE FOUNDATION

I AM NOT AFRAID OF FEELING OUT OF PLACE – I AM

BETWEEN PLACES. A PENDULUM.

GEET ING HALFWAY

Taking Bangla at Cornell has helped redefine me. I’ve not only become more proficient in speaking and learning to read and write, but I’ve learned to deal with real-life situations in both Kolkata and Bangladesh. I’ve been exposed to modern day news reports and politics, as well as explored a myriad of Bangla literature – from poetry to children’s stories. I’ve even searched up Bangla cartoons for kids and watched them on my own free time. When I tell my friends I’m learning the language, they ask me genuine questions about it and ask me to write their names using Bangla script. I happily oblige.

Most of all, I’ve learned to let go of my inhibitions of embracing something unfamiliar, and have accepted it as a part of me. Because I’m not afraid of feeling out of place – I am between places. A pendulum. I’m halfway in between what I’ve

“

been given and what I’ve grown up with. And that’s okay.

My professor asked me once, three semesters ago, where I was from: Bangladesh or West Bengal. I replied with the second, specifying that I was from Kolkata. “Oh I see. So you’re Kolkata’s girl.” In English, that’s how “You are a girl from Kolkata” translates. But I think I like it better in Bangla. It makes me feel a part of Kolkata, a possession of the city. I belong to the city, to the country. In some inexplicable way, I think that now it belongs to me too. Maybe now when I go back to India, to my grandparents’ house, my uncle will come to visit me. Perhaps this time, I’ll read him the shop signs. I’ll bargain with the shopkeepers at the sari shops, buy food from the bajar, the market.

Perhaps we’ll just talk. Have a conversation. In Bangla or English. In whichever language he wants.

Or perhaps I’ll meet him halfway.

RICE MAGAZINE

The Spirit of Jeong across Cornell Campus

BY SAE RYOUNG LEE

From freshmen to seniors, each grade in college has its own

set of privileges and obligations. A peculiar yet heartwarming tradition that exists among Korean students enriches the college experience each year. As a freshman, you get to eat numerous free meals provided by upperclassmen in addition to your regular meal plan. As a senior, you get a chance to reach out to the incoming

class, which reminds you not only of your sweet memories of the past years but also of your growing age. The tradition of older people paying for the table promotes collegiate ties between students of various majors and backgrounds. While most clubs on campus are established upon specific interests or causes, these food-centered relationships arise from a unique sentiment called jeong, PH

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an emotional substance associated with Koreans.

In my personal experience at Cornell, when I was a newly arrived freshman, a group of juniors and seniors reached out to my friends and I and befriended us. On one Saturday, they made a long visit from Collegetown to North Campus, carrying oblong aluminum containers filled with Korean food. Not only did they feed us with long-missed home food, but also, each person gave a brief presentation of his or her major and shared part of their stories at Cornell. Despite their busy schedules, they practiced hospitality out of goodwill and provided a support network. Furthermore, there were ‘rights’ entitled to freshmen to request a free meal from upperclassmen. In retrospect, it could have been a blatant act on my part to nudge an acquaintance for a free meal. Yet, none of the upperclassmen declined my requests, but rather, graciously treated me like his or her younger sister. It was a deliberate act of hospitality that seniors practice toward the incoming class, manifesting the spirit of Jeong. Remembering the favor they had received during their early years in college, these seniors relayed the spirit of Jeong to the next cohorts of Koreans.

The sentiment of Jeong is context-specific and is especially pronounced in the exchange of food. As long

as one is in the lower age status, he or she remains as the beneficiary of the tradition until the age role reversal occurs. Having observed the alums’ demonstration of how to take care of younger students, current Korean seniors on campus are following suit, perpetuating the Korean culture of expressing interest and care. Even in relationships with little age difference, sharing the cost of a meal among Koreans, in which one person pays for the table while the other takes care of desserts or a cup of coffee, reflects the spirit of Jeong that ties the two souls together. According to Professor Fajans, who teaches an anthropology course on Food and Cuisine, the food-centered hierarchical relationships also occur

THE SP IR I T OF JEONG ACROSS CORNELL CAMPUS

PHOTOGRAPH FROM KOREANBEACON

RICE MAGAZINE

in other societies, in which, “more established people show that they are well off and benevolent. The Koreans have a more fixed, formalized version, which could be traced back to the commemoration of the deceased ancestors through food.” What allows these relationships to grow and continue is the asymmetric nature of the relationship between a giver and a receiver. According to Professor Fajans, “A relationship is asymmetrical. The giver is always at a higher status, and there’s a desire to equalize it by repaying the debt. Not necessarily a monetary debt, but it can be debt of gratitude or value of some sort.” Koreans repay the debt of hospitality by doing the same thing that the elders did, which is to feed a

group of younger people in their own communities, thereby reciprocating the favor that they have received in the past.

The Cornell chapter of Korean-American Student Associations

(KASA) has organized small groups called gajok, a Korean word for family. Two upperclassmen assume the role of parents and cook their

THESE FOOD CENTERED

RELATIONSHIPS ARISE FROM A

UNIQUE SENTIMENT CALLED JEONG.

“

younger students a homemade meal or take them out to local restaurants. Even among these US-born Koreans, the sentiment of Jeong is evident and ongoing. According to the president of the Korean American Student Association at Cornell, Ashley Chu’15, gajok exists “to help the Korean-American community, particularly incoming freshmen, find a smaller, tight-knit group of people who share similar interests – a family away from home.” Although gajok “bigs” are not exclusively asked to pay for their “littles’” meals, the former generally volunteer to treat their family members to dinner or snacks.

THE SP IR I T OF JEONG ACROSS CORNELL CAMPUS

The sentiment of Jeong permeating the Korean communities is distinguished from other ethnic gatherings or mentoring resources available on campus. It is more than just an exchange of information or a way of connecting with people of the same nationality out of nostalgia. Rather, Koreans cultivate their relationships in which older people take a sense of responsibility to take care of younger people with no strings attached. The relational ties formed by the sentiment of Jeong are more like communities than networks, the latter of which forces people to self-advertise in

JEONG DOES NOT FIT

A PROFIT-ORIENTED

MINDSET, BUT RATHER, IT

IS DRIVEN BY EMPATHY.

order to secure a job after college. Jeong does not fit a profit-oriented mindset, but rather, it is driven by empathy. Although the restaurant tradition may incur financial loss on older people, they gain emotional capital and a sense of trust and respect from younger people. Through genuine care and mutual support, a harmonious symmetry between seniors and freshmen, along with sophomores and juniors adding to the mix, perpetuates the spirit of Jeong across and beyond campus.

PHOTOGRAPH FROM MISSKOREABBQ

PHOTOGRAPH FROM MISSKOREABBQ

RICE MAGAZINE

PHOTOGRAPH FROM SEOULGOODNESS

THE THAI

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The Thai

BY KAIWEN ZHONG

Two of the most popular feedbacks from people who travelled to Thailand are “the

food was amazing”, and “I feel ashamed to have not eaten eight meals a day”. For many, delectable food in Thailand alone is already a good enough reason to travel to this country. From the relatively safe and clean street stalls, to local family restaurants, and to expensive and royal diners, the diverse types of food you can enjoy are refreshing. It is almost impossible to give a comprehensive description of all aspects of food in Thailand, and this article intends to touch on the basics, some special Thai dishes, and will leave the rest to readers’ future exploration.

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THE THAI

The Spices of Thai Food

An ideal and authentic Thai meal should be a harmonious blend of

sweet, salty, and chili-hot. According to Claire Zhang 16’, a student at Cornell who travelled to Thailand last summer, “Thai food is pretty spicy as a whole. It is definitely very different from the Thai food I have had in the U.S. Even the most typical ones like Tom Yum soup and Pad Thai tasted very different.” “The flavors are incredible, never a boring dish.” Said Ihsan Kabir 14’ when asked about his favorite dish in Thailand. The variety of tastes comes from the numerous kinds of herbs and spices that the Thai utilize in their cuisine. Some of the most important and unique ones are listed below: Lemongrass (takhrai)

Lemongrass is very common throughout Southeast Asia and is often used in Indonesia and the Philippines. It could be used dried or fresh, and has a subtle blend of citrus and spicy flavor, with a potently fragrant smell. The smell of lemongrass is sometimes used as repellent for flies and mosquitos, and it usually takes time for many visitors to get used to. However, it is probably one of the most indispensible herbs in some Thai cuisine, such as Tom Yam.

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Krachai

There is no common English name for Krachai, also known as kaempferia pandurata in Thailand. This is a type of ginger that is thinner and looks like yellow brown stick figures. This type of Krachai is often peeled and added to fish curries, [1] or even served as raw vegetable with rice dishes such as khao chae. Cinnamon (ob choei)

Unlike the powdered cinnamon offered in American supermarkets, the cinnamon that Thai cuisine uses always comes as a stick, and is often used in curry, soup, or meat dishes. Most Thai dishes use only one kind of cinnamon, which comes from the Cassia Tree [2].

Other spices include basil (horapha, kaphrao, maeglak), chili (phrik chi fa) and bird chili (phrik khi nu), citron (som sa), cloves (kanphlu), coriander (phak chee), cumin (yira), galangal (kha), kaffir lime leaf (bai makrut), pandan leaf (bai toei), etc. Some of these spices are seen and used in cooking elsewhere, but one thing that makes Thai cooking special is that none of the spices are used solo. The herbs and spices are supposed to blend together and create new flavors and multiple layers in Thai food.

THE THAI

The Favorite and Special Dishes

The Favorite and Special Dishes

RICE MAGAZINE

There are many different types of Thai dishes, from tidbits, soups,

salads, dips, curries, and desserts to other single dishes. Below are some of the Thai dishes that stand out, their features and histories, and their special flavor based on travelers’ recommendations. Tom Yam Goong

Tom Yam Goong is a kind of clear sweet and sour soup that could sometimes be served spicy, and is called the “national aroma of Thailand” [3], due to the “generous use of ” herbs that have memorable smells, such as lemongrass, lime leaves, galangal, shallots, chilis, and fish sauce. The substance in the soup is often in the form of jumbo shrimp (goong) and mushrooms, while it could also be beef and pork. This is a main dish that is normally served with rice, and is probably one of the most celebrated dishes throughout Thailand and outside of the country.

It is now a main dish in Laos as well. The dish is so famous that some called the 1997 Financial Crisis that started in Thailand the “Tom Yam Goong (Tom-yam-kung) Crisis” [4]. Som Tam (spicy papaya salad)

“(Thai food is) delicious! Very, very spicy. Thai people manage to even make their salads spicy,” said Tarik Zawia 09’, who came back from his recent trip to Thailand. Som Tam is one of the spicy salads, also called green papaya salad. Coming from the Northeastern part of Thailand, it is now spread throughout the country. The salad is made out of shredded unripe green papaya and could be perfectly accompanied by chicken or sticky rice. Som Tam is a great combination of the five main tastes in Thai cuisine: sour lime, hot chili, salt, savory fish sauce, and palm sugar sweetness. It is traditionally an especially spicy dish due to the fistful of added chopped Bird’s eye chili.

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Geng Kheaw Wan Gai (Green Curry Chicken)

Thailand has its own way of bringing food items from different cultures and making them uniquely Thai. What differentiates green curry in Thai from that of India? Coconut milk. The milk adds a layer of richness and smoothness into the green curry pastry. Chili pepper, eggplants, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, and Thai basil are also put in to enable the affluence of flavor in the dish. Foy Thong (gold fiber)- from Portuguese

An egg-based Portuguese dessert, Foy Thong was a legacy from Portuguese occupation. In Thai, Thong means “gold”, a common symbol for luck and prosperity. According to some, it is probably the most expensive Thai dessert available in Thai market as people tend not to buy it, saving it for special occasions [5]. One interesting addition that makes this dessert distinctively Thai is that people usually pour the egg pastry into a cone made out of banana leaves when they make Foy Thong, introducing some tropical sweetness into the dessert.

Besides the above mentioned,

some of the favorite dishes in Thailand include Massaman curry (Muslim Curry), Pad Thai (which “tasted very different” from the dishes in America, according to Claire Zhang 16’), beef with red curry, Pad Ka Pow (with spicy minced chicken, beef, or pork served with rice and a Thai omelet), Larb Gai (spicy minced chicken), and many more.

Not only is Thai food tasty, but it is also a blend of local and overseas cultures. “Thai food is very diverse (food in North is different than food in South), but it’s also vibrant, like the people,” said Ihsan Kabir, 14’.

It is a reflection of the geographical, historical, and cultural background in Thailand. There are also heavy Portuguese influence on Thai desserts, Chinese on the emphasis of rice and noodles, Muslim and Hindu on the cooking of curries, South Asian on the use of chili and spices, and the years-long blending wisdoms that are local and unique in Thailand. There is much more food exploration you could expect in Thailand. As Tarik Zawia 09’ puts it, Thai food is much more than just Pad Thai, and “when you go to Thailand you should try all of the incredible dishes!”

THE FIVE MAIN TASTES IN THAI CUISINE: SOUR LIME, HOT CHILI, SALT,

SAVORY FISH SAUCE, AND PALM SUGAR

SWEETNESS.

“

ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUEWERE PART OF THE

RICE CONTEST

The Fall 2014 Rice Contest is open to all writers.

questions? email us at [email protected]

IN WHICH $500 IN PRIZE MONEY WAS GIVEN TO OUT-

STANDING WRITERS.

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