Perspectives on Progress

Human Flesh Search

2010-08-20T10:59:00.001+08:00

There is something in China called 人肉搜索 "human flesh search". This involves using the online community to investigate the details of someone's personal life, address, phone number, etc. It was used against a Chinese Duke University student when she appeared at a pro-Tibet rally. It's basically like online public humiliation.

While it is certainly a terrifying trend, I think it might have its bright side. For instance, wouldn't it be nice to publicly humiliate the guy in charge of this campaign?: http://www.notrain.com/

The Work of a Translator

2010-05-03T16:28:00.000+08:00

As of this month, I've been working as a freelance translator and editor for nearly 10 months. That makes this profession the second longest job that I've ever had after my job as a waiter during college. This sort of work has proven to have tremendous advantages, such as being able to travel at will and being able to work from home. I have certainly appreciated those aspects; it's definitely not every job that allows you to have such liberty. However, they're also things that make it very challenging. For one, editing the work of others is a frustrating and grueling process. Without really intending to, editing has unfortunately become one of the main sources of income for myself while translation has become something I look forward to. This is not to say that my opportunities to do translation are few, but that I very much prefer them to editing. Nonetheless, editing has also allowed me to read a wide variety of work that I would otherwise never have the chance to translate. As painful as it is editing is still quicker than translating.

Another recent development has made will work more challenging his pain in my right wrist, which has prevented me from working at a suitable speed. To deal with this problem, I have recently acquired software that allows me to write via dictation, which is an interesting transition for me. I can also perform any editing tasks I need just by speaking. However, even with these new tools, I cannot help but recognize that sitting in front of a computer all the time is not a viable long-term career choice for me, especially due to the fact that my work must be done alone and therefore does not give me any opportunities to meet new people or develop alternative skills.

Good Questions

2010-04-12T11:05:00.000+08:00

One blog I stay up on, the Dienekes' Anthropology blog, put forth some of the questions that the author to believes to be some "hard problems for the social sciences."

One of the questions is:

An unstated assumption in political science is that different constitutions can be evaluated in isolation, without considering the actual states and populaces over which they will be instituted.

Democracy, we are told, is best, but how good is it really in a society filled with superstition and lacking in scientific knowledge? How can we expect such a society to democratically decide what is good for it? Or, how appropriate is democracy in a society of abundance where decisions can be made rationally and cool-headedly, vs. a dog-eat-dog society of scarcity where voting majorities may be inclined to live at the expense of minorities?

The modern world as a whole experiences an increase in expertise. Moreover, problems are increasingly technical in nature: the average citizen doesn't have a clue about how serious climate change is, or how drastic measures to address it should be enforced.

To summarize: putting down democracy is unpopular, but it is time to see how it can function in today's world, as opposed to the small-scale states it was first instituted in. The goal: to figure out which problems should be decided democratically and which should be left to experts, and to create a political system that will distinguish between the two.

See the full post here.

Internal Colonization?

2010-04-05T15:05:00.000+08:00

Last week, I began work editing the poorly translated manuscript of another academic book. This one is about the development of China's western provinces. It's pulling from a variety of perspectives, with economists commenting on the large-scale indicators and socio-cultural academics paying more attention to the specifics. By the definition used in this book, western China includes most of China's ethic minority regions, including Xinjiang and Tibet. My post today quotes from the section outlining the remaining problems facing western development in a chapter by Lin Ling (林凌) and Liu Shiqing (刘世庆):

The west is an important source of resources and energy. In terms of China’s overall industrial layout, the east focuses on manufacturing and emerging industries, while the west focuses industries such as minerals, energy, and processing raw materials. Western China’s raw resource-oriented have been besieged by two unequal transaction systems. On one hand, there is distorted pricing system for raw resources and raw materials but high prices for finished products, resulting in very low profit margins for those developing resources in western China. On the other hand, eastern industries make excess profits through the low-cost resources and unfettered environmental exploitation. This is particularly true because resource exploitation by central government-owned enterprises does very little for local economic development. This structure has not worked in the interests of the west or its populace and has resulted in many social conflicts.

If one were to look at this system purely in economic terms, it greatly resembles a colonial relationship. Western China, home to uncivilized pastoralists and impoverished farmers, is a source of cheap resources for the east. At the same time, however, all the major indicators used by economists to determine quality of life have gone up.

Along with economic progress, also worth nothing is:

As of the end of 2007, the critical “Two Basics Goals” (两基)—promoting nine-year compulsory education in rural areas and eliminating illiteracy among young and middle-aged people—had been achieved in western China, with the education and literacy reaching 98 percent of the population.

So how does one evaluate this process? As work on this book continues, I'll have more to share.

Currency currency currency!

2010-04-01T15:52:00.001+08:00

Everyone is talking about it!

Here's a take from the Economist, talking about possible responses from the US that might lead China to reconsider its position on the currency issue. Others have also made predictions that China will do some revaluation before the year is out.

What I would like to know, and I suppose what many people would like to know, is what discussions are being had behind closed doors. Are Chinese leaders talking to people like the academics from my last post? Are they thinking about it purely in terms of a US v. China trade spat or are they more focused on the internal risk factors? Are they too busy buying up property in Hainan to care?

A Chinese academics perspective on China's currency

2010-03-30T15:08:00.001+08:00

In October/November of last year I worked on editing and translating chapters from a book on China's economic reforms. The articles were written by a wide slew of Chinese academics, including one chapter co-authored by Wu Jinglian and Fan Shitao, two domestic academics (not educated abroad). They do a wonderful job of breaking down China's currency gamble:

Currently, if there were to be reform of China’s exchange rate regime to base the rate on the market (i.e. liberalization), currencies from countries with trade surpluses would naturally appreciate, thus restoring the international balance of payments. However, such a reform would also put huge pressure on export companies to update their technologies and products. Usually, the inertia of the original structure of interests makes it impossible for exchange rate reform to occur; this forces the central bank to intervene in the market, buying a large quantity of foreign currency to keep the exchange rate of the local currency low. This market intervention results in over-issuance of the local currency, flooding the market, which can result in one of three situations: one possibility is the inflation of asset prices, where the prices of real estate, stocks, collectibles, etc., increase, forming market bubbles; the second is normal inflation, which involves a rise in the price of general goods; the third possibility is a mix of these two kinds of inflation. In the end, no matter which situation emerges, as soon as there is some internal or external shock, the country will be faced with serious and systematic risk, which could cause long-term economic recession.

According to their argument, the reasons for China's stubborn refusal to consider currency evaluation, which has been addressed in a particularly inflammatory article by Krugman in the NYT, is because of two things: first, China's leaders are in the pockets of those that have benefited most (and in some cases, are the very ones who have benefited most) from the export-oriented strategy. Second, other sectors of China's economy are not developing fast enough to make up for the employment that would be lost if China's manufacturing sector (dependent on low exchange rates) fell through. But as mentioned in the quote above, the current currency regime represents a gamble. How long will it be necessary to hold off currency revaluation before other sectors of the economy can catch up? It appears that the government is betting on the high-tech industry and the growth of the "creative economy." So here is the even bigger question, can a creative economy exist under censorship? Can creativity be encouraged and innovation promoted in a country where the artists, lawyers, and thinkers that step out of line are squashed by the mighty Communist fist?

Hypothesis

2010-03-12T05:20:00.000+08:00

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/women-drinkers-gain-less-weight/?em

What could be completely non-biology-related reason that this study found the results it did? The writing would leave someone to believe it's actually the alcohol that's helping people lose weight. But it doesn't appear that there's any attempt to study the causality, resulting in a rather misleading article. Could it be that women that consume alcohol are more socially active and more wealthy, both things which would increase the incentive (or the the possibility of being able to afford) to stay healthy? Would the same incentive/economic model apply for men?

PS: naturally the comments include a good deal of similarly-spirited skepticism, which is good at least.

Guest Post: Is Google Buzz an Ideal Approach to Taking on Facebook and Twitter?

2010-02-13T08:05:00.001+08:00

Note: while I don't agree with this post completely, it provides some interesting analysis. Will Buzz be a useful tool for competing with Twitter/Facebook? I would hypothesize that the average age of Gmail users is much younger than email in general. I also think that looking at the market as some how divided between Facebook/Twitter/Gmail is inaccurate; don't most people subscribe to at least two? I know I have all three.

Post by Vincent Ni, writing from Oxford, UK

Gmail, the world’s third-largest electronic mail service unveiled its own “Google approach to sharing” with Google Buzz's release on Tuesday. However, Google’s stock did not perform as well as Google had hoped on Tuesday.

Google Buzz is a Twitter-like social networking application through which users can follow their friends and share updates. Many believe that Google Buzz is aimed to take on its competitors Twitter and Facebook, and is also believed to be closely tied with Google’s mobile ambitions.

Online social networking sites have been blooming since 2007. In the UK, while merely 17% internet users used the social networking sites in 2007, the figure jumped to 49% in 2009.

One of the questions that Google Buzz raises is that whether Google Buzz can lure users away from Facebook and Twitter. According to the Pew Internet report issued early this month, we find (unsurprisingly) that while 72% of young adults are on social networking sites, only 40% of 30+ adults use them. But who's using email? Although there is no specific data on Gmail users, looking at the demographics of email in general can offer some insight into the specifics for Gmail. The 2009 Oxford Internet Survey found that email is particularly popular among middle-aged and employed individuals, whereas social networking is particularly popular among students.

There is a clear demographic mismatch between the likely users of Gmail and those that use social networking.

So, in summary, if Google really wants to take on its social networking competitors, Google Buzz is not an ideal approach, simply because Gmail and Social Networking have different target customers groups, although there is of course a degree of overlap.

Is Google going crazy?

2010-01-13T13:37:00.002+08:00

Google has publicly threatened to un-censor search content on their China website. They've insinuated, as delicately as possible, that the Chinese government bears some responsibility for the attacks on the email accounts of human rights activists around the world as well as stealing intellectual property (stealing software code) from at least a dozen companies.

The part of their statement that most clearly points to their suspicions is the wording in Google's descriptions of the attacks, which were described as "highly sophisticated." This of course indicates that they believe the attacks to have been carefully and meticulously organized by some organization capable of pulling off such a major operation. Moreover, they were set out to achieve political goals. Whether or not this is state sponsored is a matter that may never be proved, but I believe it is reasonable to assume that even if not officially condoned, such activity is not discouraged.

There are two sides to China's sensitivity over the internet. One of them is political and the other is economic.

First, the political. The political reasons for China blocking website access and seeking to control content have been written about all over the place. Clearly, the government is sensitive about activities it sees as being directly threatening its legitimacy or advocating independence. Personally, while I detest the manner in which these worries affect me personally, I can understand why a conservative government such as China's would be so paranoid about the influence of foreign ideals. I have a lot of skepticism about Western concerns over Tibet and Xinjiang, which are mostly based on a lot of moral platitudes that do very little provide real solutions (would another poor, disorganized, violent, Islamic central Asian state really be that much better off?). The same questions apply to Western platitudes about human rights, which we use as a political tool to pressure countries when we see fit. In any case, that's another discussion. In summary, China's government has political reasons for trying to control the internet.

But what is far less talked about but also very interesting is the possible economic reasons for such control. China wants to become a high-tech international economic powerhouse. As part of its progress towards becoming a modernized country, it wants to produce companies that can compete with Google and Apple, etc. However, at present, China cannot compete. China's computing industry is still far behind that of the West, and full of basically copycat software and hardware (look at the post on Perspectives on shanzhai 山寨 products from last year). So, the Great Firewall of China acts as a buffer for the Chinese high-tech industry. With Facebook blocked, Renrenwang 人人网 (formerly Xiaonei 校内) and other Chinese social networking sites can have time and a customer base to develop. With Youtube blocked, similar Chinese sites have had the opportunity to secure a user base. Whether or not this is a sound principle (history tends to show that China's most developed sectors have been the those that are the most open to foreign competition), China is certainly no stranger to such protectionism.

The other side of China's internet policy, the "sophisticated" attacks on Western industry, also has important implications (whether government supported or not). While the breaking into people's email accounts receives a great deal of attention (as it should), somewhat less acknowledged is the thievery of source code from Western companies. In my mind, this is also a glaring example of industrial espionage intended to give the Chinese high-tech industry a leg up. As with the thievery of car designs by Chinese car companies, weapon design by the Chinese military (stolen from Russia), and clothing design from designer labels, the theft of software is yet another manifestation of the same principle. I'm not a huge fan of intellectual property rights across the board, but I'm even less of a fan of blind economic nationalism.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I do not have any evidence to prove that China's Firewall (which is hardly even officially acknowledged anyway) is being set up intentionally as a way to help the Chinese high-tech industry. However, this would accord with other past and current Chinese industrial policies, which have sought to prevent or limit foreign competition in certain crucial industries. Western countries also have these policies, which prevent foreign companies from acquiring US oil companies, weapons companies, etc. But nothing of the sort exists for the internet-technology industry.

Personally, I am willing to assume that there are economic interests at work here; the high-tech industry is something that has received a lot of government support recently; there are already non-internet-related policies that limit competition in the industry; the pretense of politically-sensitive content provides a legitimate reason (legitimate in the eyes of China's government) to provide cover for China's homegrown, more-easily-controlled industry.

I don't know what will happen with Google in China, but what I fear is that Google leaving might be exactly what China wants.

Translating in Beijing

2010-01-07T14:15:00.001+08:00

This week I will begin work on my next translation project, which is entitled 外援在中国, or foreign aid in China. It's a book about the history of foreign aid in China. As someone who's a little bit obsessed with history, it should be a delight. This project is the first project where I am a member of a group of translators all working together on the same book. The group was assembled through an email group called Literocracy, which until now has primarily served as a discussion group for translation/literature related topics.

This work structure is unique and innovative in a few ways. First, the delegation of the entire translating task to a "translator collective" is not typically the way these things are done. Sometimes the editor of the book, who is working for the publisher, would supervise the selection of suitable translators. Sometimes, as with one of the projects I worked on last Fall, an independent organization pays for the translation and supervises the whole process. The current model is different from both of these because every aspect of translating has been left to the group to delegate and organize. The bid for the project was decided through discussion. The wages of everyone involved are transparent and equal (and still enough to be attractive). Could this be the start of something good?

Translators in Beijing are often caught between a rock and a hard place. Larger translation companies typically do not pay rates that are attractive to good writers, which is what leads to so many people becoming freelancers. A freelancer can support oneself finding work and establishing clients by him/herself, such as I have done over the past six months. However, one disadvantage is that a single freelancer cannot accept a really large project, such as a four hundred page book, without taking at least six months. Thus, freelancers are barred from the most profitable and steady type of projects because they cannot compete on the time frames that publication cycles demand. Well... that's not entirely true. Freelancers can participate, but they must be found by the person in charge of organizing the translation.

So this model puts Literocracy in charge. If this model is going to be used in the future, there are still a lot of things to figure out, such as how to select who is an editor and who can participate on what projects, but the foundations have been set. There's a lot to be done.

Back from the dead

2010-01-05T13:26:00.000+08:00

After two months of suffering under China's draconian firewall (which for some reason started blocking the proxy I was using before), I'm back and able to post again. This is all thanks to Witopia, who provides online anonymity for a modest annual fee. Their connection hasn't showed itself to be that fast, but it's certainly better than the alternative.

China's Militarization - Fact or Fiction?

2009-10-22T01:30:00.002+08:00

The Chinese government has sworn it will rescue crewmembers from a Chinese ship captured by pirates near Somalia. A military spokesman from Taiwan recently made a statement calling China’s militarization to be beyond the needs of self-defense. One of the newspapers more heavily influenced by the government, the Global Times, frequently has its front page headlines meant to stir the nationalist spirit of its citizens. Finally, the recent celebration of the National Holiday was a showcase for China’s military technology, with high-tech fighter planes, thousands of troops, and tanks making their way through or over the city. What’s the deal with all this militarization? How much of it is bluffing? What happened to China’s “peaceful rise”?

This is my first week back in Beijing after a three week work-vacation (looming deadlines kept me working on my laptop as I traveled). I spent two weeks in Vietnam and then a week in Xiamen, China, the city I studied abroad in three years ago. Xiamen is also the closest city to Taiwanese controlled territory, as a small island administered by Taiwan sits just a few miles away. Perhaps because of its proximity to the rebellious island, Xiamen feels a bit different as well. There seems to be less faith in Beijing, an understanding of the arbitrariness of politics, and a real concern for, and willingness to talk about, problems in Chinese society. As an example, for the first time during my time in China, I heard two Chinese people talking about the Cultural Revolution; and not just talking about it, but analyzing it, drawing lessons from it. It is something that you would never hear in Beijing.

One of my close friends in Xiamen happens to be Taiwanese; he is the boss of a café I frequented during my time studying there. He is a delight to trade ideas with, and one idea he put forth was that the militarized National Day was not for the world at large to see China’s might, but instead for the Chinese people to see and believe in China’s might. From his perspective, the military fanfare in Beijing, and around the world, is just that, fanfare. He believes that China, culturally and historically, is not a country that tends to be aggressive.

Both of these opinions, about Beijing specifically as well as about China’s military culture, have been voiced before. The Economist’s article on the National Day voiced a similar opinion and many historians have concluded that China is not a particularly militaristic culture. To me, this seems at least partially true, especially in comparison to other countries (including the United States). China’s subjugation of its Western regions, for instance, is occurring with much less violence than took place during America’s fulfillment of “Manifest Destiny”. But China has had its share of wars as well. There are periods in Chinese history, including in the 20th century, simply referred to as the “wardlord” period or the “warring kingdoms” period. Violence has been a part of China’s politics just as long as it has anywhere else.

My hypothesis is this: To the world at large, military strength is the leading indicator of a nation’s real power. For most of the past two centuries, China has lacked this kind of real power. The use of military means to solve problems is something that has been reserved for the superpowers of the world (or those directly fighting superpowers). China is intent on becoming a superpower, so it insists on adopting all of the trappings of a superpower, including a large military. In the short term, this military is, just like my Taiwanese friend said, just for show. It is incapable of challenging major powers but sure looks pretty when dressed up and put on display. This is chiefly meant to prove to the Chinese people that China is stronger than it ever has been; this is all about nationalist pride.

Strategically flawed, nationally and culturally symbolic; ring any bells?

Internationally, the symbolism of China’s military is only beginning to take hold. An attempt to rescue the Chinese crew from pirates, for instance, would be the furthest away from China that the Chinese navy has operated in its entire history. Granted, using it against pirates with small arms is nothing that impressive, but it is important nonetheless.

My Taiwanese friend once described China’s military culture in this way: In the ancient times, kings would get into a big hubbub preparing for war. One king would build his army, march them to the field, and wait for the enemy. The second king, likewise, would prepare earnestly for war. But when second king’s army arrives on the battlefield, it becomes apparent that the first king’s army is much bigger. The second king, instead of engaging in a battle that he might lose, sounds the retreat. Thus ends the war. The army merely a tool to symbolize power, but never brought into play.

Hopefully China’s modern military stays equally symbolic. It’s not like we need another super power running around invading wherever they please. One is enough.

September is more than half way over

2009-09-21T13:06:00.000+08:00

September 9th marked my year anniversary in Beijing. The life I have here now and what I had a year ago seem like completely different worlds. Beijing has transformed from a gigantic, strange city into something much more familiar, even something that manages to feel small, or at least localized, at times. My apartment no longer seems so far away from everything; the simple trips to the grocery store, or a new area of town, are no longer fraught with hidden dangers. I no longer have police knocking at my door early in the morning (see my post from last fall), and I’ve even been able to find people to help me solve the most persistent visa problem (I’m legal till January now).

My life for the last two months.

Beijing is a universe that contains worlds within worlds. As I’ve become more familiar with the city and its inhabitants, I feel like I’ve been able to understand the architecture of at least some of these. It is like a giant canvas with dashes of color in it, centers of culture, learning, or business. I’ve been able to catch glimpses of a few of these; my time working at the law firm, and my current work with the book on legal reform, have exposed me to a group of people who spend a great deal of time writing, talking, and reading about the big issues, like democracy, civil rights, reform, etc. Their discussions, usually accessible to me via email or the articles they write, always look at issues from the long-term, macro-perspective. As such, my perspective has also become somewhat disconnected from the world around me.

But this world is really only one small part of Beijing; it only happens to be a rather monopolizing force in my life right now. There are also things much more tangible. There’s a music scene in Beijing, a theater scene, an athletic scene (foreigners and Chinese competing in MMA fights in Beijing stadiums?!), a clubbing scene, etc.

To provide an example of someone who lives in the same city, but lives a very different life from me: one potential housemate who came to look at a room in my apartment last week was a Swedish man in his late 20s who worked for Kawasaki, selling motorcycles. When I asked him about his work, he flew into a flurry of the most adrenaline-testosterone-pumped stories of his motorcycles escapades in Beijing, including racing against Ferrari on the highway to the airport, doing a stoppie (front-wheeled wheelie) at high-speed in the middle of Beijing’s weekend traffic. Perhaps most incredible is that he has maintained his high-risk riding style even after nearly killing himself and his girlfriend in a wreck last year (he spent 4 months in the hospital after breaking his neck). In the end, he decided the room was too small for him, and decided not to move in. I’m a little grateful.

That left Ali, the current occupant of the room, time to decide whether he wanted to extend his stay or not. He decided to renew his contract for another three months. Ali is from Pakistan; he’s a member of a Shia ethnic minority group. He has been in China for three years now, and, for obvious reasons (war), is trying to extend his stay for as long as possible. He speaks English that he learned from James Bond movies, sometimes using phrases that seem transported from the 60s. He and his Chinese girlfriend speak English together, which makes me wonder how much between them is left understood. But despite his occasional strangeness, he is a polite and decent person.

These are stories of foreigners, which are the bulk of whom I’m surrounded by on a day to day basis. This is strange to me, but in some ways also quite natural. Regardless of how much time one spends in China, and regardless how well one speaks Chinese, someone of a different race here is always an “other”. I suppose this is the natural result in a country made up of so many, ethnically homogenous, people, but it is still something that I, as a diversity-embracing American, cannot accept as normal.

But even as the majority of Chinese people do not see foreign residents as their countrymen, there are nonetheless more and more people from other countries living in China. There is a famous area of Guangzhou which has become taken over by African immigrants; Koreans occupy huge neighborhoods in Beijing (there were even more last year, but the population is still in no way small). China has no shortage of xenophobia; there is certainly a great deal of suspicion on the part of conservatives about the outside world’s corrupting influence. But within this conservative society, there are smaller worlds full diversity, openness, and experimentation. In regard to my interest in China, I have passed the point where I want to “jump” into total cultural immersion; I have reintroduced Western food into my diet; I live in a high-rise complex with the modern conveniences of a separated shower and real heat (my apartment last winter was freezing). I have begun to unashamedly carve out my own space in this international megacity.

Ramblings on the Power of Capitalism

2009-08-25T16:25:00.002+08:00

I grew up in an environment where distrust of business was the norm. In the city of Asheville, North Carolina, everyone would like to imagine that the world can be run by good will alone. Movements like "Food Not Bombs" feed anyone who wants to eat for free and whole living rooms can be decorated using the contents of a Bed Bath and Beyond dumpster (I would know). If something cannot be done on the cheap or by hand, than it's almost not worth doing.

This is the perspective that I brought to Asia. And to a large degree, it is a perspective I still hold. There is something romantic and cowboy-esque about the ambition to be self-sufficient, efficient, and to live “off the grid.”

But Asheville is not the subject of this blog post, China is.

In the past few months, I have begun work on editing a book about China’s legal reform over the last three decades. Parts of it have it, of course, have been quite tedious (lists of laws…) but other parts have struck me, the same way a Freshman in college is struck by their first encounter with f-ing brilliant professor. I suppose that’s no surprise, as the chapters are all written by Chinese legal scholars.

My most profound realization is related to the overwhelmingly influential power of international business in determining the course of China’s politics. The desire to join the WTO, participate in global trade as an equal, and be invited to all the cool parties, has forced China’s government to “step up.” There have been decades of political pressure internally trying to push the government toward reform, but it honestly has had little effect, especially in achieving actual systematic (reforms of laws, etc.) reform. The most influential force has been the norms established by the international trading community. This is easy to see when one takes an analytical angle at China’s legal development. Which areas of Chinese law are the most developed? Law pertaining to trade! Which areas of Chinese law are least likely to be completely subject to the “rule of man”? Trade and business.
Put simply, China’s desire to make money has forced it to “play ball” with a set of values it would otherwise have never approached. The implications for this are huge. For me, it has been the first time I’ve realized, and actually been able to internalize, why organizations like the WTO exist and what they do. When the “international business community,” as vague as that notion is, makes a decision or reform, it becomes universalized among all member nations.

Some could look at this and see reason to be scared. In the past and at present, there are situations where international financial organizations have left room (a lot of room) for improvement. But I believe their power to promote democracy and rule of law cannot be denied.

Modernizing Mao

2009-03-29T16:53:00.007+08:00

As I crouched to take a photo of the Chairman Mao statue standing in the center of Chengdu, my local acquaintance asked me if I also "worshipped" him? Initially, I was quite stunned; I did not know how to answer. I never thought a Chinese person would assume a foreigner loved Chairman Mao, and in fact would expect quite the opposite.

My local Chengdu acquaintance is a representative of a more thoughtful and less materialistic young China. A member of a highly patriotic military family, he is not taken by the thrill of fancy clothes, bars, or sex and instead presented a very serious take on modern China. He did not shy away from thinking deeply about more controversial topics, such as Tibet and democracy, even if his views were very much representative of the government's. His seriousness occasionally became oppressive, and it would be wrong to describe him as exciting, but personality traits aside, he is nonetheless interesting.

A large part of his serious outlook on life comes from a belief that China's moral system has collapsed since the days of Chairman Mao. He sees today a China rife with corruption, selfishness, and ostentatious displays of wealth by those in power, something he believes would never have been tolerated in the days of Mao. In his eyes, the core elements of a healthy society - equality and unity - have been abandoned in exchange for favoritism and oppression. The Cultural Revolution, while a turbulent time, was nonetheless an opportunity for common people to speak out against abuse by those in power.

For those raised in an environment anything like my own -- Tibet-loving father, liberal arts education, ingrained bias against dictatorships and for democracy -- this modern Chinese conservative's views stand in stark contrast. The sappy liberal historian in me asks how one of the 20th century's great dictators, unarguably responsible for millions of unnecessary deaths, has become a hero for modern Chinese conservatism. The cultural relativist in me then remembers that most countries find ways to remember their founders, regardless of their faults, as patriots.

In any case, that Maoism is the source of Chinese resistance to materialism and inequality is fascinating to me. I believe it is through the modern cultural conservatives, such as my friend in Chengdu, that any real possibility for political reform can be found. As progressive as the ideas may be in the West, promoting equality in this capitalist society and fighting corruption have a conservative flavor in China.

A week in Suzhou 上有天堂下有苏杭

2009-03-16T22:55:00.011+08:00

This week I have been honored with the opportunity to attend the second Annual Chinese English Literature Translation Course hosted by the Penguin Books publishing company in Suzhou. The participants have been set up in a wonderful hotel in the middle of Suzhou, a wonderful city in itself that I haven’t had adequate time to explore. We’re spending the mornings and afternoons translating works by six different authors, three writing in English and three in Chinese. Working with each author’s work is a team of about eight people, with varying degrees of experience in translation. The teams are divided up by mother language, with native English speakers translating into English from Chinese and vice versa (except for my friend Vincent, who was placed wrongly but has decided to look at it as a unique challenge). In this forest of professionals, I am barely a shrub, and it is more than humbling to work with the incredible minds here.

Perhaps the most notable feature of all is that our teamwork translations are all taking place with the authors in the room available to answer any questions or discuss their work. Unfortunately, as the banter discussing their work is all taking place in the opposite language, it can make it difficult to be as inclusive as we would like. My group is working with a beautiful young female author named Sheng Keyi, and we are translating a short story by her. I feel embarrassed to admit how little Chinese literature I’ve read; I have not been exposed to the bulk of the work of our translation instructors. Despite my lack of knowledge about the feild of translation, two notable guests here that I am roughly familiar with are the translator of Shanghai Baby, Bruce Humes, and the author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian, Marina Lewycka.

Duty Calls

2009-02-16T21:41:00.004+08:00

Projects at work the last two weeks have left me very little time to write about stuff, but hopefully that will resolve itself soon. Fortunately, the project is interesting. I'm working on researching for and writing a summary of two centuries of Chinese history, a little much really, for the introduction to a book about Chinese trade law. So... looking at two centuries of Chinese history, from the angle of "trade."
That really narrows it down.

The Changing Face of Filial Piety 孝

2009-02-02T11:29:00.007+08:00

From the first time I was taught about Eastern culture, I have been told that it is a place where filial piety is very important, where the elderly are respected, and their wishes honored. According to my understanding, the traditions of filial piety are rooted in classical Confucian order of things, emphasizing the role and importance of the father, the head of the household, and the emperor, the head of the state. According to the rules of filial piety, it is important to obey and respect the wishes of those of higher rank, including parents and rulers.

This cultural summary has always seemed vague. To me, it fails to convey anything specific about actual behavior; moreover, it seems that it differs little from the classic Western understanding of rank. Honoring thy father and mother is, after all, one of the Ten Commandments and therefore an essential building block of Western moral principles. The role of the father as head of the household was also a widely recognized social norm until a few decades ago. Even now, it seems like many Westerners would have the same ideals in regard to the treatment of our own elderly family members; we in the West also believe that the elderly should be treated with respect and it is exhibited in our legal system (retirement, etc.) and pricing system (in theaters, tickets for events, etc).

It is not until recently that the West’s own patriarchal system of filial piety began to be undermined. The importance of the father has dissipated as women and children have become more economically and legally independent. What has followed has been the heightened importance of the individual, who is now, for the first time in history, an economically viable entity; the modern individual does not need their father’s house or protection and can pursue his or her own goals with confidence.

This “modern individual” is of course an abstraction of a general trend, but it serves to illustrate that filial piety, the sense of duty to ones elders, is perhaps more indicative of a culture’s economic status, not their values. Evidence for this can be found in the “filial” Chinese culture, which is rapidly becoming individualist. Certainly a high percentage of Chinese put great emphasis on their parent’s wishes, but more and more individuals are pursuing the work and the lifestyle they want, not just fulfilling the wishes of their parents.

One could also look at this trend as something quite different, instead indicating that Western cultural values are seeping in, destroying the former system. In this case, I would argue that a century of war, the Cultural Revolution, and Great Leap Forward would have done more to destroy the old system if it were just cultural. The fact that the system has remained so emphasized until recently is a sign of its economic roots. It is the economic change that has brought the shift more than anything else.

A look at Solar

2009-01-19T14:41:00.004+08:00

2008 saw incredible developments in solar energy technology, which have begun to be recognized as a feasible way to supplant the current fossil fuel dependent system. Despite decreasing gas prices and a tumultuous financial situation, research in the West and implementation in the East both provide evidence of strong potential in the industry in the future.

Researchers at MIT have made progress in storing solar energy for use during non-daylight hours. Through a process that is based on photosynthesis, Professor Daniel Nocera and his team have pioneered technology that uses solar energy to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen gas, which can then be recombined any time to create a steady energy source. This is the sort of advance that can make solar into an efficient and feasible energy system for usage throughout the day.

Read about the research here.

While progress in the laboratory is one thing, progress in implementation and popularization is another. In this, recent news in China has been encouraging. One solar energy project announced recently, to be constructed in Northwest China, is stated to become the world’s largest upon its completion. One interesting facet of this project is the emphasis on high-tech photovoltaic cells, which convert sunlight directly into electricity but are much more expensive than the relatively low-tech alternative, solar water heating.

Previous solar successes in China, including China’s largest solar energy firms, have all focused on the latter. Solar water heaters are suitable for individual homes and small communities, but less so for providing cities with power. Photovoltaic, on the other hand, is geared more towards creating electricity for a power grid, and can be used far away from its source.

Because of the difference in these technologies, an investment in a large photovoltaic project is perhaps symbolic of China’s willingness to embrace sustainable energy as a real feature of future infrastructure. China’s potential solar resources are some of the best in the world, with northern regions free from rainfall most of the year.

China's big solar project

Whether this sort of project is meant to astound the world with its grandeur or make real progress in building a sustainable infrastructure remains to be seen. China continues to invest heavily in Great Wall-esque projects that seem aimed to please observers, while the nuts and bolts of infrastructural reform are ignored. As China builds its solar plants, in will nonetheless continue open up hundreds of new coal plants, ensuring that it will keep its title as the world’s largest polluter.

Obama - We can hope

2009-01-12T15:50:00.001+08:00

Obama will take the stage on January 20 to be inaugurated as president. He seems to carry the hope of a generation on his shoulders – the support of young people are what insured his victory in November and their hopes seem to have dictated a great deal of his policy goals. There’s no doubt that he faces the insurmountable challenge of pleasing everyone. He must fight two wars during a recession, spend obscene amounts of money to re-stabilize the economy when the national debt is already absurd, and build a sustainable infrastructure in the United States while some people still don’t acknowledge humanity’s role in contributing to global warming. He has already come under fire for making difficult political choices, such as choosing conservative pastor Rick Warren to perform the invocation at the ceremony, a decision vehemently protested by Gay Rights groups and others.
Needless to say, Obama will not be perfect. I have doubts as to whether he will be able to see the United States through economic recovery, let alone bring the United States into a new Golden Age. The age of the endlessly lusting American consumer is at an end, and good riddance. I hope that a recession in the United States can open up room in the economy for new kinds of jobs, like the Green Jobs proposed in Obama’s recovery plan, and that a return to intelligent governance can improve American education and health care.
Changes within the United States are just part of the potential for improvement. Obama can be more immediately and drastically influential internationally. The insanity of the Bush years are nearly at an end, and with his departure I hope that the blind separation of the world into “with us” or “against us” will vanish. Moreover, the United States can finally engage with the world to make real progress coordinating the fight against global warming.

In Pursuit of “CREATED by China”

2009-01-01T19:02:00.006+08:00

A long time in China will make you realize it is no long a country of black and white. Certainly, it is no longer a feudal country where marriage partners are appointed by parents (although some other feudal ways of thinking still remain). Also, it is no longer just the world’s biggest sweat factory. It is a complex country where quirky things happen, which are both exciting and frustrating.

MAKING IT HAPPEN

In the early 2000s, the then-president Jiang proposed “the innovation is the soul of a country and the momentum of a nation.” His broadcast marked the beginning of the country’s ambition to shift from “made in China to created by China”. Afterwards, “innovation” became a key word in many major political meetings and soon the slogan began appearing everywhere. Following this new concept, the vast majority of projects, ranging from enterprise-level to state-level, contained “innovative” elements. Now, if you roaming mega cities such as Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, you will find many exciting ideas associated with high-quality life—LOFT(life, office, fashion and taste), art galleries are everywhere. Especially in Beijing, you can meet many of interesting people from a variety of backgrounds. The common title of “Beijing Floater”(北漂Bei Piao) describes many of them, who often work as artists.

INNOVATION BASED ON THE ORIGINALS

Starbucks and IKEA, which 30 years ago could have been labeled as representatives of the “decadent Western lifestyle,” have begun to be recognized and welcomed by Chinese consumers, who are impressed by the better designed and standardized service qualitiy. Hence, Starbucks has become the most popular place for young urbanites to experience the exotic western life. Seeing the popularity of such places, Chinese businesspersons immediately smelled the opportunity for profit. But, the question was how to make money? Thinking about this, the Japanese entrepreneur’s case of success through copying would automatically appear in Chinese entrepreneurs’ mind—COPY. But, how to copy? The solution, to avoid the legal tangles of violating copyrights and still gain the benefits of someone else’s innovation, was unique. President Jiang’s phrase “innovation is the soul of a country and the momentum of a nation” became the guideline for making copies.

One of the most interesting cases is “Super Girls”, which you might have heard of. The show premiered in the summer of 2005, and according to CVSC-Sofres Media, gained an audience rating amounting to 8 per cent of the entire country. The idea of the show came from American Idol. But why was it called “Super Girls”? (the producer Hu Nan Satellite TV had the same contest model in 2007, called “Super Boy”) The answer is simple—copyright. If Hu Nan TV used the exact same model as American Idol, they would most likely to be sued by the original producers. But, in order to avoid this, here came the “Super Girl/Boy” model. This is innovation, isn’t it?!

Also, there are examples of the same logic being used in cell phone production. Such copies are popular among many people, but are regarded as second class products by others. It may be surprising that skills at copy could be so sophisticated, but it is the lifeblood of much of Chinese innovation.

See how it works?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=59kFfubw2Vk&eurl=http://hi.baidu.com/sakuras_taisens/blog/item/ce96da1f53cd1d67f724e4fe.html&feature=player_embedded

(you can purchase it on Chinese Ebay—www.taobao.com. it is just 999RMB)

So, this is the INNOVATION, Chinese style. I would say for the moment it is really smart, although it obviously lacks real INNOVATION, which is the core. But, who's around to care?

Enforcing Laws in SW China

2008-12-24T09:25:00.005+08:00

The environmental history of China during the 1990s and early 2000s has not been a picture of responsible industry. While in the books China’s environmental laws are strong, in practice they are frequently ignored. Every year there are cases of human-caused ecological disasters.
In the far southeastern part of Sichuan province, for example, mining more magnesium has taken its toll on local communities and the environment. Runoff from the regions hundreds of mining projects has contaminated the water with heavy metals and other mining toxins, killing crops and putting the health of local people at risk.

Thanks to: china-environmental-news.blogspot.com for their article on Sichuan's situation.

In another example from September 2008, Yangzonghai Lake in neighboring Yunnan province was found to contain high levels of arsenic in the water. Several companies bordering the lake were found to be responsible, and were fined accordingly. Despite such measures, the continuing occurrence of such cases is an obvious sign that noncompliance is the primary issue in rural environmental protection.
In order to improve rates of compliance, prevent ecological disasters, and protect people’s health, Yuxi, a city in Yunnan, has created a specialized law enforcement group tasked with tackling environmental law enforcement in Yunnan province. For Yunnan, China’s most biologically and geographically diverse province, the creation of the task group is an investment in the province’s natural resources.

Thanks to: www.greenlaw.org.cn for linking to environmental news.

However, in the past such local law enforcement agencies have had similar responsibilities and nonetheless failed to enforce environmental laws. Often such local agencies must have the approval of local officials to carry out investigations, and officials in the past have been more than willing to ignore environmental concerns in favor of economic growth and local favoritism. The test will be to see whether this new agency is given a new degree of independence to carry out its charge.
If the issues of favoritism, bribery, and other forms of corruption do not allow the agency to be effective, a national enforcement body with complete independence may be the only real solution.

China as a part of Global Environmentalism

2008-12-19T10:37:00.005+08:00

December 13 marked the last day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference held in Poznan, Poland. In regard to developing countries such as China, the conference focused on discussing the transfer of technologies to ameliorate pollution resulting from inefficient technology and stemming the trend of deforestation. The convention was heavily oriented on preparing for next year’s meeting in Copenhagen, where parties are to discuss a replacement for the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012. Despite widespread recognition of the severity of the climate change problem, the current financial difficulties around the world have taken some of the energy out of discussions relating to finding solutions. According to Britain’s Guardian newspaper, fewer world leaders support alternative energy as a way to solve climate change than did 12 months ago.
In October 2008, the Chinese government issued a pronouncement entitled China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change, which outlines the government’s stance on climate change and what will be done domestically to reduce emissions. The Chinese government maintains that it will make efforts to reduce emissions through improved efficiency and technology transfer, largely through foreign investment in CDM and similar projects.
While such investment is certainly pivotal in helping China reduce emissions, domestic efforts to regulate industries and improve efficiency are certainly also necessary. Based on the report issued in October, it seems that Chinese government still does not recognize a need for reducing overall emissions, but merely reducing the growth rate of emissions. From one standpoint, such an attitude is understandable. As a developing country, it follows that China should have room to expand its carbon emissions to meet the growing needs of its economy, as Western countries did during their development. However, if one looks at statistics indicating China to be the world’s largest polluter, it seems that China’s industrialization has proceeded without restriction for too long. The approach that China will take in future international discussions remains vague.
In spite of the potential for waning political support, the market for carbon offsets continues to expand rapidly in China. Just a few days ago, on December 18, the Chinese government issued approval for dozens more Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects to begin work. This is good news on many fronts, as CDM projects continue to represent not only a part of the solution to climate change, but also valuable investment opportunities for foreign firms looking to buy carbon offsets.
While international carbon trading and technology transfer alone cannot resolve global warming, it nonetheless proves to be one of the fastest ways to affect environmentally sound development on a broad scale. However, the importance of government support should not be under-emphasized, even the existence of the carbon trading market is contingent on political support and legal enforcement in participating countries.

Thanks to Charlie McElwee for his incredible reporting on environmental law on his blog:
www.chinaenvironmentallaw.com
.

The Law in China

2008-12-15T14:59:00.004+08:00

I just started an internship at Lehman Law, a law firm in Beijing that deals with lots of international clients of all shapes and sizes. Feel free to learn more about the law firm through their website.

www.lehmanlaw.com

Two friends of mine work here, and they were the ones that recommended I apply for the internship. During my interview, I was basically given a rundown of goals for the internship by my friend Andrew.

I hope that I can turn this internship into something interesting. The firm is beginning to get involved with Carbon Trading, which is huge in China (it sells the majority of the world's carbon credits). In other words, this job has great potential to be directly connected with what one of my primary interests, how to promote environmentally conscious and sustainable development in China.

Also exciting was having a chance to meet up with a friend from UNC, Miss Claire Boychuk, who is visiting Beijing after her semester in Xiamen has finished. She is staying with family friends in Beijing, who are involved with work in the World Health Organization and sustainable energy. As guests at their house last night, they had an astronomer from Beijing University and his fiance, a reporter for Reuters in Beijing. Amazing people.

Lijiang Chicken

2008-12-08T07:40:00.003+08:00

This is a video my mom took to show of the freshness of one of our meals in Lijiang. Lijiang is in Yunnan province, the far southwest of China, and the restaurant was a wonderful Sichuanese restaurant. In Lijiang, our time in this restaurant, which we went to two or three times in the course of our thre days there, offered a rare taste of authenticity compared to the endless haggling with shopkeepers in the Dollywood-esque Old Town.
To Americans, the idea of the cooks directly dealing with the whole process of killing and butchering a chicken seems quite foreign, but it's definitely the standard here.

Ode to the Cold

2008-12-04T19:16:00.003+08:00

I had heard that Beijing was the cold, windy capital of the North but until today I had no appreciation for what that really meant. According to the weather underground, Beijing's temperature is currently -8' C (18'F) with a wind chill of -18'C (-1'F).
Winter has officially arrived, blowing tremendous winds cold enough to freeze your nose off and providing impetus for people to bring out the big winter coats.
However, by far the most amazing thing was seeing people who still were not wearing hats, who's coats were not nearly thick enough, riding bicycles without gloves or head cover.
I feel both awe and terror.
Winter will be an experience...

BBC News?

2008-12-02T12:10:00.002+08:00

The latest from James Reynold's China, BBC's correspondent in Beijing, who keeps a news blog on his adventures in China.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/

Just want to point out that for an article as much about his fun in China as it is about anything newsworthy, he gets a lot of exposure.

The power of bones in Xinjiang

2008-12-01T11:03:00.005+08:00

Great news,
The oldest stash of marijuana in the World has been discovered in Xinjiang, China! It was found in the tomb of a man whom archeologists believe to have been a holy man of sorts. They have also decided unequivocally that the marijuana was used for ingesting, not just as a decorative herb of something. Along with the surrounding materials in the tomb, it was meant to supply the man with things he would need in the afterlife. It was found in a leather basket and a wooden bowl, undoubtedly similar to the location of many modern stashes.
News like this would make it appear that not much has changed in the world of pot smoking, even over thousands of years. It has been a part of human culture for as long as science can measure.

Check out the article

The tomb and its contents are also interesting for another reason. This tomb discovery is part of a slew of discoveries in China that are challenging many parties, from anti-marijuana advocates to the Chinese government.

Xinjiang is the far northwestern region of China, bordering Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and about 3400 other Central Asian states in the mess of international borders that it is. It is home to its own ethnic minority, its own language, and its own culture. All of which are quite distinct from the Han Chinese.

Traveling in Yunnan last month, I also encountered many members of ethnic minorities that were supposedly quite distinct from Han Chinese. This may have been true at one point, but the vast majority of ethnic diversity in Yunnan's cities has been washed out by wave after wave of hungry tourists. Minority culture in cities like Lijiang and Dali has become a marketing strategy and little else. Most of the members of the Naxi group I talked to could not tell me how they were different from Han except by their language, which seems to obey many of the same grammar rules as Chinese.

But Xinjiang is an entirely different story, or at least it has been up until the last decade, when tourists and Han immigrants have also begun to sweep in. According to the lastest archeological research Xinjiang's minority groups are not even Asian, but European. This seems impossible until you run across street vendors who's ethnicity you can't quite place, who turn out to be of the Uyghur minority group. Since Xinjiang is also a region where independence movements occasionally make it into international news, such as during the Olympics, when Chinese police were killed in an attack, it is a place where tensions about the interpretations of history are important.

In this context, every archeological discovery takes on a particularly poignant political meaning. So far, according to an article in the New York Times, the archeological record has not been revealing information favorable to the Chinese government, which would prefer to believe the first inhabitants of Xinjiang were from China and therefore laying a claim on Xinjiang as part of China.

Call for Papers

2008-11-28T23:58:00.009+08:00

I'm spreading the word here in this blog for my friend Lokman. There are lots of conferences on Internet Studies about China. This conference, Chinese Internet Research Conference has been one of the most important in this field. I hope it interests you.

The 7th Chinese Internet Research Conference will take place at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania

Wednesday May 27 and Thursday May 28, 2009

The conference title is:
The Chinese Internet and Civil Society:
Civic Engagement, Deliberation and Culture

By the end of June 2008, China had reached 253 million Internet users, surpassing the United States and becoming the country with the largest number of netizens. The theme of the 7^th Chinese Internet Research Conference, "The Chinese Internet and Civil Society: Civic Engagement, Deliberation and Culture," is designed to bring together scholars and professionals to examine the Chinese Internet from socioeconomic, political and cultural perspectives and explore uncharted areas in innovative ways. While much of the research so far has focused on the political implications of the Internet in China, we have yet to understand the changes the Internet is fostering in civil society, the intersection between the market and the state, and the Internet's cultural implications for identity formation, emergent cultural phenomena and social networking. Topics of the conference include but are not limited to the following:

Civil society and its obstacles: What is the role of the internet in the emergent civil society of China? Is there an online public sphere and what does it look like? How does the internet shape the interplay between the private, public and state sectors? What are some of the negative aspects of Chinese online social networking, e.g. what role does the internet play in enabling terrorism, extreme nationalism, or violence in China?
The Internet and youth: How do young people use the Internet and are there generational differences in Internet use? What cultures/subcultures emerge over the Internet? How are civic cultures formed through online cultural practices such as peer production, gaming, and social networking in spaces such as Facebook, YouTube, and Myspace? What new cultures emerge in virtual worlds such as Secondlife and Hipihi, the blogosphere and other online spaces?
The Internet, national crisis and media events: What is the role of the Internet in managing national crisis, for example, by organizing, coordinating and advancing volunteerism, donations and social support in cases such as the Sichuan Earthquake? What is the role of the Internet in managing the national image and advancing cultural understanding? What is the role of the Internet in media events such as the Beijing Olympics?
Entertainment, deliberation/opinion-formation and popular culture: How have the boundaries between news and entertainment changed and what effect does it have on deliberation and opinion formation? What is the role of entertainment in Internet use? To what extent are people addressed as consumers rather than citizens online? How are concepts such as "fun" and "play" applied in Internet use?
Chinese minorities, China Proper, Greater China or "Cultural China": How do Chinese minorities use the Internet? How are they represented over the Internet? How is the Internet used in other Chinese-language speaking areas, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore? How do Chinese diasporas use the Internet? Is global Chineseness, if it exists, fostered through the Internet?
Research methodology: What are the appropriate methodologies to study the Chinese Internet and civil society in particular? What comparative models can explore the overlap

For the full Call for Papers

something in Shanghai

2008-11-28T15:48:00.007+08:00

Roaming in Shanghai during the world financial crisis is a complicated experience. Everyone here is anxious about their account books and the unforeseeable future. Although state-run media insists on claiming the situation in China is good compared to the US, people can definitely feel the pressure .

There is recently a rumor on China's most popular social networking site, www.kaixin001.com, that the bus ticket price is going to be raised from 2 yuan to 3 yuan. This initially appeared as a poll, but then the forum’s comments suddenly became a venting ground for people's anger. Most of the comments are complaining about the ticket prices of public transport in Shanghai. Some Beijingers have even laughed at Shanghaineses’ situation. In this situation, Beijingers feel their advantage--the cheapest-ever ticket prices in the city of Beijing! The initial bus ticket price for an adult in Beijing is 0.4 yuan, just 1/5 of Shanghai's; the metro fare is 2 yuan while Shanghai's start from 3 yuan. This is another case of the rivalry between Beijing and Shanghai.

Another interesting thing about Shanghai these days is the demographic situation. As we all know, there are more boys than girls in China due to Chinese peoples’ cultural preference for boys. Shanghai is the same. However, another reality in Shanghai is that there are more and more elderly people. The aging problem is something that has been driving Shanghai’s governors crazy. They are sorting out the health care solutions for the aged as well as trying to encourage young couples to have more babies. Neither is an easy job. People are not that willing to have children due to the pressure of their work and uncertainties of their future. Since a few years ago, the government has encouraged young couples who are both the only child in their families to have two babies.

Why aren't young couples willing to have children now? Maybe my newly-married cousin has the answer “If we want to find the real happiness of our life, it should be full of freedom. In any case, we don't want to take the burden at the moment.”

Beijing's Hong Kong

2008-11-28T12:34:00.007+08:00

I've just recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Yunnan with my mom. It was her first time in Asia, and my first time being a all-encompassing tour guide for someone. Arranging someone's complete itinerary is exhausting work, as I discovered mid-way through the process of buying plane and train tickets, reserving hotels, and planning out our sightseeing.
I'm glad that our journey began in Hong Kong, as it was a suitable jumping off point for our journey into the continent. Thanks to its colonial history, the city has a distinctly Western flavor to it, and a frantic Manhattanesque pace.
Every person I have met who is from Hong Kong seems to be nostalgic for some lost era that was alive an well only decades before. This includes my friend Kerry, who lives there, my current roommate Donna, who grew up there, as well as Professor Michael Tsin from UNC, who spent his youth there before moving to England.
The Hong Kong of pre-1997 was a different place, they have told me. It was a place that was directed outwards toward the world, the most important city in China in terms of business and trade. Moreover, it was home to a large international population from Europe and and Asia. Professor Michael Tsin gave me this example: "In the 1950s and 60s, Europeans in Hong Kong usually occupied positions of authority but by the 1970s you could begin to see that changing." Perhaps the gradual "Asianification" of Hong Kong is what made it such a unique era. Professor Tsin continued, "by the 1970s, it wasn't strange to see Europeans in the service industry, such as waitresses or car mechanics."
The elevation of native Hong Kongers to positions of power and authority while Europeans began to fill in more working class positions certainly had important symbolism, but why was that lost? Why is the Golden Age of Hong Kong something of the past?
"Now everyone in Hong Kong is looking to the North."
The 1997 transition of Hong Kong back to Chinese control has dramatically changed the feeling of the city. The power has shifted away from the West and instead towards the continent. Now the status of Hong Kong is hinged upon decisions made in Beijing, which has done all it can to promote the growth of cities such as Shenzhen and Shanghai instead of old Hong Kong.
My question here is, why was the transition from English imperial control to Chinese "imperial" control so influential? Both systems left Hong Kong with very little autonomy.
I believe one reason is that being associated with the British Empire allowed Hong Kongers to feel Westernized and civilized in comparison to their continental neighbors. It is still true that many Hong Kongers look down upon mainlanders with a sort of haughty disdain. Now, with the mainland having authority, Hong Kongers can no longer feel so high and mighty.
Another suspicion is that while the British empire felt that it needed Hong Kong, the British Empire's only large port city in Asia after Singapore's independence in 1965. Beijing, on the other hand, is doing all it can to make sure that it doesn't need Hong Kong, and that continental cities are on par with or surpass it's importance.

Visa Run

2008-10-13T12:31:00.000+08:00

Beijing has started to feel like a home away from home. As I look out today from WildChina's office on the eighth floor, I'm not just struck with how different and crowded it is, but also by the remarkable familiarity of it all. Life has resumed a usual schedule of sorts. During the week I go to work where I know roughly what to expect and on the weekends I roam the streets of Beijing in search of adventure.
Two weeks ago was the national holiday which is celebrated by granting everyone a week off work. During that week, Beijing is more crowded than any other time of year and train tickets and flights are all extremely hard to come by. I chose to celebrate by going on a "visa run" to Mongolia, which entails crossing the border and then promptly returning (Americans don't need a visa for Mongolia). A friend of a coworker came with me, another American, and we took an overnight bus to the border town of Erlian. After that, we took a train across the border to a very small border town in Mongolia. It was bleak: it reminded me very much of Siberia. It seems that one of the largest differences between a quickly developing country (China) and a slowly developing one are whether or not the people know what to do with their garbage. The small border town in the middle of the Gobi desert was surrounded by a garbage-ridden wasteland a mile wide. Their sewage was pumped into a manmade lake away from town where it could evaporate freely. In our time there, we could never figure out what kind of work could possibly keep this entire village employed. While there are horse and camel herds, there is no agriculture and the few restaurants provide a few dozen jobs at most. Also remarkable was the utter lack of either English or Chinese. Even at the Chinese border, no one seemed to even acknowledge their southern neighbor and even frequent border crossers like truck and taxi drivers did not speak Chinese. The dozen or so Russian words I remembered were more assistance than the combination of English and Chinese.
I was amazed by how quickly the culture changed from the familiar Chinese friendliness to something vaguely reminiscent of Russian pride. The Mongolian women dressed to impress, were heavily made up and beautified, and the men seemed to enjoy indulging in acoholic binges and engaging in strenuous physical labor. In merely visiting a poor rural village, my image of Mongolia is surely skewed, and I'm sure that the captial Ulan Bator is quite different. But even so, Mongolia is not an urban culture. Its people are the worlds least densely populated and its shared grasslands make up the largest public commons in the world. Because of this, rural Mongolia may be more reflective of "real" Mongolia than urban life.
In any case, feel its safe to say that Central Asia is truly a different Asia and comparisons to East Asia are forced at best.
Since that adventure, China has seemed just plain welcoming.
Also other events, like getting to lead a few more tours, starting Chinese classes, and the return of my roommate from Shanghai, have kept life quite interesting.
Bryan

What is Ecotourism

2008-09-25T12:27:00.001+08:00

I just returned from a venture to the Great Wall. As part of my internship with the travel company Wild China, I helped lead two student groups on a day-long hike along the wall to a camping site waiting for us on the other end. Compared to working all day in an office, which is what I'd been doing up to that point, it was infinitely more fun. The kids were 10-12 years old and attending an international school in Beijing called the Dulwich College, which has a large international network of such schools and is undoubtedly a remnant of the old English imperial education system.
In any case, the kids and teachers knew nothing to very little about camping, and the other guides from Wild China were not the most experienced backpackers either, so I was turned into the professional camping consultant for the entire trip. It wasn't a bad job, but with 40 children setting up tents, it was quite chaotic.

The trip provided me with my first opportunity to see what "ecotourism" means in China and I've determined the answer to that is, unfortunately, "not much." During the hike and camping, water bottles are a necessity and when one was empty, they were casually left about the campsite. Every meal produced enough garbage to fill 2 or 3 trash bags. We left the campsite (which was paved with concrete), with plastic bags and single-use chopstick sheaths blowing in the wind. The only saving grace (which is hard to even call a saving grace) is that some people in China are poor enough that digging through our trash to retrieve the recyclables is a viable source of income.
For Wild China, the goal of calling themselves an ecotourism company, or even a "premium, sustainable travel company," as they do on the website, is primarily for marketing. The color green is hot right now in the West and the bosses know that.
On the flipside, calling themsleves "sustainable" has made them attractive to students groups, selective travelers, and people concerned with not ruining the places they visit (me). While the company has corporate clients that want only the most expensive Western accomodations, the company also takes travelers to places where people are still attempting to live in traditional ways and (attempts to)connect travelers with local people who show off and promote their culture. In a way, this has made the lives of such people economically sustainable, whereas otherwise the lack of work or attraction of city life might shatter their community (as it has in many places). All in all, the result is something that walks the line between an improvement on typical travel and proof that tourism is inevitably unsustainable.
I am a tourist, but one who is conscious of my influence on this place. I am a moral animal, but I too must work to pay rent. I am learning Chinese, but inevitably just an observer of events in China. Life decisions never get simple, do they?
B.

Beijing Officials, Special Olympics

2008-09-13T12:23:00.001+08:00

Beijing Huanying Ni!
It's everywhere, Beijing welcomes you. They have signs up all over the city, and the song of the same title (which you can see on Youtube) is playing everywhere: subway cars, on the radio, at the McDonalds on my block. The Para-Olymipcs are still going on and will be for most of the month, so the Olympic spirit still dominates the city. Every public television is oriented around the athletics and there are still many foreigners here to see their injured family or friends compete.
I am staying in Chaoyang District, which is in the NE part of the city. I've started my internship at Wild China and moved into my apartment. Unfortunately, so far it has not felt like Beijing has welcomed me all that warmly. With the exception of today, every day in Beijing so far has presented a major obstacle to overcome. The first night I was locked out of my apartment and when I finally got in I discovered my bed had no bedding. I slept under my sweatshirt.
The second night, after buying bedding and groceries to remedy the first night's problem, I got completely lost for over an hour until I finally was able to re-print the directions to my place at a hotel nearby.
Night three, I got locked out again (because one of the locks on my door doesn't have a key). This time I asked the help of my main contact in Beijing right now, a friend of my flat-mate, Xu Yafei (my flat-mate is currently in Europe, living it up). We ended up having dinner and then calling a locksmith.
Yesterday morning, after finally making my way into the house the night before, I was awoken by the police at the door. They were wondering why I hadn't registered within 24 hours of arrival. After a cordial but very official interview at the local police station, I was given directions on where to register.
Finally it seemed my trouble was over, except for one thing. The visa restrictions during the Olympics have been so intense that my 30 day visa will take 900 yuan to renew, which isn't TOO much money for another 30 days. But everyone knows expenses feel different when you're traveling in an inexpensive place. In any case, paying that much is only slightly less than traveling to Hong Kong and back every month, and isn't an affordable solution either.
So the problem I still haven't solved is how to stay in China without paying loads of money. Most of the foreigners I've met are either on student visas or black market business visas. There are apparently businesses that are not real businesses, but they are just set up to apply for visas for foreigners, "employing" them. Those run about 18,000 yuan, so it's not a solution either.
Looks like I'm going back to school - but I don't yet know where.
Despite the overwhelming officialdom of this place, I have to say that everyone I've met has been great. The rudest people I've run into have definitely been foreigners. There is an almost palpable interest in Westerners here, and the result is pleasant interactions with even the most potentially rude people (ie. police), especially if you can speak Chinese.