Culture and New Media Technologies
Webblog.Yong Ming Kow

Summary of our research - the story so far

This is a belated piece. I meant to write a summary some months ago, particularly for the Chinese modders. However, drowned was I, in the difficult chapter. There were too much data, and too few words we were allowed to say. The original 14'000 words (already trimmed) was further reduced to 11'000 between Bonnie and I, and then 9'000 by William Bainbridge. Many iterations went between us, and I fall silent in areas outside of the book chapter.

Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual has been published!

Our book chapter, Culture and Creativity: World of Warcraft Modding in China and the U.S., has been published in the edited volume Online Worlds: Convergence of the Real and the Virtual by William Bainbridge.

The book is available both online as well as at Amazon.com.

Two New Year resolutions: "I shall not use theories" and "I shall not write papers"

Now approaching the beginning of a New Year, I am going to make some scientific resolutions. One, I shall not use theories to explain phenomena. Two, I shall not write papers.

The elusive problems of ethics and ethical-ness

The problem of ethics is difficult. Imagine one customer trying to return a product he had bought the previous day; it was broken. The store assistant politely declines, saying that it is the company's policy of no return. The customer insists, saying that it is only ethical. The store assistant says that she is only doing her job. Who is right, and who is wrong?

Inclusion of short articles

I have written many short articles at University of California, Irvine. They are not empirical enough for scientific publications. However, they represented my interests at this period in my life.

For reasons of my inclinations, you will find my writings focused on areas of activity theory, anthropology, and modern organizations. Modern organizations refers to organizations challenged by the Internet; modern organizations are seeing changes to the way they work, and how they interact with customers.

What is culture?

Something which I implied, quite frequently in my research, was that culture affects creativity. Then one may ask: "what is culture?"

The Self versus Collective Object: Core cultural differences between the U.S. and China

Here's a common Chinese idiomic expression for you to ponder:

独乐乐不如众乐乐 Du Le Le Bu Ru Zhong Le Le

I long had difficulties translating this. On Baidu.com, I found several translations:

Entertain everyone rather than yourself.
Alone joyfully was inferior to everybody is joyful.
Enjoying alone is no better than enjoying together.

正心 - 关怀的目的

现代社会奖励自私的人。你努力的酬劳是自己的,由你自己决定如何分配。你可以关心别人。但你会发现关心过后,你往往不但得不到利益,有时别人会占你的便宜。那么关怀在我们社会就没有意义了吗?

自私的说,能说没有,也能说有。没有 - 是因为我们付出的物资,时间,和感情拿不回来。有时还会付出当初说考虑到的。有 - 是因为我们在关怀的过程中会把心思放在别人身上。因而得到了对别人,对社会更深入的了解。这就是正心。

正心是孔子说的。它是修身齐家治国的基础。正直的心,必定拥有正知见。而正知见,则必定来自对人事物的深刻了解。

一个人,如果常常为自己着想,必定会把很多心力放在自身上。或许这样能过得到眼前的利益。然,别人不比你笨。你能想到的别人一样想得到。有一天,你也会被别人占便宜。若要能够生活的好,我们就必须对社会的运作比别人更深刻的了解。而途径便是关怀中着手。

用关怀来切入培养正心,这是古人一直以来提倡的。固然有法家这种比较暴力的社会理论,但以法治国也是没办法的事。因为社会还没成熟到人人能自主关怀他人。用关怀培养正心,说到来必定会是自己最为受益。因为你的生活会因为你的正见而做出恰当的选择。但与其说它是自私的,倒不如说是互利的。你好,他人也好。

科学与艺术

科学和艺术不同。但就未必胜过艺术对社会的透视力。这是科学家们需要检讨的。

比如周杰伦有很多歌拥有很美的歌词。 说:“一盏离愁孤灯伫立在窗口。”离愁怎么会是一盏呢?是因为眼见到了灯,而心却见到了离愁。这是将心比灯,感到了孤独。这个感觉持续好久,所以用伫立来表示。

如歌词,好的艺术创作能把事与心融合在一起。科学写作就未必能有这种宽度。能对社会的事实探讨宽度就因此减少。

Culture as Infrastructure

When we have to solve an on-going problem within any human group, the sophisticated individuals tended to give technological solutions. Even when the problem is say, so and so has a bad temper, we would refer that person to a psychiatrist, who would give pills or procedures sanctioned by “science.” These “technologies” are easy to sell, both as an idea to investors and for people to take actions. However, many technological interventions have little effects on solving the issues.