Asian studies blog

Last month President Trump signed a trade deal with China and apart of that deal was for china to take steps and action to help reduce the number of counterfeit goods coming out of China and being sold online from retailers primarily amazon. These counterfeit goods are not just a nuisance to a small business as counterfeit products now make up 3.3% of the world's trade and that number is on the rise. It has been known that Chinese manufacturers have been clogging up amazon with counterfeit products or knock-off products that are often much cheaper and cheaper quality. The issue is that is much easier in China to create a business under a fake name and establish a location under a fake address and continue to profit off the intellectual property of others. Some speculate that counterfeit is so easy and rampant in china because not as many products being bought in china are counterfeited.  The idea is that when more products and inventions are created and sold in china there will be

The Tokyo marathon has almost completely been canceled, for the general public, they will not be having a race due to the concerns over the coronavirus. What is most concerning and about this from a sporting perspective is that the Tokyo marathon is one of the six world marathon majors which are considered the most prestigious marathon races only precedes to the Olympic marathon. However, around 200 professional athletes will still be competing as this will be their Olympic qualifying marathon for later this year. 200 is a manageable number, unlike the 35,000 expected participants that would be traveling internationally for this event. With Japan already having 19 confirmed cases the government is being extra cautious to no aid in the spreading of the virus prior to the Olympic games. https://www.outsideonline.com/2409494/tokyo-marathon-cancellation-coronavirus

I have not personally seen the movie parasite however I do plan to see it and have heard many good things about the movie. Parasite for those who don't know is a south Korean dark comedy thriller directed by Korean director Bong Joon-ho, the film won four academy awards at the 2020 Oscars, taking home Best Picture, Directing, International feature film and best original screenplay.  The film was also the first South Korean film to be nominated for and win 3 of the 4 mentioned awards. what is the most impressive is that this the first time a non-English speaking film has garnered such prestigious accolades. However some people particularly Americans believe that Joker, an English speaking film that was much more popular and lucrative than a parasite, was deserving of the best picture. It is a shame that some people are using numbers the argument of bigger numbers to justify why joker is better, despite myself thinking joker is a fantastic film. People who are reacting to the parasit

As of February 5, 2020, there are 170 days left until the opening ceremonies of the Tokyo Olympic games and people are concerned about how the spread of the coronavirus threatens this event. Games organizers currently are insisting that there are no plans to change the games in any way, however, the looming threat of the coronavirus not being too far away and a massive global sporting event being close is reasonable cause for concern. Chief executive of the Olympic organizing committee, Muto, is worried about the virus and hoping it will be stamped out early. Only time can tell how much worse the virus outbreak will get and how it will affect the games. Already there have been 4.5 million tickets sold and up to 7.5 million available for the games. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/05/tokyo-olympics-chief-says-coronavirus-could-disrupt-games