Word: mandarins
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...they turned to Charles Gwathmey and Robert Siegel, architects whose work (sleek, handsome, rather restrained) is not exactly Wrightian. On the 35-ft. sliver of land behind Wright's museum, Gwathmey Siegel would build the Guggenheim an addition. Ever since, the firm has been accused by a slightly hysterical mandarin consensus of desecrating the Guggenheim, of wanting to make a toothpick from a piece of the True Cross; the first design, a huge tower that brazenly cantilevered a pale green box out over Wright, was rejected...
Last year, for example, the Taiwan-based computer firm Compeq Manufacturing chose Utah for its first overseas plant. Compeq's executives were lured by Utah residents who not only spoke Mandarin but also understood the customs and culture of a Taiwanese company -- further proof that, in an increasingly global economy, the multilingual abilities of Utahans may speak louder than words...
...city officials provide or to purchase scarce goods like meat at inflated prices in the free markets or from street vendors. Explains Natalya, an assistant director in a Moscow theater: "I can spend a third of my monthly salary just buying 2 lbs. of pork or a bag of mandarin oranges...
Lewison Lee Lem, a Harvard admissions officer, calls this parental attitude "the Beida syndrome." Beida, which refers to Peking University in Mandarin, is shorthand for the push in Asian countries to be accepted at the top national institution, a tradition that stems from the Confucian emphasis on bureaucratic status via education. Once admitted, students are guaranteed a secure future, and parents feel they have done their duty...
PROFITEERING. While state-run stores are empty, the country's free farmers' markets offer an abundance of everything from mandarin oranges and pickled garlic to sunflower oil. Prices, though, are staggering. The average annual income of Soviets is only 250 rubles, and so few can afford the luxury of tomatoes at 10 rubles for about two pounds, or beef at 30 rubles a cut. Peasants gripe that free markets in Moscow are under the control of black- marketeering middlemen from the Caucasian republics who are deliberately limiting supplies to keep prices high. Managers of state-run shops also hold back...