In the interview, Mr Xue, now resides in Mt Eden Prison waiting for the sentencing, still insists his innocence and  believes someone else killed his wife, Anan Liu. During the interview he described the NZ police as "stupid" and "inefficient" for the obvious reason, which I kind of agree.

There was a lengthy conversation on His life with Anan Liu.  Xue  insists that he loved Anan Liu, and thinks she is still alive and dreamt her a lot even after he was arrested.

However, one specific part caught my attention - Xue mentioned an incident where he "accidentally"  threw a cellphone at her caused her nose to bleed. Liu immediately fled and reported to the police from her neighbour's house.  Xue "hated" what she did because he thinks that was "nothing big", and she lied to the police saying Xue abused her frequently. Mr Xue says "it happens in Chinese families everyday", and New Zealand "over-protected" women's rights.

What do you think? I know what I think, now I really don't have any sympathy left for him.

The rest of the conversation included details of his life in U.S. and in the cell, check the Chinese script if you are interested. I cannot translate the whole article due to copyright restrictions.

I also added an interesting widget:

I always say, as a language, Chinese does more than just a tool for conversations, it is also the carrier of Chinese traditions,  philosophy, and ideas - that's why the culture lasted thousands of years, as long as the language is still present, we all remember that you cannot spell crisis（危机） without opportunity（机） in Chinese.

Xue Nai Yin's Lawyer, is seeking a bail for his client. It's not because Xue paid him enough money so the lawyer worked hard to try to get him out, it's exactly the opposite   - Xue's run out of money, his lawyer needs to get him out so he can work and pay for the fees.

See.

However, I do like to talk about it a bit. My original post was trying to make fun out of  this "hurt feelings" phenomena to make the topic looks less serious -  as I do in pretty much every political issue. I did express a bit of my opinion but it was quite blur and was largely undetected by translators.

By publishing that post, I hoped that  my fellow countrymen can have their own opinion on these four questions:

• Did those countries really hurt their feelings?
• Why more than 1/5 of the world are such "culprits"?
• Is there any country that has genuinely hurt their feelings not on the map?
• Or is there something wrong with that kind of diplomatic expression?

I don't mind how they would be positioned on the political spectrum, as long as they start to think themselves, not to just follow what's being said in People's Daily or Global Times, then I'm happy.

It wasn't just a pointless internet research to kill some time, I got many previously unknown facts to me out of it. The biggest "feeling hurter" of Chinese people's feelings for the last century, which is Russia in my opinion, despite the fact that it has accommodated the Dalai Lama's visits before, was not on the map. The phrase was never used on Russia even in the worst times between the two countries.

Instead, it's the countries like Nauru or St Lucia, which most ordinary Chinese would have great difficulty of finding them on a world map that have hurt the "Chinese people's feelings".

It was also discovered that meet the Dalai Lama does not necessarily "hurt Chinese People's feelings". It is highly circumstantial - Sarkozy suffered a storm of Chinese criticisms for having a conversation with the Dalai Lama; but the Polish president did that too, and hosted the Sarkozy - Dalai Lama meeting on Polish soil, and yet still got away with it.

Compare with that, Iceland and Jordan, hurt Chinese people's feeling by allowing the visit of former vice president of Republic of China Lien Chan in the late 90s. Needless to say, he later turned out to be an "old and great friend" of Hu's.

The reflections of my findings I gathered from China-related blogsphere were surprisingly diverse - as long as my fellow countrymen start to think themselves rather than just follow what's being said in the People's Daily or the Global Times, then I'm happy that my effort is worth something.

Most people seem to agree with me on the fact that the vast majority of the "hurt feelings" incidents happened after 1970s is as the result of China opening up itself to the world  - the famous economic reform（改革开放）started in 1978 by Deng Xiaoping.

However, some attributed that fact to Mao's death in 1976, suggesting that his departure left Chinese people's feelings unprotected and vulnerable to the outside world, and the economic reform has severely undermined the interests of ordinary Chinese people.

Some Chinese netizens were equally surprised as myself to discover that countries like Australia, South Korea or Russia were not the map. Equally, other people were surprised to find countries like Albania ("the only shining beckon of communism in the sea of Soviet revisionism/Capitalist Europe? [I'm not quite sure]") in the list. What do these facts mean is up to their own interpretation.

It also raised discussions about the phrase "hurt Chinese people's feelings" itself. I always regarded it as a very absurd and childish thing to say on the diplomatic stage.  Countries don't hurt each other's feelings - they speak with 'carrot and stick'(at least for now). You don't say somebody hurts your feelings when he attacked you
with a stick, you either fight back (... well, if you are powerful enough) or just get over with it.  Put yourself in a 'weak' position and make yourself sounds like the "justified" side does not do anything good but only fuels unhealthy hate and revenge thoughts among the general public as people discover that crying for "hurt feelings" won't solve anything.

And even worse, repeated use of the phrase diminishes the power of the "real" feelings of the Chinese people. The value of Chinese people's feelings deflates every time the phrase is being used - it looks less important in the foreign eyes as the feelings can be "hurt" repeatedly with no apparent consequences.

There are people who do feel that their feelings have been genuinely hurt by the countries I listed, and made a good use of my map by keeping it for future "revenge".

However, for most of the Chinese who remain apolitical for most of the their life, the expression is just something demonstrating the total
disconnect between the State's affairs and real people's life. What's the point to care who's been hurting me lately? I don't run the country, and I never had a say on anything even regarding of my own feelings.

What do you think? Any different thoughts? I would love to hear it from you.

It's about this.

Botany voters can't go wrong - Vote Kenneth Wang, get Wang + Wong!

If you don't know what this is about, it's in Botany Electorate.

This ad has caused a bit of trouble because, according to  National's Pansy Wong office, it sort of endorse votes to go for Pansy, effectively making it an election campaign for Pansy Wong, without her financial agent's authorisation.

Kenneth completely rubbished the claim that he might breached the Elecoral Finance Act. I kind of agree. Kenneth is an electorate only candidate, a vote for him sure means no vote for Pansy. "get  ... and Wong" means get Wong through the National's party vote. The ad is more like a statement of fact, rather than a promotion for National.

But I was somewhat amused by Kenneth Wang's claim that this ad is offering voters 'two for the price of one' deal for the Botany electorate. Well I knew politicians are usually cheap, but I didn't know they are THAT cheap:)

Despite of that, politician is not something that you want more when IT IS at the half price.

Nah just joking. Botany electorate would be a very interesting spot to watch in the election. It's not just about who wins, it's more about how Asian, especially how Chinese vote.

It would still be interesting to see who will be able to get his/her hands on the Howick seat.

It is also glad to see more ethnic minorities on the list.

Here's the whole list.

Aaron Deng

As the name suppression is no longer in place, I can now name the kidnapper in the Cina Ma case.

The kidnapper's name is Aaron Deng, a 25 year old real estate agent from Ray White's Pinehill branch.

What I heard is that his family is also quite wealthy and fiancially supported his study here. I understand that he's working in Ray White not because of money to support his life, but to enable him to stay here.

So I don't think he kidnapped Cina Ma for ransom. In fact, what I heard is he didn't plan to hold Cina for that long, Mr Deng just want to "give the family a warning" by hold Cina for few hours, and then release her (that's why Cina was found only a street away).

You know the rest, the police was there most of the day, and his "plan" seems to be backfired.

It is still not yet clear on what kind of dispute between those "adults" triggered the kidnap.

However, I was expecting the name of the kidnapper being released today, but instead, the name suppression of the accused was extended to 4th August. It's a subject of huge public interest, well, at least most Chinese people I know are eager to find out the name of that guy.

Compare with other countries like America or Canada, Chinese in New Zealand is a small community, so if that real estate agent did his job well, it is likely that quite a lot of us may meet him before or knew him pretty well.

I hope the court got a good reason for the name suppression. At least now it seems that the rumours will keep flying around for another week or two. before we know the kidnapper's name.

----------------

IUPDATE: I just obtained the personal details of the accused, including the name. However, as the suppression is still in place, I'm unable to publish all details here.

All I can say is, this case is not as simple as it may looks like.

However, the court also granted him name supression so we still don't know much about him.

But as New Zealand Herald reported today, this man was a real estate agent. If that's true then it's not that difficult to figure out his motive to kidnap Xin Xin. Keep in mind that Cina's both parents work in the property development business.

Quite a lot of us regard real estate agents as "some kind of evil". I think this case may just another splendid example which could be used to illustrates this point.

I heard this news around 4.25pm. A friend who works in the Chinese media told me to "listen the radio at 5".

He was informed by the liaison officer that an "important news conference" on this case will be held at 5 pm. He asked what that is about, the officer refused to go into details, but simply two words: "good news".

Although the police still did not reveal too much details of the case, I understand that Cina was not physically harmed, reasonably well, just confused on what's going on around her.

Police officially announced this news at the 5pm press conference, but still refuse to disclose details such as the motive or whether a ransom demand has been made.

Cina was reunited with her family not long after the rescue.

A 25 years old Chinese national was arrested as the result of this. This man is due to appear in North Shore District Court tomorrow, where I expect more details of this kidnap should be revealed.

Anyway, I'm glad that the kid is safe, an innocent life saved.

However, there are lots of rumours in the Chinese Community though.

Most people suspect that the kidnap was as the result of a "bad business deal".  This was also reported by most major media in the country.

The rumours I gathered seem to be confirming this. The parents of Cina Ma were described by many as "penny-pinching to the extreme", "cunning" or "out of all reasons" in business deals.

I don't want to go into specific examples here, as they are currently unverifiable. However,  it was said that only the new immigrants want to do business the them because they haven't experience "how bad they are".

Rumours are rumours. Even if they are all true, it would still never be accepted to me, and all good members of Asian community, that any business dispute should ever been dealt in this way.

People who commit crime on innocent children are despicable. They should not be tolerated and should receive the maximum punishment available. They are the thugs of our society we want to remove before any others.

The recent protest shows that we will not stand any crime, regardless of the ethnicity of the criminals.  We will not stand for crimes against our community.

My heart goes with the Cina and her family.  Hope we will see Cina back home soon.

The new Botany Electorate seat, should be quite interesting to watch in next election.

National has confirmed that Pansy Wong will contest this seat. About labour ... it's not yet clear whether its Chinese candidate Raymond Huo will be there as well.

Plus Kenneth Wang from the ACT, this seat will almost definitely fall in the hands of a Chinese candidate.

I cannot find the detail on the demography of the electorate, but the new seat is very likely a National seat as the area was long dominated by Nats.

However, if Kenneth Wang do his job well, like how Rodney did in Epsom in 2005, I think he has a fair chance to capture the seat as well.

In fact this seat might be quite important to ACT. After living dangerously for things like Dancing with the Stars in the last three years, I won't be surprised if Mr Hide actually loses his Epsom seat in the coming up election.

Well, it's too early to tell.

But if this happens, subject to National and Labour's overall preformance, either Sir Doug or Kenneth may needs to win the seat to keep ACT in the Parliament. Sir Doug will attempt another new seat: Hunua (which is the area around the Hunua Ranges), which is also another National dominated area.

Kenneth Wang, although not very well-known, has possibly more popularity in Chinese community among the other two contestant.

I known all three fairly well. What I like about Kenneth is, he really believes in ideology of the Party he represents (although I'm bit leftie). The other two, they are just the "I don't care where, as long as I'm Mayor MP"  type of politician, especially for the "Raymondo" Huo, he just went for the party which gives him the highest party rank.

I personally do not trust those MPs, even if they are Chinese.

It will also maximise the number of Asian MPs in the Parliament as other two "I don't care where" will get in the Parliament through the party lists anyway.

So if you happens to be a Chinese live in the area, why not consider vote ACT in this election?

I do not held a point of view on this kind of events. We are living in a free country so everyone has the right to get on the street and make his/her voice heard.

However, I do have an opinion on people who put themselves into this Tibet debate and protest thing. Whether they are pro-china or pro-Tibet; it is in my opinion that people from both sides are fundamentally the same - extremist, ignorant, and both sides believe they are representing the holy truth - the only difference is that they have different religious belief.

If you thought Chinese are non-religious people, you sure need to know a lot more about this country.

Anyway, I still just enjoy to use my camera to record everything down.

Photos below are thumbnails... If you click on them in this webpage, you will see a larger size photo in lightbox; if you are reading this from a rss reader, you will see a new window with larger size photo.