Cultural anthropologists refer to ethnocentrism as the propensity for individuals to view the world through the lens of their own culture and customs. For Americans who want to see their own inclinations towards this behavior, read the classic paper on Body Ritual Among the Nacirema by Horace Miner. Then have your kids read it to […]
If you needed any further proof of how unhinged the stock market has become, just look at the outsized and outlandish IPO for DoorDash (DASH) this week. The company stands at a $70 billion market cap for food delivery. On paper, that makes DoorDash more valuable than General Motors (GM), one of the world’s oldest […]
“China is more prosperous than before. The people have better lives but they are not happy and confident because the scars are still there.” Those are the words of Jung Chang, an amazing human being who wrote one of the best books you’ll ever read – Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China. In her book, […]
It’s always a good laugh hearing the D&I charlatans talk about “Asians,” as if that’s an appropriate way to group nearly 60% of the world’s population. There are actually five distinct regions in Asia containing 48 different countries. One in four people on this planet is from Southern Asia, hailing from places like India, Pakistan, […]
There is a really interesting concept in psychology called the Johari Window and it suggests that we rarely see ourselves as we actually are. Not only that, but we think other people see us differently than they do. Maybe you’re not as charming as you think you are. Maybe that laughter after you told a […]
The eyes may be the window to the soul, but the face is the door through which we can enter the future. OK, we’re a bunch of underpaid MBAs, not starving poets, but that was our less prosaic way of introducing the topic of this article: facial recognition technology. Facial recognition technologies are becoming ubiquitous, […]
Some of our American readers may recall an animated series that was once quite popular in ‘Murica called King of the Hill. One memorable skit from that series was when Hank Hill – best described as a slightly redneck, beer-swilling propane salesman – meets his Asian-looking neighbor and asks him “are you Chinese or Japanese?“, to which […]
They say that if the entire population of China were to walk past you, the line would never end. The implication is that it would take so long for the people to pass by you that the rate of reproduction would make sure there was always someone walking past you, even though they may not […]
Hong Kong has a very special place in our hearts. It’s the safest place on the planet, with beautiful local people who are shy and endearing, who harbor a fondness for taking pictures of their food, who believe in ghosts, who despise “those uncouth mainlanders”, and who invent some strange cartoon characters – like McDull the […]
We recently deconstructed an upcoming IPO from NIO, a China-based manufacturer of electric vehicles that hopes to take on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) some day. We noted then that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is gunning for the United States in every technological arena possible, from artificial intelligence to fintech. And while China may be kicking […]