[withcode id=”3C”]

        长春的四月像极了电话两头的恋人，激情的冷和平静的热。
        总算熬过长长的雪天，于是常让人想过早得换上，雪藏在冬许久的衬衫和短裤，展露荷尔蒙的四肢。是这样的四月天，没让我想起南方的倒春寒，唤起的是我对另一个季节的记忆。九月，秋凉。

        踏上天桥的台阶，我脚下走的每一步，桥下的车都在流动，寻常日子还在过。是这样的四月天，像让人忘了前几世纠缠的恩怨，没有那种明了失去的落寞，只有走在人群中刹那，一股说不清道不明的异样涌上来。

        很清楚的记得十八岁之前，最常和“金桂飘香”一词相遇的，不是在快要编不下去的命题作文，就是在九月的开学典礼。

        开学典礼一年两度，那时不自觉，却总会在九月的中学操场上和它相遇。
对于开学典礼，我是绝对谈不上喜欢或讨厌的。是能逃过每周一次班主任喋喋不休的班会课不错，但我还是逃不掉主席台上那个满腹官腔的老头。
        到现在我都还记得那个老头最爱用的词眼——“金桂飘香”。

        像这种大会，学生们从来都是心不在焉的，没有人会在意台上的人说了什么，他们只在意前后左右的同学说了什么。任班主任从头窜到尾，再从尾窜到头，再怎么样他也是收不住这个年纪学生的心。
        台上讲话的人结束发言，底下的学生会送来貌合神离的热烈掌声。有时，发言稿冗长，学生们也只能把热烈的掌声尽可能拖长，借此表达自己的些许不满。
        大家总想着早点结束吃饭，可总有一个老头，喋喋不休，还最爱用“金桂飘香”。

        当时的我对通篇的“金桂飘香”感到非常不满，如此寻常的事情为什么要在这么多人面前一壶接着一壶。

        十八岁以前，我想是不会有人在意，每年是否能在九月秋凉的季节和“金桂飘香”如期而遇这件事的。

        我在长春上学，八月份吃剩下的海鲜、扁食，随着划破气流“轰”的一声，这些都得等到年底才能接着吃。金桂恰巧在我离开的这段时间飘香。
        长春的冬天来得很早、很快，根本不给我多少反应的时间，就把短袖换成了厚厚的羽绒服。
初来乍到的一两年，没有对这奇久的冬天感到不快，周围的一切都是新奇的，不自觉得就忘记，要在九月的秋天里和“金桂飘香”如期而遇这件事。
        和“金桂飘香”这一别离，就是两年多。

        而最近一次与“金桂飘香”相遇，是我在休学的去年，那是我计划了很久的gap year。

        记得那天，收拾好自己，把门推开，就在弯弯绕绕的巷弄里和它偶遇了。它还是那么熟悉，可一想到我怎么长久以来都忘了要和它在九月相遇的约定，我面露窘色，场面一度像出轨的人被抓了个现行。

        回想起还和“金桂飘香”在一起的日子，才觉那真的是很美的甜蜜时光。

        台上的训导主任讲着“金桂飘香”你侬我侬的甜言蜜语。
        那是一个阴天，刚下过雨，泥土用力踩还眼看得见有点水分。校园里，红桂花、黄桂花、金桂花都在开，尽力配合着“金桂飘香”这个词眼。学生们的掌声真诚的送给台上的人，也送给“金桂飘香”。桂花作为回礼样的，也都在这些学生的青春时光里被烙上了“金桂飘香”四个字，相伴终生。
        空气中的桂花味很浓郁，让我很怀疑“金桂飘香”这一词是在阴天的时候被人创造出来的，因为这种天气，桂花的味道是最强烈的。
        香水大多都是越清淡越高级，桂花却绝不是。清淡有清淡的优雅，浓郁则有浓郁的奔放。没能赶上九月的“金桂飘香”，我回家的时候会打开冻在冰箱里那几瓶装有桂花的塑料瓶，猛吸一口，这绝对是“金桂飘香”的味道。

        阴天，桂花的味道浓郁而四散，在任何角落都能闻得见，周末放学的校门外、上课的校园里，哪都是。除了阴天的浓郁，不同天气，桂花都能带给人不一样的“秋感”。

        大晴天，烘烤过的桂花香更为清淡，带几分太阳和绿叶的味道。
        秋老虎追着桂花树跑，头顶天花板的风扇吱呀呀的响，风从一楼敞开的门窗鼓进来。明明是秋天，桂花味却带着夏天坐在教室后排旁听历史课。

        一场秋雨一场寒，南方沿海城市的秋雨，不仅下得绵密还来得频繁。
        雨其实是有味道的。泥土的味道被搅动着从地底翻了出来，桂花的味道四散在哪里都湿湿的台州。雨天在台州不要太常见，可“金桂飘香”的雨天，现在想来是很特别的。
        也有时，秋雨在午夜，早晨醒来，满地都是桂花碎。

        金桂飘香当然绝不仅体现在空气里，也在食物里温存着每一位老饕的舌尖。台州的小吃品类算是在我所认知的城市里算多的。桂花虽常作为配角，却扮演着不可替代的角色。
        洋菜糕、乌饭麻糍、山粉糊、庆糕、发糕、梅花糕、姜汁调蛋……除了这些独具台州特色的，自然还有众多南方特色的桂花汤圆、桂花酒酿、桂花糖藕……
        小孩子、大人，谁不是一口的桂花味。

        回想着与“金桂飘香”的那些甜蜜日子，这里的天气一点点转热，夏天要来，秋天也会来，但我知道今年依旧不能与“金桂飘香”如期相遇在九月……

        “你没有如期归来，这正是离别的意义”——好妹妹/《如期》

附一张台州椒江区很好吃的梅花糕的店

Podcast栏目即将上线，敬请期待。

栏目名暂定《白搭铺子》。

（文章没有一张图就是因为我太懒 凑活着看吧 内容还可以的）

1、FCPX to Resolve时，Resolve Timeline上的Clip会变成复合片段。

首先，先明确这个问题是由FCPX产生的，fcpxml独特的机制导致但凡是使用了变速的Clip，在Conform到Resolve中之后都会变成复合片段。

对于调色师来说，由于流程的不规范，往往很难实现一次就Locked Cut（实际上想要一次Locked Cut在规范的电影工业流程中也是很难的），所以往往调色都要先行于Locked Cut之前，而恰恰问题就出现在这个地方。正常情况下，Resolve中有一个功能叫做「Color Trace」，能够一键将另一个Timeline上所有片段的调色信息全部一一对应copy到新Timeline片段上，对于没法一次定剪的项目属实是方便的。

而由于Timeline上的Clip都成了复合片段，而每一条Timeline上的复合片段计算机并不会认为他们是一样的（因为你分别从fcpxml倒入了两次）……这样一来，你就只能选择截取Timeline上所有的「静帧」，然后手动和新版本的Timeline上进行匹配。一次两次还好，次数多了真的是有点烦的，况且这么去做也不便于调色版本的管理。

解决的办法也有使用AAF、xml、edl，而非使用fcpxml。但说的轻巧，fcpx是不支持其他格式的Turnover的（真不愧是你 苹果），这也是广大电影从业者诟病fcpx的地方。解决方法也是有的，App Store上有一款售价不菲的软件——「EDL-X」（价值648 逢年过节还不打折），能将fcpxml直接转换成edl cmx3600标准，看起来还不错，对卷名的编辑也有支持，当然具体如何我也没有尝试过。但除了这种氪金的方式真的没有别的办法了吗？非也。

另一个解决方案就是使用达芬奇，你可以通过达芬奇将时间线转换成各种格式的Turnover。大家直觉式的就会认为必须要先将Timline上的所有clip全部Match之后才可以转换成其他格式的Turnover，这其实是一种惯性思维，事实上并不如此。在Timeline上所有clip都offline的情况下，你还是可以转换不同格式的Turnover（那天我突发奇想的时候都被自己惊呆了 不过仔细一想确实也在情理之中）。这里有一个小细节要注意，如果你想让Timeline上所有的clip都offline，你需要在Resolve选择Match的那个界面，在媒体池中选择一个不含Timeline上的任何Clip的Source的文件夹，如果你选择的是一个内容全空的文件夹，达芬奇会直接退出导入，所以总结一下，正确的做法就是新建一个文件夹，随便导入一个和Timeline完全不相关的Source，在Match的阶段只选中这一个文件夹，这样Timeline上所有的Clip都offline了。

那么为什么要让所有的Clip都offline呢，这个放到后面说吧（其实仔细想想不非要offline也不是不可以的 只是为了防止Match后产生一些不必要的元数据错误 这是一种比较“安全”的做法）。

这时候，直接选择导出EDL，在达芬奇的Setting中打开卷名，为每一个Source的Reel Nam都赋上Source Name，导入你刚导出的EDL。好了，清清爽爽的Timeline出现了，你可以愉快的调色了。

那么细心的朋友发现了，Reel Name使用的是Source Name，这样一来其实是不能保证每一条Clip的唯一性的，特别是当「DJI_0001」这样不仅默认Source Name是重名的，而且TC码也是从零开始的。所以有一些片段其实是会Match错误的。

此外，由于EDL对于非线性变速的支持很差，你最好也要求剪辑将那些非线性变速的Clip还原初始速度再将fcpxml的Turnover给到你（要是对方是个行业大佬 还不乐意接受这样和你对接 你还是自己慢慢做这个工作吧……）。

第二点无非是麻烦点的工作，那第一点呢？其实也是有办法的……如果你再细心点，使用文本编辑器打开fcpxml，检索关键词「reel」你会发现，其实所有的Clip fcpxml都是携带上Reel Name了的。所以……你要是真遇到了重名文件、TC码还清零的素材，emmm，祈祷一下这样的Clip在Timeline上不多吧，你可以尝试根据fcpxml给出的信息，手动编辑EDL中Reel Name那一栏的文本和Resolve中的Source Reel Name。

所以，看到了没有，工作做在前，能给你我省多少力，这么痛苦的修改文本信息何必呢……

（最后再多说一句，fcpx中，对卷名的赋值一定要做在开始剪辑之前，你修改资源库里的Source Reel Name是没法影响Timeline上Clip的Reel Name的）

2、Pr to Resolve时，DJI的素材或者Sony的素材因为重名导致Match错误。

相比于fcpx，在这点上确实是Pr更加方便（不考虑「EDL-X」的情况下），只因Pr可以直出EDL。虽然说好，不写Pr的Conform，但不错，我又食言了。

相比于复合片段的问题，Pr to Resolve Conform不上，这个问题显得更加迫切（相同情况下 从理论上来说fcpxml应该会更少出现这样的问题）。

解决办法就是在Pr中为重名的素材填上Reel Name，Pr中文的翻译有点奇怪害得我找了半天，Pr中的Reel Name叫做「磁带名称」。不同于fcpx，直接在素材库中修改这一栏的属性会直接影响Clip的Reel Name。所以输出EDL的时候，在Reel Name一栏可以直接看到你修改的属性。

由于2020版之前的Pr是不支持批量操作Reel Name的，所以你只能one by one的修改Source Reel Name。而在2020版之后，Pr和Bridge会有更多的联动性，Pr会直接读取Bridge中修改的Reel Name info。当然，情况也要分导入前修改和导入后修改讨论，更多详细内容等我更新Adobe全家桶之后再做测试吧。你可以先访问下面的链接，看看Adobe官方是如何说明的。

Batch change Tape name Metadata

现有的条件下，我的Workflow是为每个文件夹（一般都是按照日期和卡号对文件夹做结构管理的），赋上唯一的卷名，类似于A001、B003、C001这样（具体规则可以查看我之前的文章）。完成之后导出EDL，现在这样的EDL你是无法正确匹配DJI的素材的，因为它的TC码是归零的（Sony的素材因为有唯一的时码所以只做指定卷名这一步也是可以Match上的 当然如果是HFR或者混帧的情况需要另说）。

所以，我们需要把EDL中「*From Clip Name：DJI_0001」中的Clip Name剪切到卷名之后并在两者之前添加下划线，并删除这一整行。例如，001片段有「*From Clip Name：DJI_0001」且卷名为「A001」。修改后，删除「*From Clip Name：DJI_0001」，卷名为「A001_DJI_0001」。

同样，祈祷一下DJI的素材不是很多吧。

在Resolve中，是可以批量修改卷名的，对于Sony，一批一批素材卷名都一样的，你可以直接通过片段属性进行赋值，而DJI这种你可以通过将文件的元数据导出成CSV表格后修改再导入至媒体池，进而轻松批量完成这一步工作。

这里还有一点值得说，就是HFR(High Frame Rate)的素材和混帧的素材，当你在Pr中设置解释素材之后，很有可能你会发现和Resolve中解释素材后的Start TC，相同的素材两个软件中不一样。如果素材量比较少那也还好，修改哪个软件中的Start TC让两者一致都可以。如果有大量的素材Start TC不一样，你可以尝试从Pr中导出ALE，再将其转换成表格便于修改，Resolve中导出CSV表，直接复制粘贴，也是轻松简单。

做完这些，Resolve和Pr就可以正确的Turnover了。最后用Pr输出的Offline Reference Video检查一下就可以了。

关于Pr to Resolve的Turnover就到这里结束了。

相信看完之后，你和我的想法是一样的，前期的准备工作多重要……如果前期工作做好，是不会出现这些奇怪的操作的，一切都是行云流水。但目前来看，这些奇怪的操作还是很有必要的，毕竟我还是相信未来很长一段时间行业内的一些领域还是要被不规范的阴影笼罩着。

有时想着要么重新捡起编程吧，要是我会编程的话，上面的一些步骤其实是可以被简化以及更加“安全”的，然而唯一会的语言还有点实战能力的VB已经不知道被我忘到哪里去了……emmm，好吧，真像只贪多嚼不烂的猪……

最后，祝福你，祝福我。

说个简单可行的方法保证对方和你看到的东西，在色彩上基本八九不离十​（本文不深入谈到色彩管理 那说起来没个完 我也怕讲不明白）。

本文项目Color Space基于Rec.709，Rec.2020、DCI-P3、Display-P3等广色域项目不在本文讨论范围内（原理和这个也差不太多 可能在HDR的内容上还有更多的地方需要注意），未来可能会更新广色域、HDR等相关内容（如果哪天我能稍微拎得清一点的话）。

对方的硬件与软件要求：

1、苹果设备（至于为什么要使用苹果设备可以看文章的最后部分）。

2、如果对方能使用VLC进行观看的话是最好的。

3、如果不能使用VLC观看，Mac上则推荐使用QucikTime观看（默认的播放器），移动端默认播放器即可（无论是点开原始文件还是在相册里看都是可以的 前提是要下载后观看 而非使用云盘提供的“在线观看”）。

制作时需要注意的内容：

1、在达芬奇输出的时候「不要勾选」「为检视器使用Mac……色彩配置文件」（特别是当这个功能的内核于16版本之后发生了改变）。

2、回批时输出Rec.709 Gamma2.4的ProRes/DNxHD等中间编码。

3、当你发现剪辑软件（其实我说的就是FCPX）上回看，发现画面“发灰”，不要尝试手动去给画面加对比、加饱和，这是因为一些“设置错误”导致的，输出后并不会影响画面，只需要修改NCLC标签就能回看到正确的画面。如果你需要在你的剪辑软件上看到正确的画面，你有以下两种方法。

3.1、通过修改系统的ICC Profile文件为「HD 709-A.icc」以获得正确的画面，如果你没有这个ICC文件，参考资料中的评论区有。

3.2、通过加载一个“错误”的LUT，“错上加错”以修正FCPX发灰的画面。切记，输出时，一定要去除这个“错误”的LUT。

4、通过一些工具修改NCLC标签到特定数值在不同的设备上以显示“相对近似且正确”的画面。

你可以用来修改NCLC标签的工具：

JESEExtensifier或BBC qtff-parameter-editor

（后者GitHub上有非常详细的数字对应标签属性说明）

几个常用的NCLC设置“标准”：

「1-1-1」：当你系统ICC文件为「HD 709-A」的时候你应该修改成这个。

「1-13-1」：当你系统ICC文件为「sRGB」的时候你应该修改成这个。

「12-13-1」：当你系统ICC文件为「Display P3」的时候你应该修改成这个。

使用Display P3的设备：

Mac 2015 Retina及以后Mac产品

iPhone 7 / 7 Plus及以后iPhone机型

2016 款及以后的MacBook Pro机型（特别指出MacBook Air不支持P3）

iPad Pro所有机型

iPad Air 3及以后iPad Air机型

等

（仍有部分支持Display P3 但未列出 有需要请自行查询）

总结：

在尽可能不需要对方多进行一步操作的情况下，通过适配对方的设备修改NCLC标签是让对方最简单和你看到一样画面的方法。并且由于苹果设备的高度普及以及苹果设备的封闭性，这种方法是非常可控的。

由于P3设备的推广与普及，个人建议在发布或在给他人审阅的时候，修改NCLC标签为「12-13-1」。

另外，再次说明「1-1-1」标签下，如果对方不做多一步操作的情况下，观看到的画面是发灰的。

其他一些小Tips：

1、达芬奇16之后的某一个小版本之后可以更改NCLC标签。

2、Mac OS——偏好设置——显示器色彩描述文件中的Color LCD/彩色LCD，实际上是一个「替身」根据设备不同自动链接上Display P3的icc或是sRGB的icc。

接下来是一些疑问的解答，

1、为什么要苹果设备进行观看？安卓、Windows不行吗？

首先，得益于苹果全平台、各软件高度统一的色彩管理机制，我们能得到一个很清晰的画面显示的过程，以此定位问题所在，并针对性的解决（苹果还有针对QuickTime&Color Sync的说明文档 而基本上只要搞懂QuickTime&Color Sync的机制 苹果系的软硬件的色彩管理就不成问题了）。

相反，Windows与Android不仅在广色域的支持上差，而且由于发行版本众多（Win）或开源（Android），被魔改的版本实在是多（关键是你还不一定知道它们到底被魔改了哪些地方）。（更别说 国内还有个别安卓厂商居然还在用BT.601的标准）

再者，由于Android、Windows使用的屏幕质量参差不齐，根本无法确定对方的屏幕是否能达到观看标准。

综上，使用苹果设备观看不能说是绝对的，但是一定是省心的（真心只想黑Windows 不想黑Android来着）。

2、什么是NCLC？

请自行查阅或访问下述参考资料。

参考资料：

1、《Github—bbc/qtff-parameter-editor》，https://github.com/bbc/qtff-parameter-editor。

2、《关于QuickTime是如何进行色彩管理的-QuickTime Colour Management》，https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1KJ411t7Me。

3、https://www.bilibili.com/read/cv5836917

4、《后期暗房小黄灯——怎么你那儿打开颜色又变了？》https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dDLc2ZWqBoTUnQ4xvk6ngQ

FCPX打开资源库奔溃怎么办

首先测试一下FCPX能否正常打开别的资源库，如果不能正常打开，基本判定是系统或软件的问题。

如果其他资源库能正常打开，而偏偏只有这一个资源库打开后FCPX立刻崩溃。那么恭喜你和我一样遇到了一个很麻烦的问题。

首先，资源库损坏大的解决思路有两个，修复原始资源库或是使用备份的资源库恢复你的项目。

先说【修复资源库】。

当你第一次打开这个损坏了的资源库，FCPX应该会提示你资源库已经损坏，让你选择一个备份资源库来修复当前的资源库。这种自动化的方案看起来美好，实际上并不百分百可靠。比如我这次尝试使用这种方法修复就没有成功。而在之后再尝试打开原始资源库就会遇到每次打开每次崩溃的问题。

好在除了这种自动化的方案也还有更原始一点的办法修复资源库。资源库损坏通常来说大概是资源库中某一个或某几个文件出错了（一般不会是所有文件都出错），所以只要找到这个出错的文件并使用相应的备份资源库中的文件替换掉它就可以了。

这种手动修复文件的方案实际操作中却有难度，问题出现在无法判断具体是哪个文件出错。民间有做法是复制.fcpevent这类文件，出现无法复制的往往是出错的文件。尝试复制几十个此类文件后没能排查到问题所在（而且我目前手头上也没有更好更科学的方法检查到问题所在）。该方案失败。

第二，尝试使用备份资源库恢复项目（这里面有坑）。

这其实算是下下策了。

FCPX通常每隔十几分钟就会在【影片 / Final Cut Backups / 你的资源库名称】下生成一个备份资源库。使用最近的一个资源库就可以恢复你的项目，听起来非常美好，实际上却有一个难以发现又致命的坑。

之前说了，当资源库损坏，FCPX尝试帮你修复原始资源库并失败了之后，你每次打开这个原始资源库都会让软件直接崩溃。

而更让人奔溃的是如果你尝试打开最近一次备份的资源库，你会惊喜又惊吓的发现你连这些个备份的资源库都打不开了。恰巧你发觉最近几个小时没有对原始资源库进行备份，心头难免一凉。

没救了吗？不是的。事实上坑也就坑在这里。跟Pr的逻辑不一样，每一个备份的工程文件Pr都可以作为独立的工程文件来打开。如果你对这个备份的工程文件做了修改并保存，保存到的是备份工程而非是原始工程。

而FCPX的逻辑就是，备份的资源库是只读的（一定程度上能强制用户规避掉工程的混乱 因为往往大家都不会先改名再使用）。并且，打开备份资源库，最优先定位到原始资源库的位置并尝试修复（或者其他一些想法 我也不太清楚他到底想干嘛），可以确定的是它一定会有一个尝试读取原始资源库的动作，而这么一来就又会导致软件崩溃了。恰恰是这个坑，让我以为就连备份资源库都出问题了，一瞬间还以为自己凉了，这才有了尝试修复资源库的过程。直到我打开最早版本的备份资源库，这才有了对FCPX运行逻辑的猜测，验证了一下我的想法，确实如此。

说说具体解决思路，理论上只要改变原始资源库的路径就好，让备份资源库给你生成一个新的可以进行读写操作的资源库就好了。所以改变文件夹名（大概有效）、改变资源库名（不一定有效）、推出工程所在硬盘（实测有效）等都是有效的。

当你满怀欣喜的打开新生成的资源库，你发现遍地一片红，全部链接丢失。这是资源库中替身文件丢失导致的，解决办法大致也有两个，拷贝原来资源库中的替身文件到相应的地方，或者让它自己慢慢链接。

我更推荐你让他自己慢慢链接，毕竟苹果的逻辑是不太希望用户手动进行一些操作的，我也没法保证如果你真的拷贝替身会出现什么样不可预知的问题。

最后当你开始链接，fcpx开始“无响应”的时候，不用慌，链接真的很费时间，这只是应用的假死而已。

最后推荐一个实用软件【iStat Menus】，通过这软件你能监看到所有系统运行情况，以此判断当前系统在做什么，我也算是通过这个软件才想到问题的可能所在处。

收费应用。

当你使用fcpx链接完原始文件之后，转到代理模式一看，哇，一片红。怎么办？重新生成一遍代理文件吗？如果你之前就用fcpx生成一遍代理文件的话，那其实完全没有这个必要（当然也仅限fcpx生成的代理文件 其他的代理文件fcpx并不认）。

在说代理文件的重新链接时，我们需要分开讨论一些情况。首先是是旧版本的fcpx（Mojave），以及新版本的fcpx（Catalina）这两者。再是，你管理素材的方式，是打包在资源库交给fcpx来管理还是自己管理文件。当然区分这些情况的核心就在于，我们需要找到一个叫做「Final Cut Proxy Media」的文件夹。

旧版本的fcpx，当你手动管理素材的时候会将你的代理文件放在资源库的旁边。新版本的fcpx则是会将代理文件放在原始素材的旁边。而通过fcpx管理素材，都是打包在资源库里的。

而假如你实在找不到这个文件夹，不如挑一个小文件先转码，显示资源库的包内容。如果里面的Proxy Media是一个文件，那这个就是你要找的文件夹，如果是一个替身，顺着替身找到「Final Cut Proxy Media」就好了。

当你找到这个名叫「Final Cut Proxy Media」的文件夹之后一切都好办了，你只需要把代理文件放进去（文件名需要和原始文件一样 文件后缀则没有要求），在fcpx里选中需要代理的原始素材——「对媒体进行转码」——仅勾选「创建代理媒体」——「好」。

接下来fcpx就会自动识别你之前导入到「Final Cut Proxy Media」的代理文件并与原素材进行匹配，而不是重新再转码一遍。

Since arrived in Australia, I didn’t read a lot this year. I guess I should read more in 2025. I finished four books, meanwhile, some other books are still on the half way. Anyway, the bellowing is book reviews of my 2024.

Chip War

Focusing on the foundation of contemporary technologies, the chips, this book explains well about how global chip industries and supply chains were shaped as we see today. Almost all crucial parts in the advanced chip industry are either controlled by the US or controlled by geopolitical allies of the US. Basically, people can say the industry is intended to be shaped as this. From technologies to history, and to geopolitics, this book explains the logics behind the scenes of why some global policies were made at certain levels, and potential risks of wars.

This book is extremely suitable for people interested in technologies and geopolitics.

How China Works

Having experienced the zero-covid policy and various private real estate giants, the whole world witnesses the local governments’ debt crisis and, of course, therefore the unstoppable and ominous economic downturn, after long time economic development of the P.R.C.. Now, nobody would deny this factual situation, except CCP itself. But for many Chinese living in a world where information and news are strictly censored and controlled, it’s probably hard to understand why we’re here today. This book offers the whole logic chains in the political and economic levels. It unbiasedly provides insights of the pros and cons of economic development of nation capitalism. For every Chinese who wants to know deeper about their own status quo, the economic, political and historical background must be figured out first. 

Written by Xiaohuan Lan, a professor of economics at the School of Economics, Fudan University, though, this book didn’t use any obscure lingos invented by the CCP, instead, this book uses plain language and even explains lingos very well.

Overall, it’s a highly recommended book, the best non-fiction books of my 2024. However, depending on the topics of interest, both books, “Chip War” and “How China Works,” are considered to be the best of the year. 

Wild Ride

Comparing to the former book, how China works, this book provides more detailed personal experience of doing business from the opening ups to the very recent . It also mentions some really important policies that shaped today’s P.R.C.’s economy. It is important to include policies, especially for doing business in the P.R.C., simply because the market of the P.R.C. is highly policy-oriented. The path to wealth becomes much smoother when you’re on the “right” way. 

I rate this book much lower than the others, because I’ve read a book called Red Roulette by Desmond Shum before. He was also a businessman in the P.R.C.. What is different is that he can speak fluent mandarin, which is essential in affairs between the CCP in the P.R.C. politics. Though, this book, Wild Ride, is still worthy to read.

Animal Farm

Written by the author who wrote the famous book called 1984, this book is much more overwhelming, personally speaking, especially after I know the exact year when it was published. Published in 1945 before the P.R.C. was established, whereas, it was written like a prophecy. If you know some history about the P.R.C., you can relate loads of plots with real history and real persons. Though I didn’t read a lot this year, Animal Farm is still the best fiction books of my 2024. And it is so gripping that I was still reading it in the middle of the night when I was in my bed. I just couldn’t resist to know what would happen in next. 

Come on, read this prophecy!

Definition of SOEs

In narrow terms, SOEs are state-owned assets performed the investor’s responsibilities and supervised by the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC). According the list released by the SASAC, there are 97 SOEs showed at the link.

In broad terms, more than 97 SOEs are included, including Enterprises managed by other institutions directly under the State Council(List of Central Financial Enterprises): mostly, they’re financial SOEs regulated by the Ministry of Finance(MOF), Enterprises operated by the military or armed police forces, such as those in the defense industry, and other enterprises where the central government holds the majority of investment or control.

Entities Capable of Carrying Out Duties and Obligations of the Representative of the state as the Owner or Shareholder or Investor of SOEs

Before diving into this, one thing should be made clear that shares & ownerships and regulatory authority or operation entities are different topics. If we don’t recognize this, you may see many entities showing in discussing SOEs. Specifically, in this subtopic, we focus on entities capable of holding ownerships of SOEs.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) is a special commission of the People’s Republic of China, directly under the State Council. It was founded in 2003 through the consolidation of various other industry-specific ministries. SASAC is responsible for managing state-owned enterprises (SOEs), including appointing top executives and approving any mergers or sales of stock or assets, as well as drafting laws related to SOEs.

State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council

Considering the politics of the P.R.C. and operations of SOEs in reality, the SASAC of the State Council and the SASAC of the local government should be separately discussed in this topic. Within the pyramid structure, the local government level of SASACs are, indeed, responsible for the central government level, whereas, local governments have more self-decision rights in economic and public affairs, aligned with the political framework of the P.R.C. proposed by Economist Chenggang Xu, called regionally decentralized authoritarianism (RDA) regime. This is one of the foundation of rapid economic development of the P.R.C. in the recent past decades, because this provides competition ground between local governments. Without competition, it’s easily assumed inefficient operation of local governments and economy. More than that, the words “央企”(Centrally Owned SOEs) and ”国企”(State-Owned Enterprises) also prove the essence of division of central-level and local-level, as ”国企”(State-Owned Enterprises) can be centrally owned or locally owned or Central-Local Mixed. 

Take ICBC, the largest bank in terms of market value as an example. 

Its ownership composition is as follows:

• Central Huijin Investment Ltd.: As of 2023, Central Huijin, a wholly-owned subsidiary of China Investment Corporation (CIC), holds approximately 34.71% of ICBC’s shares. Central Huijin acts on behalf of the state to invest in key financial enterprises.
• Ministry of Finance (MOF) of the People’s Republic of China: The MOF holds about 31.14% of ICBC’s shares, representing the state’s direct financial interest in the bank.
• National Council for Social Security Fund (SSF): The SSF owns approximately 3.46% of ICBC’s shares, serving as a strategic reserve fund to support social security expenditures.
• Public and Institutional Investors: The remaining shares are held by various domestic and international public and institutional investors, including those trading on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.

Meanwhile, the Central Huijin Investment Ltd. is fully owned by China Investment Corporation which, further, is fully owned by MOF. Therefore, the MOF, in the end, controls 34.71% plus 31.14% of its shares, holding most of its shares on MOF’s hands.

To recap, there’re only three entities that legitimately carry out duties and obligations of the representative of the P.R.C. as the owners or shareholders of SOEs: the SASAC of the State Council, the SASACs of the local governments, and the MOF. And, of course, the SASACs of the local governments are sub-departments of that of the State council.

Entities Capable of Carrying out Duties and Obligations of Regulatory Authorities of SOEs

As we discuss before, in the terms of investment, there’re only three entities involved. Whereas, in terms of regulations, more entities are involved, especially in certain industries, such as military or armed police systems. The followings are some of the entities, but not all.

Categorized by its Ownership of Local or Central Government

• Centrally Owned SOEs(中央企业)
• Locally Owned SOEs (地方国有企业)
• Central-Local Mixed Ownership Enterprise or Central-Local Joint Venture (中央地方混合所有制企业)

Borrowed phrase from economist Chenggang Xu, the P.R.C. implemented regionally decentralized authoritarianism(RDA), which means central government in the P.R.C. maintains an authoritarian regime while delegating substantial administrative and economic authority to local governments, allowing local experimentation, economic competition, and development within a centrally controlled framework. The phenomena of SOEs just reflect this theory.

Categorized by its Ownerships of Capitals(State-Owned, Public Shares, Private Shares, Foreign Shares)

Categorized by its Control Rights of the State

Factors leading to this happened

• Insufficient supply of credit from four major banks (during the high-speed China’s economic development era)
• Limited regulations over risky loans
• Limited regulations over arbitrage
• Inter-bank interactions exclusion from credit management
• Chinese government’s control over interest rates
• Criteria of promotion for the local government leaders
• Others
  • Regulatory discouragement of lending money to certain industries 

Additional risks

About two-thirds of all lending in China by shadow banks are “bank loans in disguise”.^[7] One of the controversies of this industry is that retail investors are largely unsure about what sorts of risks they are taking on when engaging in shadow banking.^[8] The connections between traditional banks and the shadow banking system further cloud the picture and at the same time contribute to increased risk.^[9]

Methods in detailed

• Wealth Management Products(WMPs), aka. 理财产品
  • Why people would invest it? And what’re its risks?
    • Compared to deposit, it can offer higher return.
    • Although people invest, they usually don’t know what exact portfolio would financial institutions invest, as well as banks usually wouldn’t like to tell them. Moreover, some of products cannot even ensure investors’ principles, which put huge risks on investors. 
  • How can it bypass regulations? Or, how can this shadow banking activities do not appear on banks’ balance sheet?
    • Their yield comes from the ‘performance’ or ‘value’ of assets upon which the product is built. These financial products designed and sold by financial institutions, like banks, trusts and securities firms, do not appear on the institutions’ balance sheet.
    • Ostensibly, banks act like an intermediaries rather than actual holders, which gives them reasonable pretexts that they don’t show this shadow banking activities on balance sheet.
  • How’s the situation in US? And why doesn’t Chinese government legislate it to force it to appear on the banks’ balance sheets?
    • Issuing a WMP is strictly regulated in US, through several regulatory bodies, while, although such products do have some regulation to some extent in the PRC historically, they’re loosely regulated, which makes evasion from regulation possible and rampant. For now, the central government has made more significant efforts to regulate WMPs and shadow banking.
    • Although Chinese government, including its highest leaders, is aware of this situation, even the central government does not know the exact amount of number of WMPs. Secondly, considering the officials’ criteria of promotion within the CCP system, historically, local government would try their best to maximize leveraging, and the central government also knows this, but considering the fast development needs and how the authoritarianism system works, both local and central government historically didn’t have such willingness to regulate it.
    • As for now, the amount of number is enormously large, which is really a big problem and several serious results have risen up. Recognition of central government about this serious issue makes central government to have strong willingness to regulate, but, as for the local government, the criteria of promotion remains similar. The easier ways to achieve the economic development, aka GDP numbers in CCP’s criteria system, is still to leverage, resulting in local governments to have less willingness to regulate this. Although considering the pyramid system within the CCP, sometimes local governments have to follow the instructions from higher leadership, while, it’s still clear to say the local governments don’t  have such stimulus to regulate. If such situation were not to be changed, we will still see huge investment from the local government, such as infrastructure investment.
    • Hypothetically, If the central government were to force banks to include the WMPs on their balance sheets immediately, several negative and serious economic results would occur, such as bank runs, bankruptcies, economic instability. This creates a dilemma: forcing banks to include them on balance sheet would cause problems, while, maintaining the status quo would also lead to problems eventually.
  • The number of WMPs
    • Its number has been increasing steadily, with it increasing from less than ¥500 billion in 2004 to ¥9.5 trillion by the end of 2013. 
• Trust Products
• Entrusted Loans
• Alternative Financing
• Interbank Market Activities
• LGFVs
• P2P
• ……

Reference

Shadow banking in China

How China Works: An Introduction to China’s State-led Economic Development

Prelude

Without understanding of China’s politics, then it’s impossible to understand China’s economy. Starting from the last year of the ominous China’s economy, I also got much more interested in macroeconomics, or, I got interested in for the first time in my life. Of course, I think English helps a lot in terms of cultivating my interest, which I don’t have to read about written in a monotonous CCP’s language.

This is a book showing several important periods of transition and development, terminologies of the Party and the economics, historical background and factors, logics of how it develops and works, etc. Although the PRC’s economics and politics are closely associated, this book focuses more on economic sides. So, whether your political spectrum is more pro-CCP, neutral, or pro-democracy, this book is beneficial for everyone who wants to know and understand China’s economy about where should and would it go. In fact, if you take closer to think about its publication date and the contents written in the book, you can see the author even “predicted” the future to some degree, which requires you to know clearly about the current situation.

It also takes time to read, considering its terminologies, background and complexity. If I could borrow a word from Mandarin to describe its category, I would use “通识”, stands for liberal education in English. If there’s no other book surprises me this year, I think this will be my “The Book in 2024”. Anyway, hope you enjoy it.

Excerpt

The following is extracted from the book that I think they’re interesting, combined with some other materials I researched.

条块关系& 四套班子

The departments’ relationship can be called “vertical strips and horizontal blocks” relationships, namely, “条块关系”, in the China’s unique political structures consisted by the “four teams”, namely, “四套班子” : party committees, administrative government, the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

The “four teams” structure is replicated at each level of the government, with a few notable exceptions. For example, the central government has the Ministry of Finance, the provincial government likewise has a finance department and the city and county government has a finance bureau.

Most local government departments have to accept dual leadership from both stripes and blocks. As an example, a county-level education bureau needs to accept the leadership of both the city education bureau vertically and the leadership of the county-level party committee and county government horizontally. In this example, the “strip” means the higher department and the block means the party committee and the government in the same level.

属地管理 & Externality

The geographical scope and authority of China’s local government is determined by administrative districts, and the extent of local power is bound together with the administrative district in question (属地管理).

Division of Administrative Districts

Factors: Languages, population

Areas of population inflow can merge counties and establish districts to expand the city, however areas of population outflow rarely abolish administrative districts, preferring instead to merge facilities to save cost (e.g., merging two schools together).

Regions located at the boundary of administrative districts tend to be underdeveloped. This phenomena, known as “三不管地带” roughly translated as “anarchic regions”, can also be explained using the framework of scale effects and boundaries of public goods. Interestingly, such problems are also existed in the ROC era, moreover, these anarchic regions provided a fertile space for the Communist party during the revolutionary period(1921-1949). Such phenomenons were demonstrate on roads a few decades, but this is limited to roads and expressways invested by the provincial government, not national roads and railways. Now, traffic is not a major problem. Some provinces choose to locate factories and businesses that have a high level of water pollution on downstream provincial borders, in doing so the pollution released mainly affects the downstream province and the average level of pollution in the polluting province may actually decrease.

To solve the anarchic regions problem, the best way to manage the cross-district externalities is to appoint a supervisor with authority to coordinate and make decisions. This is why strips and blocks systems are needed.

文山会海

According to the most recent regulations on the handling of government and party documents issued by the State Council in 2012 (which I will refer to here as “the regulations”), there are 15 types of official document. These include “Decisions” and “Orders” which must be strictly implemented by lower levels, those that can be handled relatively flexibly, such as “Opinions” and “Notices”, as well as those which have less information content such as “Letters” and “Minutes”.

七通一平

Before the firm moves in, the local government will make some initial investments in the area, including providing electricity, transport links, heating, ventilation, supplying water, drainage and communication networks, and the land must be leveled as well. (a process known in Chinese as “七通一平” which translates to “7 openings and 1 leveling”).

三免三减半

Local governments can also provide tax incentives or subsidies for certain businesses. Examples may include tax credit for research and development or subsidies on export. One common tax incentive involves businesses paying no corporate income tax for the first three years of operation and paying half the rate for years 3 to 6 (known as the “three tax-free and three half-tax” or “三免三减半”).

The reasons why land finance became such prominent, namely, the surging price of houses

However, in 1998, two significant changes occurred, and the true value of urban land began to emerge. The first change is that government and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) stopped building housing for their workers, and instead paid money to the workers in the form of a housing subsidy. The era of commercial housing and real estate development therefore started in earnest. From 1997 to 2002, the average annual growth rate of newly constructed residential areas reached 26%, and the absolute number increased 4x in 5 years. The second change is that the implementation of the revised “Land Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China” which stipulated that rural land could only be used for non-agricultural construction purposes if it is first transferred to state-owned land, thereby giving city governments a monopoly over urban land construction.

Land Finance & Debt & Snowball

The real power of “land finance” is not the high sales value of land use rights, but its ability to use land as collateral to mobilize capital markets and leverage up more funds for investment. It snowballs in size, leading to more and more investment, but also more and more debt for local governments, which has become a significant problem for China’s economy in recent years.

LGFVs(Local Government Financing Vehicles)

aka. 地方政府融资平台

However, the official name of these vehicles does not contain the word “financing”, rather most of them use words such as “investment and development” or “construction”, which emphasizes the company’s role in investment rather than financing. So in China, these vehicles are also collectively referred to as Urban Investment Corporations (城投公司).

To use some Chinese terminology, a piece of “raw land” (生地) that has been marked for development, can turn into “ripe land” (熟地) ready for development, only after the land is leveled and cleaned up.

Government industrial Guidance Funds / Private Equity Funds

Local governments cannot borrow directly from banks, therefore urban investment corporations act as financing vehicles. Similarly, governments cannot make direct equity investments in capital markets, therefore it is necessary to set up a company to operate and manage the guidance fund.

These fund managing companies fall into 3 broad categories. The first group are wholly state-owned enterprises, such as Beijing Yizhuang State Investment, an investor in BOE. The second group are mixed-ownership companies, such as Shenzhen Capital Group Co. Ltd., which is entrusted to manage the huge Shenzhen Guidance Fund. The largest shareholder of this company is the Shenzhen city government, but it only holds a 28% share. The third category is more like CFLD discussed in the previous chapter. Guidance funds in small cities are small in scale, and local governments have neither the resources nor the expertise to establish special management companies for them, so they simply entrust the funds to private companies, such as Prosperity Investment Group.

Shadow Banking 影子银行

The bank may therefore create a so-called wealth management product that attracts household savings at a rate of 5%, entrusting the money to a trust company. Then the trust company lends the money to the real estate company. In this so-called bank-trust cooperation, the wealth management product created by the bank is not recorded as bank deposits, and the money entrusted to the trust company is not recorded as bank loans, so the entire transaction is not recorded in the balance sheet of the bank and is therefore not subject to bank regulations. This is a form of shadow banking.

Intro

For most of people, even who live in the PRC for years or decades, it’s still highly possible that the political structure couldn’t be understood, especially when it comes to the difference between the Party and the State, as well as I did.

This is the very first step of learning politics for me. And, I believe that it would also benefit others like I did, so I decide to publish and share it with you. Moreover, this is a part of a series. In the future, I would also try to learn other nation’s political structures, like US, AU, and ROC.

Notice: During the process of searching and learning, I’m aware of that even wikipedia did uncomfortable censorship to some degree, although it’s much better than BaiduBaike(百度百科) in the terms of tools of information collecting and resources. So, if you want to dive deeper, I highly suggest you learn and do research in English. Other than that, if you’re a bi-linguist, it would be much better, and the comparison of the context in two different languages would surely bring sarcastic joys for you.

Anyway, please enjoy it. You can e-mail me if you find out something wrong.

Preview

PDF Files

Update logs are included in the files.

-P.R.Cs-CCPs-Political-System_v1.0Download

When I was very little, I was very nervous and terrified every time I went back to my primary school, because my teachers are very cruel, and it’s even okay to say they are evil. They would punish me for very small things by hitting, kicking, whipping or even slapping in my face. For example, I would get hit because I forgot submitting my homework even if I’ve already done it.

Weapons and Women

The weapons they used were stories. They shifted from tools to tools.

The first generation was wooden rulers, hollow iron handles of brooms, and solid wooden handles of brooms. Whereas, they all had a similar problem: bad endurance. After using them as punishing tools for many times, they would be broken, as they were originally not designed as weapons. Until now, I still vividly remember, once during the punish, the hollow iron broom handle split into halves, students whose eyes almost got hurt by the accident splinter, the terrified classmates and the gloomy weather. And I was just fearfully sitting on my own seat, watching them getting beaten, unsure of whether I would be the next. 

These weapons hurt, but not durable.

To solve this problem, the math teacher ordered a tailored, solid and iron stick. Even in the mainland China at that time, it wasn’t quite usual. Most of Chinese teachers would just use the aforementioned tools for punishing, instead of buying some special tools. But how did I know it was tailored, instead of something I didn’t know, considering I was still very young at that time? In fact, it was the woman who taught the math told us this information. She announced one day in public that after waiting for days, the stick was finally delivered, excitingly, with her big goofy smile on her ugly face and squinting eyes behind her thick glasses. The outside was made by iron. The inside of the stick was filled with some kind of concrete powder or something. Up to now, I still didn’t know what was that. It can be slightly bent with some efforts, a bit of weighty, considering its slender shape. The most important was it hurts. Hands would get swollen up every time I got beaten, much worse than rulers, because of its slender shape. 

The woman who taught mandarin also showed her creativity. She used the off-the-shelf tool: skipping rope. 

I call it the third generation of weapons. It perfectly catered the principle of what weapons would be used for punishment: endurance and pain. Personally, it’s unable to compare which one was the worst: skipping rope or the tailored stick. In the terms of shape and pain, they were quite similar. Although math wasn’t her specialty, mandarin was indeed her talent. She told us that “Although she was the one beating us and we hurt physically, emotionally she was so hurt, she didn’t feel good for beating us”. Wow, what a wonderful way to use language, huh. Now, she was even the suffer.

Parents and Punishment

Other than these I listed, I also got physically punished by different means, but I wasn’t the worst one.

The worst was one of my classmates. My teachers once publicly announced they’ve gotten the permission from his parents to beat him as a punishment. And teachers even artificially said they didn’t have the heart to do so, although they did so many times in fact. My classmate once showed me the plentiful long bruises on his back in the dormitory: they are dark, purple and red. Purple ones meant they have been for a while since the time he got hit. Dark ones meant they were getting to recover. While, red ones meant they’re so fresh. Some of them were gotten from the teachers, and the others were from his parents. What makes it more miserable was his back always had dark, purple and red ones.

I told my parents about this. The only feedback I got is “Teachers are for students’ own good”. After that, I totally gave up on resorting for their help. I knew it’s worthless and what would I get if my teachers know I told my parents. Of course, normal connections of trust between me and my parents has never been built since that.

Practice and Learn

All of these lead that every time I saw the gate of the school in distant, my heart would start pounding. I still remember vividly I sat in the back of the electric vehicle of my parents’, quietly listening the pounding of my heart and the sound of the wind streaking clearly. I kept telling myself to calm down for years. But, my heart remained pounding during those years.

Situations got slightly better after I grew up a little. The day I graduated from the primary school, I feel deeply relieved, instead of sadness. Once I read a news saying a student beat his teacher after he had graduated for years, when he accidentally run into his teacher. Of course, he said he had been terribly treated when he had been in the school. I asked myself a question after I read this news, if I had been in the same situation, would I have done the same thing? During a long period of growth, I didn’t know. What I did know is such evil thoughts had once been in my mind.

Backing to the question, I’ve been practicing this ability of keeping calm since I was in the primary school, so negative emotions wouldn’t easily and heavily affect me. It’s not a gift, it’s something through learning and practicing.

Monitor Current System Status

iStat Menus

Graphics Card Switch

Force System to Use Integrated Graphics Card

sudo pmset -a GPUSwitch 0

Force System to Use Discrete Graphics Card

sudo pmset -a GPUSwitch 1

Auto Switch by System

sudo pmset -a GPUSwitch 2

Turn on/off Intel Turbo Boost

Turbo Boost Switcher

Limit Used CPU Core Numbers

CPU Setter

Intro

For people who live within the GFW, accessing their own local network, like the home network and company or school network, is usually an annoying issue, because we normally want to access global services and local services at the same time. Whereas, the tools providing the local network accessing ability, famously like VPN, WireGuard, NAT traversal, port forwarding, would take over all your network traffic when you use them, which means you have to keep switching it on and off to access both local and global services, not to mention they’re usually complex to set up

But by using QX and SS you can take advantage of the followings:

• Seamlessly network experience when you access local and global services, which means you don’t have to turn the switch on and off
• Encrypted data transfer when using public Wi-Fi 
• Easy to set up and easy to use
• Smooth Apple-platform experience, thanks for QX’s iCloud sync supported
• Multiple service protocol supported, you don’t have to set up port forwarding separately for each service, like FTP, SMB, Web, etc.
• Bonus one: IPv4 to IPv6 tunnel or IPv6 to IPv4 tunnel supported, but also requires extra settings

For people who live within the GFW, accessing their own local network, like the home network and company or school network, is usually an annoying issue, because we normally want to access global services and local services at the same time. Whereas, the tools providing the local network accessing ability, famously like VPN, WireGuard, NAT traversal, port forwarding, would take over all your network traffic when you use them, which means you have to keep switching it on and off to access both local and global services, not to mention they’re usually complex to set up

Briefly Intro for QX and SS

“SS Proxy Protocol” is really famous in the group of users who use it to bypass the GFW’s censorship, which is originally designed to use it in that way, basically everyone knows it. QX, formally Quantumult X, is a proxy client exclusively for Apple devices, providing cross-platform experience based on iCloud synced configuration file. Both of them have their alternative products, like v2ray or SSR for SS, and Surge, Loon or Shadowrocket for QX. Choose one you like, I will exemplify by using SS and QX in this article.

Censorship&Safety Concerns in the mainland China 

Because of SS’s popularity, the Big Brother has already targeted on it. Moreover, the GFW has already had the capability to identify SS protocol and therefore to block it. But, according to the realistic considerations and the reasonable assumption based on the technology, the censorship reputedly only deploys on the gate of global networks traffic in some main cities, like Shanghai and She Zheng, which means it should be fine to deploy SS domestically, especially at your home.

Moreover, according to P.R.C.’s laws, it should and would have been totally legal to use SS for local network access, as you had been intentionally setting it to access local network, instead of global network. But you know what I mean. The concerns of security still remain in this land. But, to remember, once you read this, it should be concerning enough.

After all, according to my assessment and real experience, it wouldn’t be a problem. I’ve been using it for at least a half-year. But, if you still have concerns, please use other up-to-date and relatively less common proxy protocols, like Reality or hysteria. Because, if the GFW cannot catch you outside, it cannot be possible to identify your network access behavior domestically, unless you’re doing really really dangerous things.

So, Without further ado, let’s heading to the main section.

First: deploy SS Server

While I would like to help you to set up SS server step by step, there’re already enormous tutorials on the internet suitable for any operating systems, and I don’t think I can do better than them. The deploying script is extremely simple to use, usually just copy one command into your terminal, it would install automatically.

Linux: https://teddysun.com/486.html
macOS: Please use built-in SS Server in Quantumult X, located in “Setting – Misc Settings – VPN – SS Server”
Windows: https://www.librehat.com/three-minutes-to-set-up-shadowsocks-server-on-windows/

So, in this part, I would only point out some important requirements.

• Public IP Address Required: IPv4 or IPv6
• Unfortunately, in the mainland China, unless you are the users of China Telecom, the others, like China Mobile and China Unicom, usually wouldn’t provide a public IP address for you. Moreover, because of global IPv4 address shortage, even China Telecom would be unwilling to provide IPv4 address for customers in some areas.
• But, does that mean if you don’t have a public IPv4 address, you cannot reference my article? Not exactly. As I said before, it requires a public IP address, no matter it’s based on IPv4 or IPv6. So, that means you can use IPv6 instead. And this is a good news, because the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in P.R.C is promoting IPv6, requiring ISPs to support IPv6 for home broadband users. So, if you find out that your network doesn’t have a public IPv4 address and don’t support IPv6, just call the ISP’s service number, and they will fix it for you. After all, considering the status quo, using IPv4 is still the best option.
• One thing needs to be very careful during the setup of SS if you use IPv6: Turn on IPv6 listening. Some script may not turn on this for you.
• Port Forwarding / Firewall
• After resolving public IP address problem, make sure you turn on public internet port listening
• If you deploy it on your OpenWRT being your gateway, port forwarding is unnecessary. SS server software is built in OpenWRT firmware in most cases, which means you don’t have to install it, you only need to turn it on.
• Deploy it elsewhere, like Linux or Apple TV
• Using IPv4: go into router’s settings to turn on port forwarding.
• Using IPv6: it usually doesn’t need to do so. But if you cannot access after deploying, maybe go to check both the gateway router and the server itself, especially if you’re using Windows being your SS server.

Bonus one: If you have Mac or Apple TV at home, then I would highly recommend you to “deploy” SS on them, as it’s the simplest way to do so. Just download QX in AppStore, go into the “Settings – Misc Settings – VPN – SS Server” and turn it on. No need for extra complex settings at all.

DDNS

Hypothetically assuming you’d already acquired a public IPv4/IPv6 address, the next thing you should do is setting a DDNS service, because even if you have a public IP address, it usually wouldn’t be a permanent one, which means it would change automatically and irregularly, unless you pay a bunch of money to your ISP. By setting a DDNS service, you would access the real-time IP address indirectly. Anyway, if you’re interested in more informative details, you can find more on YouTube. After all, it’s necessary for home broadband, but, if you’re a commercial broadband user, it would usually be a static IP address, then use the IP address directly.

DDNS is not always free for using. Some of them are free, and some are not. I would highly recommend you to use free ones, it’s unnecessary to pay for it. But, unfortunately, the choice is limited to the current the law in the mainland China, because most of domestic DDNS services now require Chinese citizens identification of users. Instead, you can use global DDNS services. Although they mostly don’t get blocked by the GFW, it’s getting blocked. So, pick the right one and make sure you have several for backing up.

Here’s my personal recommendation for DDNS service providers, according to the principles: free of using, free of identification and accessible in the mainland China:

• QNAP DDNS (QNAP NAS required, but the simplest one)
• Dynv6

The process of deployment shouldn’t be tough, just follow the instructions that DDNS service provides provide you.

QX’s Configuration

Step 1: Add the Server(SS)

Import your SS proxy server here.

After importing the server, make sure that you have a IPv6 address on your client device before you test it, if you’re using IPv6 address on your proxy server.

Step 2: Add Policy

QX provides several policy methods, allowing users to select different proxy servers

Option 1 (Basic)
Manually switch between “direct” and “proxy”

Add the following

static="YOUR POLICY NAME", direct, "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER's NAME", img-url=homekit.system

Or if you have multiple servers

static="YOUR POLICY NAME", direct, "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER01's NAME", "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER02's NAME", "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER03's NAME", img-url=homekit.system

Explanation: 

• static
• Indicates the policy type in QX
• direct
• Direct access
• YOUR SS PROXY SERVER’s NAME”
• Proxy servers, as many as you want. You can also add a policy here. So, when you choose it, it would use the same server as the this policy.
• img-url=homekit.system
• The icon showing in the QX. You can later change it in the QX by right clicking the policy and selecting icon to modify it.

Option 2 (Advanced)
Manually switch between “direct” and “proxy” & automatically select available SS proxy server from multiple SS servers(if you have several ones for backups)

Add the following

static="YOUR POLICY NAME 01", direct, "YOUR SECOND POLICY NAME SUCH AS 'available proxy' ", img-url=homekit.system
available= "AVAILABLE PROXY", "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER01's NAME", "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER02's NAME", "YOUR SS PROXY SERVER03's NAME", img-url=homekit.system

Explanation: 

• The “static” policy named “YOUR POLICY NAME 01” allows you to select manually between “proxy your network traffic via your home SS server” and “direct access”. 
• While, the “available” policy named “AVAILABLE PROXY” would automatically switch to an available proxy server sequentially if one of them is down. “AVAILABLE PROXY” shouldn’t be appeared in the following filter part, if you do not have special needs.

More Options(More advanced)
You can modify it, based on your own needs and referencing to the example above.

Notice: Please replace the part in the double quotation marks, including the double quotation marks – “” themselves.

Step 3: Modify Filter

If your local network is ranged from “192.168.2.0” to “192.168.2.255”, then add this. Modify the part suitable for you, if it is not. And replace the part in the double quotation marks, including the double quotation marks – “” themselves.

ip-cidr, 192.168.2.0/24, "YOUR POLICY NAME 01"

Explanation: 

• The first part: “ip-cidr”
• Used for judging what type of address it is, a IPv4 address, a IPv6 address or a URL. And “ip-cidr” is used for IPv4 address.
• The second part: “192.168.2.0/24”
• The part before a slash presents a IPv4 address, while the part behind the splash identifies the subnet mask. If you don’t know what subnet mask is, the quick introduction: it’s used for defining a range of local network. You can use an online subnet mask calculator to help you decide what subnet mask you should use. Check out this: https://www.calculator.net/ip-subnet-calculator.html
• If you want to proxy a specific ip address, like 192.168.2.233, then you should modify it like this- “192.168.2.233/32”, instead of “192.168.2.233/24”.
• You probably notice in my screenshot, there’s a rule “ip-cidr, 192.168.0.0/16, direct”, which shows a larger local network range than “192.168.2.0/24”. But, in the QX, “192.168.2.0/24″‘s rule prioritize than “192.168.0.0/16″‘s rule. So, it’s okay. But if you run into a problem, maybe you can modify this part to fix your problem.
• The third part “YOUR POLICY NAME 01”
• In this part, you should use your own policy name that you define before. And whatever advanced policy you configure, the policy should be able to select between proxy and direct, unless you would only be allowed to proxy your network traffic all the time.

Branches of Economics

• Divided by Scale
  • Macroeconomics
    • Branch of economics dealing with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole, rather than individual markets.
  • Mesoeconomics / Mezzoeconomics
    • In-between macroeconomics and microeconomics with a focus on the intermediate level of analysis.
  • Microeconomics
    • Branch of economics that studies the behavior of individuals and firms in making decisions regarding the allocation of limited resources
• Divided by Types
  • Classical Economics
  • Behavioral Economics

Monetary Policy 货币政策

Unconventional Monetary Policy at the Zero Bound includes credit easing, quantitative easing, forward guidance, and signaling.

• QE, Quantitative Easing 量化宽松
• Credit Easing
  • Credit Easing and QE are similar, but have some difference.
• Helicopter Money,
  • Can sometimes be perceived as an alternative QE, when the economy is in a liquidity trap (when interest rates near zero and the economy remains in recession).
• QT, Quantitative Tightening, 量化紧缩
• Tapering (in economics), reduction of the quantitative easing program in the US
• Short-Term Interest Rate,
• OMOs, Open Market Operations, 公开市场操作
• Forward Guidance, 
• Credit Guidance (Broader), Window Guidance (interchangeable with the Informal Guidance)
  • Nuances between these three terminologies (to be posted)
• Reserve Requirements, 
• Exchange Requirements, 
• Collateral Policy, 
• Signalling, 

Types of Interest Rate

• Prime Rate, or Prime Lending Rate
  • LPR, Loan Prime Rate, 最优惠贷款汇率
    • Used exclusively in the mainland China, moreover, both Hong Kong and Macau do NOT use LPR, it is ONLY existed in the mainland China, in the terms of the world. Before LPR was introduced on Aug. 17, 2013, the mainland China used BLR, Benchmark Loan Rate, instead.
    • BTW, Laryngopharyngeal reflux is also LPR, or laryngopharyngeal reflux disease, LPRD
• Federal Funds Rate
  • Used in U.S.
• Repo Rate, 
• IBOR, Interbank Offered Rate
  • Libor, London Inter-Bank Offered Rate
• Bank Rate, aka. Discount Rate(in AmE), 
• Mortgage Rates
• APR, Annual Percentage Rate,
  • eAPR, effective APR
• AER, Annual Equivalent Rate, aka. the effective annual rate,
• Annualized Interest Rate

Fiscal Policy 财政政策

Notice the difference between fiscal policy and monetary policy.

Stock & Market & Financial Products

IPO, Initial Public Offerings, 首次公开募股

Financial Market 

• Primary Market, 一级市场, aka. 发行市场, 初级市场
• Secondary Market, aftermarket, follow on public offering, 二级市场, aka. 次级市场

Types of Financial Products  

• In broad terms 
  • stocks(股票), bonds(债券), options(期权), futures(期货), forwards, shares(股份), funds(基金), deposit(存款), trusts(信托), equity(股权), annuities(年金), insurance(保险), Derivatives(衍生品), 
  • Difference between forwards and futures
• More specific products
  • Snowball Products, hedge funds, 

Incompletely, there’re some financial products can be seen as zero-sum games, including futures, forwards.

Invest Strategy

• Global Asset Allocation 
• Portfolio

Indicator

Market & Business

• CPI, Consumer Price Index
• PPI, Producer Price Index 
• CCI, Consumer Confidence Index
• PMI, Purchasing Managers’ Index

Stocks

• S&P 500, Standard & Poor’s 500
• NASDAQ Composite

Government

• Nominal Anchors

Economic Situation

• Liquidity Trap
• Stagflation
• Hyperinflation
• Deflation
• Middle Income Trap
• Recession
• Fiscal Cliff
• Credit Crunch
• Balance of Payment Crisis
• Boom and Bust Cycle
• Structural Unemployment 

Apparatus / Organization

PRC

PBC(officially used by PRC) / PBOC(informal) / People’s Bank of China, 中国人民银行, 人民银行, 央行, 中国中央银行

CBRC, China Banking Regulatory Commission, 中国银行业监督管理委员会, 中国银监会, authorized by the State Council, except the territories of Hong Kong and Macau

• Bank
  • ICBC, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China,
  • BOC, the Bank of China
  • ABC, the Agriculture Bank of China
  • CCB, China Construction Bank

U.S.

The Federal Reserve System / the Federal Reserve / the Fed (simplified),  美联储

Clearinghouse, 

Strategy

Island chain strategy
First island chain, second island chain

Weapon

Deterrence

MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction)

Nuclear proliferation

ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile)

Nuclear Submarine

Spy

Espionage, pilferage

Common Organization (Abbreviated or not)

KGB

USSR

The Pentagon

NATO

AUKUS

DARPA

MI5 (Military Intelligence, Section 5)

YouTube Channels

Johnny Harris

Matt’s 電玩之夜GameNight

Lex Fridman

RealLifeLore

More Related Pages

Lucas’s Politics Observation Diary