{ Tuesday, July 29, 2003 }
Fire drill at the Central Library yesterday. None of us could believe it. What a drag. We exchanged looks of disbelief, then the librarians donned orange vests and corralled us down the narrow fire stairs. And when we were all assembled in the atrium, I had a look at who had emerged from the stacks and carrels. It was wall-to-wall Asians. If all these Asians were studying, learning or even just reading, it's only a matter of time before Asians are ruling the world.
World, get ready.
LINK | 12:07 AM | TB
That's funny... working on a university campus, I had come to exactly the same conclusion. A large proportion of the young people on campus during the Summertime are Asian. In the passing lane, presumably, rather than taking courses to catch up.
Jim | July 30, 2003 7:00 AMI bet that many Asians would rather avail themselves of the free public services of a library than go out and buy books.
Corey | July 30, 2003 9:04 AMMaybe that's how they'll take over the world, Jim and Corey, Thriftiness *and* Studiousness.
Cody | July 30, 2003 10:02 AMOh yes, C. Maoxian, you wouldn't believe how numerous and beautiful the half-Asian population is here. It's like living among 1,000 Phoebe Cates & Keanu Reeves.
I admittedly have a bias in this respect.
Caterina | July 30, 2003 10:37 AMBut most of the Asians you see in North America are of course Canadians or Americans. That's more a mark of North American leadership. The big change will come (and fairly soon) when Asia becomes the world leader economically (financially _and_ frugally). Asians will stay in Asia, except when they are running operations in their North American and European operations, and it will pay everyone else to go there. Families in Boston and Oxford will save up to send their brilliant children to study in India and China. Asian cities will have Little Americas, Little Brazils, full of people working menial jobs like cleaning and computer programming.
And one day a woman in Beijing will note that her library is filling up with Africans...
Eeksy-Peeksy | July 30, 2003 10:50 PMEeksy-Peeksy : Good point. An intriguing question is why families in North America, given the abysmal state of the public school system, don't consider sending their children to study in China right now.
It would probably be cheaper to fly kids back and forth to boarding school in Beijing than send them to John Oliver Secondary.
C. Maoxian | July 31, 2003 1:11 AMI think a lot of these asians you saw in the library were mostly ESL students visiting Vancouver. Practically all of the people sitting down at the tables in the great hall are practicing their english. From this I would say that is why you saw so many asians. BTW I am asian and I can be studious, but I can be one lazy bastard when I wanna be.
John | August 1, 2003 9:49 AM
i'd rather go to the library than buy books -- does that make me Asian?
also, i'm mixed -- French and Scottish. Basically I'm a whiskey quiche. Or a winey haggis.
Or maybe it just makes me a cheap drunk.
We don't read -- us mixed French/Scots -- we just freeze our asses off in our dirty underwear. So much for ruling the planet!
But think of it -- Marys Queen of Scots running all over the place!
{ Post a comment }
Looks like the last census for Vancouver was done in 1996... Asians (Chinese, South and Southeast Asian, Filipino, Korean, Japanese) accounted for over 25% of the population at the time... I imagine that number has grown significantly since last count.
I'm less interested in their studiousness than I am in their mating habits... there must be hordes of stunningly attractive mixed-race children in that city, no?
C. Maoxian | July 30, 2003 12:52 AM