Asia Culture

Thirty miles south of the border with starving North Korea, young women in the South Korean capital are starving themselves, victims not of famine but of fashion. Dr. Si Hyung Lee has seen this dark side of affluence and modernity. He remembers best the patient who died of respiratory failure. "She was a pediatrician's daughter," said Lee, director of the Korea Institute of Social Psychiatry at Koryo General Hospital in Seoul. "Her father and mother were both doctors."

The Soviet Union's demise a decade ago sent ethnic Russians streaming out of Central Asia's steppes, leaving behind war, shriveling salaries and neighbors suddenly resentful of their erstwhile colonizers. But many more quietly stayed behind. Some couldn't afford the journey to Russia. Others saw little point in leaving these sunnier lands they have called home all their lives for Russia's frigid expanse.

Craig, a high school senior, lives a fantasy most teen-agers only dream. He and his sister Zoe, 14, live in a sprawling San Marino ranch house, their one chaperon an elderly servant who speaks no English. Their Taiwanese parents run a construction company in Taipei. Dad drops by every few months on business, but Craig has seen his mother only twice in three years.

The animals that are Mongolia's lifeblood are dying. Vultures and crows tear at frost-stiffened sheep carcasses scattered across the snowy steppe. Dogs hungrily circle dying cattle, waiting to feed. In one of Mongolia's deadliest winters in 50 years, 1.3 million head of livestock are dead, impoverishing nomadic herders who rely on their animals for everything, the United Nations reports. It says that by May, 6.

English is the language of business in Asia. When a Thai businessman negotiates with his Japanese counterparts, the deal is likely to be written in English. When a Korean trader visits Indonesia, the chances are that the negotiations will take place in English. While French was the lingua franca of Indochina for the first half of the 20th Century, all that is left of French culture is the baguette.

Seldom has the Asia-Pacific region appeared as pacific as now. In a single year, the Soviet threat has disappeared. Hopes for peace in Indochina have emerged. Ever-hostile North and South Korea are talking reconciliation. And America is preparing to make up with Vietnam. Spots of tension remain. But in a sweep down the coast of the Asian continent and around Southeast Asia, nowhere can a powder keg be found before arriving at India and Pakistan and their potential for nuclear war.

"One thing we know," President Clinton said, explaining why he had not been more critical of two Taiwanese American friends at the center of the ongoing illegal campaign contributions scandal, "is that the culture out of which they come doesn't draw the same bright lines between politics, government and business that we do." Clinton's comments in an Oval Office interview on Friday reflected a view common here and in other Asian capitals.

A new California study warns that the United States is standing still against ferocious economic competition from Asia and proposes incentives to increase the national savings rate, encourage long-term investment and assist critical industries through a new technology corporation. The California-Pacific Year 2000 Task Force report, unveiled Monday by Rep. Mel Levine (D-Los Angeles) and Lt. Gov. Leo T.

Victoria Leung is a master of the unspoken word, the not-so-innocent question, the sympathetic smile. She knows the danger of saying too much. Leung knows she has only a few moments to sell herself--to tell a potential client that she works for a firm called Rebound; that she can help his company get rid of its unwanted goods; that his problems are her own. What she doesn't mention upfront is that Rebound, an online auction site, relies on the Internet.

Dr. Chi Huu Phung has seen them all, from the sad to the tragicomic. A 57-year-old man whose preliminary tests showed he might have prostate cancer recently told him he couldn't afford further tests because he didn't have health insurance. Another patient, who suffered from hypertension, confessed it would be easier to part with his wife than his cigarette habit. Most of Phung's patients at the Asian Health Center in Santa Ana are Vietnamese.

Can Asians think? That simple, seemingly insulting question comes from an unusual source. "Can Asians Think?" is the title of a recent book by Kishore Mahbubani, the Singaporean diplomat who is the leading apostle of the so-called "Asian values" movement. Mahbubani has tried to provide the intellectual underpinnings for an Asian challenge to the values of democracy and liberty. He accuses the West of hypocrisy in its dealings with Asia, and preaches the virtues of order and stability.

Learn about the archeology and ancient kingdoms of Southeast Asia on a 21-day tour that begins Jan. 8. It focuses on the ancient Champa and Khmer kingdoms, the religious and folk cultures of Laos and Cambodia and the Confucian traditions of Vietnam. In Da Nang, Vietnam, the group will view a large collection of 9th to 12th century Cham stone sculptures. In Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the tour will visit the National Museum, with its collection of Khmer artwork.

In the beginning, they were four teachers and 30 children who gathered every week in a small rented schoolroom. These days, the clanging of a hand-held brass bell summons 1,000 youngsters, ages 5 to 18, to Sunday mornings at the Irvine Chinese School, which has mushroomed over the past 22 years into the largest Chinese cultural school in Southern California.

In the beginning, they were four teachers and 30 children who gathered every week in a small, rented schoolroom. These days, the clanging of a hand-held brass bell summons 1,000 youngsters, ages 5 to 18, to Sunday mornings at the Irvine Chinese School, which has mushroomed over the last 22 years into the largest Chinese cultural school in Southern California.

Australians have reached the conclusion that "G'day, mate. How's it going," followed by a hearty slap on the back, is no way to do business in Asia. The blunt greeting has been an endearing formula for winning contracts in many parts of the world. But in Asia, it can be as insulting as a slap in the face. Australians are now being encouraged to try the more subtle approach of learning Asian languages and culture.

Thirty miles south of the border with starving North Korea, young women in the South Korean capital are starving themselves, victims not of famine but of fashion. Dr. Si Hyung Lee has seen this dark side of affluence and modernity. He remembers best the patient who died of respiratory failure. "She was a pediatrician's daughter," said Lee, director of the Korea Institute of Social Psychiatry at Koryo General Hospital in Seoul. "Her father and mother were both doctors."

A rising force is threatening the Western world's lock on pop culture. Asia. All of a sudden, it seems, all things Asian are hip. Classic flicks from Hong Kong are touted by Quentin Tarantino and traded on the streets of New York; Japanese animation tapes are collected by suburban teens and twentysomethings; Americans are buying up Tamagotchi, a Japanese digital toy; Japanese musicians and deejays are injecting fresh flavor into pop.