Announcement




Brian Hu, Chair-elect of 1999-2000 invites nominations and applications for Network Coordinator for the next year. Anyone who has an enthusiasm about serving the group and is interested in the technology of network and Internet is welcome to apply. Self-recommendation is much appreciated. Send E-mail to Robert Zhang rzhang@mail.bgsu.edu or Brian Hu bhu@lmumail.lmu.edu.

The position of Newsletter Editor is also open for nominations and application. OCAIR plans to publish more issues of OCAIR Newsletters in the future. This position requires responsibility and enthusiasm. Send E-mail to Robert Zhang rzhang@mail.bgsu.edu or Brian Hu bhu@lmumail.lmu.edu.

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Greetings from Chair

Robert W. Zhang, Ed.D., Chair of OCAIR 1998-99

It has been two and a half years since the Overseas Chinese Association for Institutional Research (OCAIR) was founded at the 36^th Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research in Albuquerque, New Mexico in May 1996. Due to the endeavors and the contributions of the members, OCAIR, as a professional organization, has been growing into a mature status as it has largely established its mission, agenda and short-term goals as well as a formalized organizational structure. At the AIR 36^th Forum about 12 members came together to discuss establishing a communication group for information exchange and mutual help. Jin Tian, Xiaoyun Yang, and David X. Cheng were the first advocators and organizers of the group. After the Forum Jing Luan voluntarily compiled a list of the address of all attendees. Soon later Wanda Liu became the first network coordinator to bond the group together by e-mail. During the beginning year of 1996-97 Jin Tian, the Founding Chair, and David X.Cheng, Cochair of 1996-97 initiated an on-line discussion on the group name, which resulted in the current name – OCAIR. Their diligent leadership led OCAIR being recognized as a Special Interest Group (SIG) by the AIR. This was an excellent start. In the following year, HongYu Chen, the 1997-98 Chair, led the Association to make a great break in the aspect of Association legislation by setting up the first OCAIR by-laws. The current OCAIR Constitution and By-laws were adapted mainly based on 1997-98’s version of the By-laws.

In the OCAIR 3^rd meeting in Minneapolis in May of 1998, the issue of competing for the affiliation with AIR was put forth, which became the central issue of the year. In order for the application for affiliation status to proceed more smoothly, three tasks were accomplished after the meeting. First, we sincerely invited on board two senior higher education researchers, Theresa Y. Smith, Director of the Center for Post-secondary Student Retention Studies and Samuel S. Peng, Director of NCES Programs and Education Data Training to be OCAIR advisors. They kindly accepted the invitation although they were very busy on their research projects. Second, the Association name was revisited. The discussion was very zealous with heated debates coupled with different points of view. Most of the members expressed their opinions, suggestions, comments, and ideas freely. Valuable and timely pieces of advice were received from our gracious advisors. During the discussion, 15 constructive names were put forward. Although none of them was adopted, throughout the process we made clearer on the questions such as who we are, what we are doing here, why we are keeping ourselves together, and where we are going. Third, the OCAIR Constitution and By-laws, one of the very significant documents for applying for the affiliation status, were revisited and modified through discussions and voting by all members. The comments, suggestions, opinions, and recommendations on the new Constitution and By-laws were well received from the members and advisors. Moreover, AIR Constitution and by-laws, NEAIR (North East AIR) Constitution, OAIR (Ohio AIR) Constitution, and SACCR (Southeastern Association for Community College Research) Constitution and by-laws were also referenced while the OCAIR Constitution and By-laws were developed.

Besides the Constitution and By-laws, the list of current members was another important application document. Thanks to our network coordinators, the membership database file was updated from time to time and was ready for use. On August 10, the application package for affiliation with AIR was officially submitted to the AIR External Relations Committee. Fortunately, two months later the application was approved in the fall meeting of AIR Board of Directors. Thereby, the status of OCAIR was changed from SIG to an AIR affiliate, which was considered as a new milestone in OCAIR’s history.

One of the advantages for OCAIR to become an AIR affiliate is that OCAIR may have the privilege to nominate its own best paper/presentation to AIR annual forum. The date (October 19) when we received the AIR call for nomination of the best paper/presentation for 1999 AIR Forum in Seattle was close to the deadline (November 15), nevertheless, we made it in less than a month. From October 19 to October 22, the procedure for nominating the best paper/presentation was discussed on-line among the members. Through the discussion almost all members agreed that the virtual conference was the best way for OCAIR members to exchange information and experience, as well as to select the best paper. An OCAIR experimental virtual conference started on November 1 and ended on November 13. During the virtual conference, OCAIR members reviewed the paper, asked/answered questions on the paper, and nominated the best paper to the Best Paper Evaluation Committee from November 1 to November 10. Having carefully evaluated the paper according to the best paper selection criteria and number of nominations, the Best Paper Evaluation Committee made a decision on November 12 to grant 1998 OCAIR Best Paper Award to "Baccalaureate Degree Attainment and Precollege Preparedness of Underrepresented Minorities" written by Theresa Smith. Finally, the nomination of the first OCAIR best paper was submitted to AIR on November 13, two days before the deadline. When the procedure for nominating best paper was reported to AIR, the idea of holding a virtual conference was positively approved and highly appreciated by Dr. Harriott D. Calhoun, AIR External Relations Committee Chair. This event attested OCAIR members’ ability, creativity, efficiency, and effectiveness.

The OCAIR members were not only active within the Association, but also very active in AIR and other state/regional/sector associations. At AIR annual forums, some OCAIR members presented their papers/presentations; some were responsible for workshops; some jointly held panels with other colleagues; and some facilitated sessions. Their papers/presentations were highly praised by IR colleagues. Jing Luan and Samuel S. Peng have been working in the AIR peer review committee (Track 2: Institutional Effectiveness, Student Learning, and Outcomes Assessment) since 1997. Shuqin Guo presided at the round table discussion at the AIR 38^th annual forum in Minneapolis. Xiaoyun Yang’s paper "Using Unemployment Insurance Data and Job Record Data to Track the Employment and Earnings of Community College Students" won the best paper award from North Carolina Association for Institutional Research (NCAIR). Theresa Y. Smith’s paper was selected as best paper by both OCAIR and Mid America Association for Institutional Research (MidAIR).

OCAIR members’ outstanding performance in their routine work was also shown by their recent promotions. In the past year, Yihong Gu, Zhicheng Zhang, and Robert W. Zhang were promoted to Associate Director; Meihua Zhai found a new job as Assistant Director; Xiaomei Feng was promoted from Research Associate to Senior Research Associate; and Jie Wu was reclassified from Statistician (classified staff) to Institutional Research Analyst (administrative staff).

The network coordinators, from Wanda Liu to Meihua Zhai to Xiaoyun Yang, have dedicated their intelligence, wisdom, talent, expertise, and time to the Association. Their diligent work brought vigor to the Association; their routine distribution, jokes/stories/news/quizzes/greeting cards became our daily necessary reading; and their constructive ideas/opinions/suggestions assisted the Chairs in making decisions with more reliable data and information. Owing to the endeavor of the former newsletter editor, Meihua Zhai, and other newsletter article authors, two issues of OCAIR annual newsletter were published around Christmas Day in the last 2 years. As a Webmaster, Meihua Zhai created and managed the OCAIR home page and made it possible for the Association to the broader public on the World Wide Web last May.

Established recently was a new network list, which is more flexible. It allows the members to subscribe/unsubscribe and/or temporarily to leave the list at will. Most of us benefited from on-line discussions on and help with some research techniques, professional problems, as well as common interest like green card application or citizenship application, etc. The on-line discussions have demonstrated that OCAIR was comprised of high-tech personnel. For instance, OCAIR colleagues could solve the same problem in different ways by using different software applications.

The recruitment of new members progressed successfully in the past year. Since the third meeting, OCAIR has attracted 16 more new members. The total headcount of the current members reached 46, which is more than three times over that (14) in 1996.

Although OCAIR is not a political organization, we, Chinese descendants, cared for our brothers/sisters who suffered so much in the May riot in Indonesia. A victim’s accusation of the gang rapes of Indonesian Chinese women in the riot in Indonesia forwarded by Joan Jiang brought our attention to the claim for the justice of such crimes. Meanwhile Siew Yoke Sze Tho’s statement on her past experience in Malaysia echoed strongly among OCAIR members. Having been drafted by Jing Luan, the open letters with widely collected signatures were sent to the Senators and Congressmen/Congresswomen of the United States of America and Mrs. Mary Robinson, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in early August.

Although we have done a lot and achieved a lot during the last two and a half years, many new projects, tasks, and/or missions are waiting for us to accomplish. First, the first virtual conference with normal procedures will be held next year. It will start from very beginning, i.e. from calling for proposals. The Proposal Peer Review Committee, the Best Paper Evaluation Committee, and other special task committees will be composed for the various purposes. Second, the election for Chair-elect (1999-2000) will be conducted. While more and more new members have been joining us, the election will be expected more competitive among the prospected candidates. Third, the visibility and stature of the Association will continue to be increased by keeping nominating and presenting group best paper. Forth, we will continue to work with NY US-China Education Foundation (USCEF) as Advisor and Consultant for community college projects in China, which is led by H. Brian Hu. Fifth, as some members mentioned during the association name revisit that OCAIR should be affiliated with Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association (CAERDA), we may at least go ahead to establish a sister organization relationship between the two Associations. Therefore, we may learn some successful experience from CAERDA, exchange professional information among members, as well as promote mutual development. Last but not least, we will soon or later publish our own publications either in Chinese version or in English version.

In summary, the past year has been a very successful and very productive one for OCAIR. The association name was revisited. The Constitution and By-laws were revisited and passed. The application for the affiliation with AIR was approved. The experimental virtual conference was held. The first association best paper award was granted. The nomination for the best paper was submitted to the AIR. The association home page was published. The new network list was established. More new members were recruited. A wide range of services continued to be provided to members. The visibility and stature of the Association continued to grow. And our care, sympathy, and support to Indonesian Chinese were expressed. All of these brilliant achievements were gained by the concerted efforts and selfless dedications of all members. Thanks to all those who made these accomplishments possible.

While we are proud of our achievements in the past, we must realize clearly that a lot of difficult missions need to be done in the future. The fact of the status change from SIG to a normal AIR affiliation doesn’t mean that OCAIR has arrived in the destination. On the contrary, this is just the first step on our long journey. Colleagues, as the Association Chair, I could not be more than satisfied with your cooperation and support. Let’s continue to work together to achieve greater victory in the coming year.

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Shinning Shells of the Sea of Arts

My Three-years Experience As An Institutional Researcher
Meihua Zhai, Ph.D.

For 1998, I did not have the luxury to travel abroad, nor did I have the opportunity to tour around this country. When Brian first called for contributions to this newsletter, I thought: I wish I did both so that I could have something to write about. I still remember how Jin Tian’s essay about his trip to China brought tears to my eyes. As we are approaching the beginning of a new year, as Christmas lights start blinking again, as I sat down to compose my annual Christmas letters to my friends, I started to think about what I did in the past year, the lessons I learned and the experience I gained. Suddenly I had an idea: why can’t I write about what I have learned during the past year or the past three years to share with my colleagues? After all, who else in this group has changed three jobs during the past three years?!

When I first switched from teaching Chinese to Institutional Research three years ago, God knows what I knew. I had to look it up in the dictionary to find out the true meaning of retention. The only assessment I knew was writing very hard tests on the use of "le" in Chinese so that my students would not get all of them right. My first IR employer was brave enough to hire me and I was desperate enough to accept the job. Luckily I had a very good supervisor who later told me that one of the important reasons that they hired me was that I was honest: when I did not know, I did not pretend to know. I did not bother to figure out what I said or asked that revealed my ignorance about IR during my interview. I was just very grateful to them for being able to peek through that ignorance and see my value (I assume I possess some). Lesson-learned No. 1: Be honest. As I continued my sailing on the journey toward the next horizon (Minneapolis Theme), I added more lessons to my list. Here are the other lessons I learned in the past three years:

• Be informative
• Be communicative
• Be supportive
• Be proactive
• Be evaluative
• Be predictive
• Be Honest

Honesty has been my best defensive device. When there’s something I don’t know, I always tell people that I am not familiar with this subject at this moment, but I am going to check it out and get back to them later. At the same time, if I find that I have to use this device too often, I would stop to check: something must be wrong. Then I will have to find out what has been wrong and start to correct it.

Be Informative

I learned this lesson the hard way. In his attempt to train me and get himself out of a job, one summer, my boss asked me to attend several of the enrollment management meetings with five VPs. One of the purposes for the meetings was to find out or reach on a formula that would raise the admission criteria to the System’s requirement level, while maintaining the current enrollment. As the VPs were struggling with the cutoff scores and what-if scenarios, I managed to convey to them that we should not base our formula on only one-year’s enrollment figure. We needed to look at the retention patterns for the past several years to see what had been happening on campus to decide the cutoff scores for admission. They adopted my idea (which my boss told me that he had tried to sell for several years, but failed) and I came back from the meeting, charged with the responsibility to find out the pattern and the predictive equation of enrollment. As I went back to meet the committee chair, a VP, and presented my nicely laid-out chart of 11x18 to him, he asked me one simple question: "How am I going to read the chart?" Lesson-learned No.2: Be informative in presenting information. In other words, don’t give people a clock and not tell them what time it is. Administrators either do not have time to read the clock or they read the clock and still don’t know what time it is. We need to give them the clock and tell them what time it is. From then on, I always spell out the "theme" of my charts or the answers that the charts were meant to answer. This approach has been working very well for me. Recently I did a study for Academic Affairs, which had one and a half page of writing with eight charts. I got a thank-you letter from one of the deans the day after I turned in the study. The dean thanked me the data turned into information. Nothing is more awarding than having your work appreciated by the university community.

Be Communicative

Lesson No. 3 is related with No. 2. After I "sold" the analytical approach to the enrollment management committee, my boss asked me how I managed to do it at the first meeting I attend since he had tried for several years to persuade the VPs to adopt it and failed. I still don’t know if my answer is the correct one. My observation was that my boss was an excellent IR researcher and one of the few who can make numbers talk. Just because he was so good, it does not take him long to loose his audience. I knew it because I had been there and experienced it myself many, many times. Luckily, I could ask him to explain to me step by step, something not everyone feels comfortable to do. My conclusion was that when people do not understand what you are talking about, they won’t buy your stuff no matter how good it is. In my case, I was a lay-person myself, trying to interpret my boss’ brilliant ideas into something that my other audience could relate to. They realized the value of it and they bought the idea. Lesson No. 3: Be communicative in a world where people do not speak the same language. It does not matter how good our ideas are. People won’t adopt them if they don’t understand them. First, try to find out what language your audience speak, and then use their language to convey your ideas. It also helps to talk with your audience, instead of being in front of them. When we are in front of them, we are confronting them. When we are with them, we are supporting them. The contents may be the same, but the results can be quite different. This attitude is very important when we do assessment. We are assessing to help and improve. We are not assessing to examine.

Be Supportive

While we are constantly relying on people in different offices on campus to get the information we need for surveys, people also rely on us for information concerning the university. If we can stretch ourselves a little bit to help others, it will in turn help us. One day after I got back home from work and started preparing dinner, I got a phone call from the associate registrar, asking me to help with some enrollment figures because they just switched to Banners and could not get the kind of information that the Provost was asking. The Provost was in Atlanta, called home at 5:00 p.m., needing the information by 8:00 a.m. the next day to defend the university. After I answered the call, I turned off the burner, sent my son to a friend’s place and went back to the office. I worked with the registrar until over 10:00 p.m. that evening and got everything she needed for the next morning. After that night, the registrar gave me her personal desk phone number so that I did not have to talk to her secretary when I needed her and she would always make sure I got whatever I needed from her office ASAP. This helped build very healthy inter-office relationships. We all benefit from it.

Be Pro-active instead of Re-active

As I sailed along, as I had more experience with different IR offices, I realized that in our profession, we have two kinds of researchers: pro-active and re-active. To be pro-active, the researchers always keeps a watchful eye on things happening on campus and try to get prepared for planning and assessment needs. The re-active type of researcher is one who waits until the information/data requests come to the office. Without knowing the background behind the questions, we may only be able to provide answers to the questions asked. Knowing the background, we may help people with the questions to re-think about their questions and ask more meaningful questions. Many times people were just very happy that they knew what kind of questions they want to ask. It sounds odd, but it was true.

Be Evaluative

As I am in the assessment business, I not only help studying the university, but also study myself. Since I am often emerged within numbers and buried underneath piles of paper, it is very easy for me to get into the details and forget about the whole picture. Therefore, I make it a rule to stop and ask myself the following questions: Where I am now? Where’s target? Am I going to get where I want to go given the way and the direction I am moving? Every morning, as I get to the office, I would always write a to-do list before getting into the database. After I finish one thing, I would cross it out. This will help me focus and get things done.

Universities use performance indicators (PI) to gauge their effectiveness. I have my own PIs to gauge my own productivity. One of my favorite parameter is the ratio of my time spent and things accomplished the project. I bench marking with myself. It sounds weird, but who wants to be normal?! For example: when I find I am doing something in a repetitive and time consuming manner, I would stop and think if I can do it some other way. As I was keeping track student flow models, I found that I would do the same query for 10 different cohorts each quarter. The work started to get boring, but I had to do it. Instead of spending the time to do it manually, I stopped working. I got myself books on macro and on visual basic application. I spent one weekend on them, crammed my aging brain, and developed 10 macro buttons for the spreadsheets, 5 forms to control the database queries and finally made the spreadsheet and database talking to each other. As a result, each quarter, instead of spending one week or two updating the model, I press the buttons several times, run the form several times. The work was done in one morning. This kind of approach got me the reputation that if Meihua had to do the same query twice, she would do it twice in two different ways. If she had to do it twice the same ways, she would develop a macro to do the job. I did not know about my reputation until people asked me: "Are you still doing this" after I left one office. I am not a computer pro, nor do I have the intention of being certified by Microsoft. However, knowing some timesaving tricks will help improve my own effectiveness. The more time I save, the more time I will have to learn new "tricks", which will in turn help save time. This is a great cycle to be in.

Be Predictive

Trying to be ahead of the game will always help to win the game. How can we do it? By being predictive: given the questions asked by the legislators, by the board of governors, by the university community, given the current data we have, can we meet the information needs? If not, what should we do? Another important issue we cannot neglect is the Internet phenomena: How can we leverage this technology to benefit ourselves? Internet is information and we are in the information business. Next decade will be the decade of digital communication and Internet business. Those who can ride the Internet surf will be the winners. Those who left behind will either have to catch up or be terminated. For us IR researchers, we will need to master the skills and languages that will bring database to the Internet, turn static spreadsheet links to dynamic and live data queries. Network and data warehousing will be the next buzzwords, just as performance indicators of assessment and planning. The challenge is there, but the fun can be yours.

Many years ago, as I was first exposed to Maslow’s ranks of human needs, I bought his theory right away. After that, I found myself constantly using his theory to gauge human behavior, including my own. To end this writing, I would like to borrow his model again and adopt it to IR needs. As Maslow started his pyramid from the bottom, so did I.

5. Help influence the profession (as Robert Pace, Astin and Terrizinni did, self-fulfillment)

4. Professional presentation/publications (competence, prestige and esteem)

3. Knowledge of institutional culture and chemistry (feeling of belonging)

2. Writing, communication and public speaking skills (security and safety)

1. Computer/internet/statistics languages and database management (survival needs)

I know that many of our OCAIRers are already at the 4^th level. I am still probing at the 1^st level. I am hoping that by writing this piece, it will help me move to the 2^nd level. If not, I can still get reward because I used the time to practice typing, which will help improve my typing speed. In the Western World, this is called positive thinking. In our own tradition, as LU Xun called it, it is the spirit of Mr. Ah Q, which will linger around for a while, if not forever. If you have a small kid, you would know Mary Poppins and her favorite saying is: "A spoonful of sugar will help the medicine go down." Positive thinking, Mr. Ah Q and "a spoonful of sugar" are the same thing, at least to me. Well, that’s another topic for next year’s newsletter. Maybe. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Ten years had gone by since I came to the states in the late 80s. In those ten years, I practically forgot about my life in China. I had worked very hard to get my education and also had worked hard on my jobs. I didn’t know how long that would continue until I got that call in the middle of that dreadful night last year. I learned that my grandmother had passed away.

I made a promise to her but I had failed to realize it. When I visited home last time, she held my hands upon my leaving and said, "My child, make sure you come back soon. Don’t wait for so many years. I may not be here when you come again." Unfortunately, her last words came true. I did not expect that the next time I was to see her, she would be lying in a big, long and cold metal drawer in the mortuary. When reality hit me, it hit hard. During my defining years spent with her, I was bathed in her love and care. I could not forgive myself for being so careless, letting the entire time pass by without visiting her as often as I should have.

Then I looked up at my mother and suddenly noticed that she had aged a lot. On the way home, mother sat next to me in the car like a fragile child in need of warmth and protection. She held onto my arm the whole time. I vowed to myself that I would never repeat the same mistake again. I wanted my mother to visit America. I came home and wrote a passionate letter to the U.S. Consulate General in China. She encountered no hassle, but only a smooth grant of approval for a visit to America.

On a bright morning in June, pushing her luggage cart, mother gradually emerged from the custom-check area. She did not carry a lot with her. I led her to my car. When she saw my car, she looked at me and smiled, "Now, mom is going to sit in her son’s car!" That was more than just a word of appreciation. She was happy to see that I was successful in a land so far away. She was also happy to know that she could come here for my grandmother and my father, who never lived to see my life in America.

When we got home, she took out the presents she brought with her. She also brought me all the copies of the Chinese newspaper called Reader’s Digest that she had been collecting since I was last in China. She knew I loved reading that newspaper. The next morning, she got up early and walked around the house, examining everything like a mother would do. She liked the cathedral ceiling a lot. "It makes you feel real uplifted." She liked the sweeping view of Santa Cruz and the ocean as well.

Mother also studied all the appliances in the kitchen. She said she did not trust the microwave. She was right. Microwaves really do not cook food thoroughly. One time, I noticed an ant that had got into it, and I turned the microwave on. To my surprise, nothing happened to the ant. Maybe its little body had too little fluid.

She commented that trees and grass were plush and green and they were everywhere, and how this helped retain soil and keep the dust down. "Sadly, people have been cutting down trees along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River in China with little idea what that would leave for the future generations." She sighed.

Mother liked the air, too. "The air is much fresher and cleaner in America." Then she turned to me and added, "But the moon is the same." We all laughed. She noticed how bright the sun was here. It must mean that there’s little pollution in the air. "But I was standing on the patio last night, trying to see the Milky Way, and I couldn’t. When I was a little girl, I used to lie on the grass and count the stars in the Milky Way." The air on earth must have deteriorated quickly over the last few decades, I thought. I had little concept of a visible Milky Way. I never saw it. It only existed in astronomy books.

Speaking about milk, she noticed that Americans ate way too much dairy products and sugar. Cookies and cakes appeared all too frequently on dinner tables and they tasted like nothing but sugar. She was right. I felt the same way when I first came to America.

To her and to me at the beginning, American cuisine was bland. I cooked a few American meals for her. She asked me if I had forgotten the seasonings. I cooked salmon once. She was surprised that I put it in the oven with nothing but salt and pepper. She had this puzzled look and asked me, "That’s it?" She volunteered to be the chef after that. Mom was never a cook, however. My grandparents believed each child ought to realize his or her potential. So mom went to Peking University to pursue higher learning. During the past 10 years, she was a government official, so she had people tending to her every need. Somehow, her cooking in my house was exceptionally delicious. It must be the fact that my cooking was way too awful, I thought. You know, the high contrast due to my low benchmark sort of thing.

Mother had a very hard life during her prime years. Standing next to me watching the stars one night, mother sighed a lot. "Jing, do you know that when the Cultural Revolution started, I was your age." The words hang onto me for the longest time. It made me feel life was so very precious and my life so very lucky. Millions and millions of people like my mother had lost their precious youth and their most productive years to nothing but ideological fights. How lucky I am to be able to have this great amount of freedom, abundance of food, and the ability to go anywhere and do anything that I wish to.

Mother is a very quiet person, but never the less very observant. She noticed that Americans use too many plastic products. "I always wonder about the chemicals they put into plastics. I try to stick to use porcelain or metal utensils and containers." I think she is right. Plenty of man-made chemical molecules penetrate into our foods every day. There must be some damage, but we are simply not yet aware of it.

Even the lives of Chinese Americans were very different than she had expected. We went to a Chinese restaurant the second night she arrived. After the meal, the waitress brought the fortune cookies. She bit right into it. I was just laughing when she realized that there was a little note inside. There is no such thing served after dinner in China. Unfortunately, I do not remember what was written on it. Then again, who could remember all the nice things said in fortune cookies?

During the time I was at work, mother spent a lot of time watching TV. She soon discovered a great channel: QVC. She loved many of the products promoted on that channel. So I had to take her to Macy’s. She said she was going to have a "Kitchen Reform" when she went back. So we started picking out all the things necessary to make the reform happen. I got her non-stick pots and pans, serrated knives, shears, and a whole set of reverse osmosis water filtration system. I made sure they were all-American or German products. "You just don’t know how long the stuff made elsewhere would last." Wouldn’t it be funny if she brought back products that bore the sign "Made in China"?

Shopping at the cosmetic counter was most difficult for me. Mother was looking for a particular lipstick, which was very close to the skin tone of her lips. The sales person helped us by pulling out all sorts of brand name products. Seeing that, I thought it was indeed tough to be a woman. You had to learn all the brand names, the codes, and the shapes of everything that lipsticks might include. Mother did not want to get the one she liked the most. "Eighteen dollars? That’s a week’s salary for someone in China." I used to do the same thing. I would convert every dollar into RMB, and that was the best method to discourage me from buying the things I wanted. I do not remember when I tossed away that line of thinking. It must have been the moment when I got my first paycheck. I went out and bought myself a 30 inch Toshiba TV. That was the coolest thing on the block back in 1992.

Mother was always there waiting for me to come home from work. She always had a pot of hot water ready to pour me some tea. We would sit down to chat over a cup of tea. We would talk about anything and one time we talked about the Americans’ trust in prescription or over-the-counter drugs. She said she noticed Americans taking too much medicine. "They are always pushing the pills in the commercials," she said, "to someone new from another country, it seems Americans are always sick and living on their pills." You know, she was right. We must see painkiller commercials five times a night, not counting the commercial for medication for yeast infection (which tends to show up during dinner hour, I might add!). But she said she would trust western medicine over alternative medicine. "Those remedies of traditional medicine have to be tested and its working to be explained quantitatively." She was right. If you look at any diagnosis for sick symptoms by a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, it would read something like this: yin over yang, too much yin stuck in kidneys and yang could not be raised in liver. The prescription would usually include some variation among the major 100 herbs. Oh, most hideously, it usually included dried scorpions and dead turtle shell.

Time went by very fast. Mother became anxious to return home. "I have this huge garden that I need to attend to. And my cat, too." She was getting bored sitting in the house while I was at work. I did take her to a few places close by, like Monterey and San Francisco. She loved the aquariums. She also enjoyed the walk around a small lake tremendously. We would always bring some breadcrumbs with us. The geese and ducks loved to see us. They flocked toward us, but some smaller ones were always pushed or chased by the bigger ones. "They have a class struggle, too." I laughed at mom’s sense of humor. I took her for a drive to the mountains and she was quite taken by the views. She pointed toward a parcel of land nested at the foot of a hill with a small creek running through it toward an open prairie. She said to me, "This place has lots of Feng Shui. It would be nice to build your home here."

The day finally came when she had to leave. At the airport, mom was very quiet. I did not want her to leave. She would soon be pushing seventy. Most regrettably, as she is aging, all her sons are moving farther away from her. I thought to make the moment lighter by kidding around, like I usually do, "Hey, I am the closest to you from across the Pacific Ocean, Mom. Sen (my older brother who lives in Fremont) is 50 miles farther from you than I am." Mom squeezed my arm and smiled, "You are always the silly one." We sat at the airport for a long time and said nothing. She finally said, "Okay, I think I am ready to leave now. I came to America to see how my sons live and work for myself and on behalf of your father and grandmother. Now mission accomplished and I am ready to head back." Saying good-bye is always hard and sad, especially when it means to be apart for thousands of miles. Tears started to well up in her eyes. She turned and walked toward the security check.

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My Impressions on China --Thoughts from Home Visit
David X. Cheng, Ph.D.

I have just visited my family in China during some time between November and December 1998.

Impression I: Labor is cheaper than commodity

For those who grew up in the seventies and/or early eighties in China, I am sure that you still remember those days when you had to wait a long line in order to buy some daily necessities. Those days are gone forever. What you will find in today's China is that, not only you do not have to present any special coupon for anything, but also the salespeople in most of the stores are actually so eager to sell you something that their smiles sometimes make you feel too pushy.

Because my wife and I traveled with a two-year-old baby, we were bringing along a lot of baby stuff. However, it turned out that almost all the stuff we bought in the U.S. could be found in department stores in China, though many things would sell at a same or even higher price than those in the U.S. I have no clue as to who could afford these expensive commodities, since we heard so many stories about people who were recently laid off and only received 200 yuans a month.

On the other hand, labor is still very cheap there. If you take a cab within 3 kilometers, you pay ten yuans or less, which is even less than what you pay for a ride of subway in NYC. A pleasant surprise to me is that you no longer need to worry about labor work such as getting furniture delivered to your home or finding someone to carry your bags when traveling, etc., as long as you are willing to pay a small fee.

Impression II: Everybody is doing everybody a favor

I still remember when I first visited home after my three-year stay in the U.S. I used my duty-free quotas to buy a couple of color TV sets and some other electronic appliances for my parents. I went to Shanghai to pick up these items I ordered in the U.S. and was almost scared away by the large crowd of people outside the service center begging for spare quotas to buy any appliances. Now, ten years later, I wanted to replace the TV I purchased for my parents. My friends told me that I should buy a domestically made product for the convenience of repair and maintenance. However, before I was about to head out to the department stores filled with all kinds of appliances, my brother-in-law stopped me, saying that he knew someone working in a store who might get us a discount. So we went to see that person and were actually got a TV set with three hundred yuans less than the sticker price. Were we getting a favor from this man, or was my brother-in-law supposed to return the favor sometime later? He told me not to worry about it, for he had done some favor to that man sometime ago. Plus, everybody was doing a favor to everybody else. What a deal!

Actually, I was getting free car-ride services all the time from someone I knew before. How would I pay back all these? Never mind, because you are my ___: that's the most frequent answer I got. For someone living in a society where money settles everything, the feeling of receiving a favor is both heart-warming and very uneasy at the same time. I really need to learn how to adjust myself to the rule and culture of that society where favor may settle everything.

Impression III: Warm face vs. cold face

When I entered Hongqiao Airport in Shanghai, the first thing I had do was to find a cart to carry my luggage. There was a line waiting to pay two yuans to get a cart. When it was my turn, I handed in a ten-Juan bill. The lady over the counter was searching her drawer for a long time, trying to find change for me. I saw impatience in the face of the guy behind me. I told myself: too bad, she's gonna be mad with me for not having exact changes ready. Finally she collected eight one-yuan bills together and smiled to me: "Sorry for having to give you all the singles". I was caught in such a surprise that I even forgot to thank her for trying to get some bigger changes for me.

Later I found that courtesy was indeed back in the service sector. My worst nightmare of being scolded by a sales clerk in a store was gone, though I clearly saw the high pressure of lay-off behind each smiling face in the stores where I went. While applauding for the great efforts of the economic reform launched by the current government leadership, I can actually feel the agony of people in this transition period. Who could imagine the pain of people caused by losing a job that was promised life-long when he/she had first started it?

Despite all the improvements in the service sector, I still had one fresh experience that I have to share with you. I went to the most well known local-flavor candy store in Suzhou called CaiZhiZai and found more salespeople standing behind each counter than customers in front. I wanted to buy something at one counter and was told that they did not have change for my one- hundred-yuan bill. "OK, since I want to buy something at the other counter, can I pay together?" "No, we only sell stuff in our own counter." Fine, I went to the other counter, and got the same results. "Do you all want to have my business and split it later, or you don't want my business at all?" I asked. "Sorry we can't help you, because we do not work with each other here." Later I was told that this well-known store is still state-run.

Impression IV: "Show me the money"

I was appointed Visiting Professor by a large university in my home province and attended the ceremony. Afterwards, I was invited to give a lecture to the graduate students in that department. I tried the American style and left plenty of time for questions. Most of the questions were academically related. However, to give you a little flavor as to what people in the academic circle are interested in, I had to answer some of the following questions: How much money do American professors, associate professors, and administrators make? Where can American university departments find money for bonus for their professors? How much scholarship should I accept as sufficient to become a graduate assistant in an American university? They were after all questions gracious enough not to embarrass me with the question in mind of how much I make as an institutional research director.

Later I had dinner with the heads of the department. The meal was constantly interrupted by cellular phone rings and beepers. I was curious as to why they all had such modern communications equipment with them. If not for the cost, just for the matter of privacy in after-work hours, I said I would not want to carry such a thing. The department head told me that it was almost impossible for him to find a professor in the

Department office, either in daytime or after-work hours. The chances were, a professor was either teaching a course for extra money somewhere off-campus or doing consulting work that had nothing to do with his/her academic duties. This was the only way professors could make enough money to survive today's expensive life style. As a matter of fact, the department head carried a cellular phone bought with the department money, since he was constantly on the road visiting potential business partners in order to make enough money for the year-end bonus for professors.

By now all my plans for academic cooperation as their visiting professor were gone with the wind. The only thing that surrounded my ears on the dinner table was: "Show us the money, otherwise we have no interest in any project!"

Impression V: Freedom of speech: too much vs. too little

The constant criticism you hear about China from the Western media is its lack of freedom of speech. Is this true or false? It all depends. If you define freedom as having opposite parties attacking each other, the answer is No. There is no such freedom in China. However, if you want some news such as crime, corruption, or criticism of the leadership (in China, everybody except the highest leadership), and exposures of scandals, the same thing you read from American newspapers everyday, you have more than what you expect to read in Chinese newspaper or to watch on TV today. Which China is the true one? I don't know.

I was at a college classmate gathering, and the host was a high-rank party official in my home province. Other people in the gathering included high-rank government and party officials and a chief editor of a large government-run newspaper. The kind of things they chatted about could have landed anybody in jail fifteen years ago. Their talks made the articles published in the overseas pro-democracy magazines such as China Spring look so irrelevant and so weak. Now I understood why all the released dissidents were sent abroad immediately.

If you stopped by any newsstand, you would find many papers and magazines highlighted with such sensational headlines as rapes, murders, or high-rank officials' criminal convictions. Especially, the papers sold in train stations contained so many graphic details about sex and violence that you could not help wondering whether the party still held any censorship or puritanical criteria as they had always done in the past, or they just followed the simple rule of commercialism, i.e., as long as the news sold.

Parting Thoughts

As much as a mystery to Westerners, China has become a mystery to someone like me who has been away for so long. I can hardly form in my mind a positive or negative image about China regarding any aspect of the country. All that I can say is that the country is changing every day, for better or for worse, depending on who you are and how you look at it. That reminds me of the talk I attended given by the Dean of Journalism in UC at Berkeley. This guy was a China-column correspondent for a major U.S. magazine and wrote nine books about China. However, every time he was asked about his impressions about China, his only answer was "I don't know." So, to be frank, here I don't know either.

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Members’ Correspondence

Xiaoyun,

Thank you for a nice job you have been doing for this group! You have given us a lot of nice laughing either at the beginning or at the end of the day. I am often impressed at the resourcefulness of people in our OCAIR group like you, Meihua, and Wanda… this list can go on and on. The on-line discussions of this group are full of wisdom, kindness and caring big hearts, no matter what the topic is about, such as SAS, remedial classes, humor, stocks or politics, etc. As Jing put it with such a sharp observer's eye, "(The group) seems to have more life on the net than in person". Maybe it's because our Chinese traditional virtue of being reserved, we get more relaxed when being not in person, so our wisdom gets shinning more freely. I believe the coming younger generation will shine with more energy both online as well as in person.

With this message, I just want to express my heartfelt thankfulness to this group and especially to our founding administrators like David, Robert, HongYu, and so forth so on by sharing a few interesting quotations cited by the Chancellor of our campus.

"Abraham Lincoln once said: "Whatever you are, be a good one."

I think this is so true to our proud OCAIR group!

From Chunju Chen chenc@uwwvax.uww.edu
Fri, 11 Sep 1998

Meihua:

You are not alone. I perused every line of the test, and only found three

F's. It can be argued that the combination of "O" and "F" have certain misleading visual effect. However, since visual perception can be considered a component of human intelligence, I have to admit that I belong to the vast majority of average intelligence.

Xiaoyun, you must have spent a lot of time searching for interesting quotes, funny jokes, moving stories, and cute animated images. Thank you for your efforts. I often share what you send us with my friends. They all enjoy it very much.

From Charles Jishen Zhao <Cz2@email.pg.cc.md.us>, Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1998 13:53:24

Hi Xiaoyun,

Wish you a very happy holiday season! Thank you so much for the wonderful job you have done for all of us. You made me laugh, think, and sometimes cry. I thought you would be on a cruise ship in the Christmas time. Did you change your plan? Anyway, stay warm, stay cool, keep appreciative to what life brings us everyday.

Merry Christmas.

From: "DAVID CHENG" CHENG@postbox.csi.cuny.edu Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 10:38:45

Xiaoyun:

Appreciate your nice card with beautiful music attached. Thank you for your stories, jokes, quiz, greeting cards which you sent to us during the past months. Your diligent work is appreciated by everyone in the group. I could not be more than satisfied with your performance as a network coordinator and cannot immage our success without your participation, involvement, input, dedication, contribution, and support. This attests that I selected right person as my partner. Merry X'mas.

From: "Dr. Robert W. Zhang" rzhang@bgnet.bgsu.edu Wed, 23 Dec 1998 14:02:15

OCAIR:

The group has just expressed my feelings. Thank you so much, Xiaoyun and Robert for your diligent work and wonderful leadership. Without OCAIR, our 8 hours in the office during the day would be quite different. Happy 1st Birthdays to Mathew (Deying's son) and ? (Hongyu's son). Sorry Hongyu I forgot your son's name, or never bother to ask.

From: "Zhai, Meihua" MZHAI@wcupa.edu Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 14:16:08

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Memories Came to Me

Tian Zhang
March 1998

Note: Tian Zhang is Robert Zhang’s Daughter. After studying some Shakespearean works the teacher in the honored English class asked students to write a Shakespearean sonnet. Tian Zhang wrote the above poem and submitted to the teacher first in the class. The quality and the composing speed of the poem astonished her teacher and classmates. Later, along with other ten students, Tian presented her poem accompanied by the high school band in Toledo Art Museum. She was 13 years old when the poem was composed.

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The salesman said, "You can drive this car home today for nothing down and just $349 a month." Will you be able to drive the car home without having to pay anything on it today?

A storeowner claimed that an expensive radio had been stolen from her store. She was convinced that either Anna, Brenda, Carlos, or Dee had Stolen the radio. Each person made a statement but only one of four statements was true.

Anna said, "I didn’t take it."

Brenda said, "Anna is lying"

Carlos Said, "Brenda is lying"

Dee Said, "Brenda took it."

Who told the truth? Who took the radio? (Use indirect reasoning)

It takes nine days to cross the Dryasdust Desert on foot. A messenger must deliver a secret written message to the other side of the desert, where no food and water is available, and then return. One person can carry enough food and water to last for 12 days. Food and water may be buried in plastic sacks in the desert and collected for use on the way back. There are two messengers available to carry out the task. How quickly can the two messengers get the message delivered without either messenger suffering from lack of food and water.

A math exam had 20 items. Students received two points for each correct answer and lost one point for each incorrect or missing answer. Mari had a score of 16. How many items were correctly answered on her test?

Grant always carries a lot of change in quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies. Beth needed change for a dollar. It turned out that Grant had the most change he could possibly have had without having change for a dollar. How much money did Grant have in change?

Inspector Glueso arrived at the scene of a murder at Motley Motel early in the morning. The first thing he found was a broken pocket watch clutched in the victim’s hand. Other evidence led Glueso to determine that the murder was committed at the time shown on the watch and that the murderer was one of the three people at the motel: Mae East, Mr. Clean, or Joe Monitor. The hotel operator verified that Mae East, an actress, had been talking on the telephone from 12:32 am to 12:47 AM. Joe Monitor, the motel manager, had been seen using his computer from about 12:20 AM until he shut it off sometime after 12:30 AM. The computer log showed that it was shut off at 12:34 AM. Mr. Clean, the night custodian, had punched out at 12:31 AM and had left promptly. The only fact that Glueso could remember about the watch was that the hour and minute hands were in a straight line when he picked it up. Who should Glueso arrest as the prime suspect? (Glueso made in his notebook as follows. How could you use this notebook and the evidence to solve the mystery? Let d= # of min. spaces the hour hand traveled after midnight. Then d+30 = # of min. spaces the min. hand traveled after midnight.)

Suppose you have one pail that holds 4 L of water and another that holds 9 L. There are no markings on either pail to indicate how many litters it contains. How can you measure out exactly 6 L of water using these two pails? How can you measure out exactly 4 L if you have only an unmarked 5 L pail and an unmarked 7 L pail?