Yanwen Xia

Happy Mother's Day, the day most of us either receive or send cards or flowers or long distance calls. Mother's Day is the most remembered day in the year for a mother. A child may forget his/her mother's birthday, but it is difficult not to…

One trillion dollar unpaid student debt; this number surpasses our nation's credit card debt, and it's only increasing. One-in-five households now owe student loan debt, the greatest burden being on the young and the poor (a 1,120% increase in the…

Last weekend, I talked to my mother about the "two-sessions" — the annual sessions of the National People's Congress (NPC) and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the largest congressional meeting in the world with nearly…

March is Women's History Month. This Friday, March 8, is the International Women's Day (IWD), celebrated by women all over the world since 1911. The first IWD was held on While women all over the world celebrate the tremendous progress that has…

I don't know about you, but I think something needs to change about Valentine's Day, which will be here on Thursday. I have some suggestions for how to go about this change, and here they are: 1. No candies Every year when Valentine's Day…

This year's Chinese New Year falls on February 10. A couple days ago, PolicyMic political editor Michael McCutcheon asked me to consider why Chinese do or don't do it better than us. This was actually a good exercise, as we are so used to reading…

Before hearing President Barack Obama's second inaugural address, I expected him to shift his gravity to international affairs; an issue he may consider more important to his legacy than the domestic fight with Congress. No such shift took place,…

The saying, "behind every great man there's a great woman" needs to be retired. It is obsolete. The world today has seen great women stand not behind anyone but on their own, from former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher — the "Iron Lady" —…

Yesterday, during a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden, the National Rifle Association deliberately confused gun control initiatives with violating the Constitution when it accused the White House of having "an agenda to attack the Second…

January 8, 2013 is the 11th anniversary of the No Child Left Behind Act(NCLB). Its central idea is to demand accountability for all government-funded schools and to use standardized testing as the measurement of students' achievement. There have…

Today, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor killed the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), by tabling a bill that would extend funding for domestic violence programs, despite a late-stage intervention by Vice President Joe Biden. This is the first time…

The year has not been very kind to some women throughout the world. On February 29, 2012, Sandra Fluke was attacked by Rush Limbaugh, who publicly called her a "slut" and "prostitute," simply because of her speech before the House Democrats in…

When we hear the words bootlegging, speakeasies, moonshine, or Al Capone, we  2. Legitimate Rape: What a nicely coined phrase! As if there were illegitimate rape. Todd Akin's comment not only marked a turning point in his battle for the Missouri…

Now with so many college graduates leaving college with more debts than opportunities of landing a job to pay for it, people start wondering about the cost and worth of a college degree. First of all, people need to see college education as an…