On China

This is a post that will hopefully keep getting updated and republished as I learn more (and correct my earlier knowledge).

One of the big new things that I've been exposed to here is all things Chinese.

One of the 'aha' moments in that matter has been, that China is a significant portion of the ethnic origin of many countries around it. Singapore of course is 75% ethnic Chinese, Malaysia has a significant minority, Thailand has a significant minority (though the Chinese component has now assimilated deeply and is not so distinct, for eg. in the names. Many Thai PMs including Thaksin Shinawatra have some Chinese in their blood).  Indonesia has a 1% which is relatively small but a decent chunk of numbers. Will update as I find info about other countries too. And looking wider there are significant Chinese pockets in many major cities, Los Angeles, San Francisco and so on. The point is that it must give a great deal of national confidence to see your spread and impact outside your borders. It must give you a different almost paternalistic perspective on the world or atleast portions of it (the mothership kind of thing).
In contrast India has precious little such populations. And interestingly, where there are such populations they are Tamil! Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia. (Though no doubt the Andhraites will soon form a significant minority in the US.)

Another fairly simple fact that I didn't know, is the way Chinese write their names, the family name or last name comes first. Lee Kuan Yew for eg. , Lee is the family name. I haven't yet found out how the other two names work, if one of them is a 'primary' first name or what. Sometimes the Chinese take on a 'Western' name , and then they write their name like so 'Rebecca Lee' .