Steve Kelman on Politics, Culture, and Life, 6.13.2022
Steve Kelman, Harvard Kennedy School prof, moderate Dem, pro free speech/anti cancel culture, pro tax rich, pro-Israel. Research improving gov performance, China interest. Blog reprints Facebook posts
Factories for shoes for women with bound feet in China
The last factory in China producing shoes for bound feet for women did not cease production until 1998.
Graduating seniors in Sweden
Lots of Swedish TV news tonight was on graduating seniors -- in Sweden's more centralized system, everyone graduates the same day. Half of those interviewed on TV were immigrants, to my surprise many had foreign accents when they spoke Swedish.
Most attractive jobs for Swedish high school grads – and how they differ from US
Report on Swedish TV news on graduating seniors -- their five most-desired occupations were company manager, engineer, architect, lawyer, psychologist. Somewhat to my surprise, none were in IT, none was starting their own business, none were off-the-beaten path jobs such as journalist. In all, the list sounded more conventional and tied to existing large organizations than I suspect we would see in America, especially startups not in top five list.
Person’s name comes last on Chinese envelope
Here is an interesting factoid about groups and individuals in Chinese versus Western culture. In addressing a Chinese letter, the name of the country comes first, then the city and street address, and at the end the personal name. I knew some version of this in other contexts, such that in Chinese culture the family name comes 1st and the personal name 2nd, but did not know this here.
“Re-grammed”
An article in The Times today uses the expression "re-grammed" to mean reposted on Instagram. Is their language standards department falling down on the job?