22/07/2019
- Growth in Shandong, China’s third largest provincial economy, slowed in the first quarter due to cuts in inefficient industrial capacity
- Shandong government aims to cut capacity in traditional sectors to boost ‘new’ industries, as well as reduce pollution
Shandong’s gross domestic product growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent last year from 5.7 per cent in 2017, but slipped back to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019. Photo: AP
Shandong province, a manufacturing heavyweight in eastern China, will press ahead with plans to cut capacity in inefficient “old” industries, even though it will hurt short-term growth, the provincial party chief said on Tuesday.
Like many provinces that still rely heavily on traditional industries, Shandong’s growth has slowed recently, in part due to the effect of the trade war with the United States.
While its gross domestic product (GDP) growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent last year from 5.7 per cent in 2017, it slipped back to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019, according to to Liu Jiayi, the secretary of Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The primary reason for the slowdown in growth was a plunge in production in “backward” industries at the start of the year, due in part to cuts already made to reduce production capacity, said Liu. He added that the capacity cutting measures will help the province reduce air pollution, one of the central government’s priorities for 2019.
“The quality of development is changing [in Shandong],” said Liu, who referred to the fact that Shandong’s industrial sectors dominate the economy and that 70 per cent of this heavy industry is in the chemicals sector. “As a result, our economic volume is large, but the quality of development is not very high.”
According to statistics from the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), Shandong’s industrial output has been dominated by heavy industry, which accounted for about 67.1 per cent of the gross industrial output in 2017. Within that, raw chemical materials and chemical products had the biggest share of all value-added industrial output, at 9.7 per cent, according to the HKTDC.
“This decline [in first quarter growth] was in exchange for our development of high-quality [production], because our traditional and backward production capacity has declined,” Liu added.
Shandong, the third largest provincial economy in China, will continue to reduce its reliance on chemicals production, while also cutting the use of coal for power, heating and fuelling heavy trucks for transport, all of which are major contributors to regional pollution, according to Gong Zheng, the governor of Shandong.
Shandong’s gross domestic product growth accelerated to 6.4 per cent last year from 5.7 per cent in 2017, but slipped back to 5.5 per cent in the first quarter of 2019. Photo: AFP
“We have stepped up our efforts [to cut pollution] and have refused to allow it to rebound, and we will do this well,” said Gong.
The central government launched a campaign to tackle pollution in 2014 as it sought to reverse the severe damage done to the environment after decades of breakneck industrial growth.
However, the rising costs of doing business in China – including higher wages and the costs of pollution control – have forced some manufacturing out of China. That process has been accelerated by firms searching for an alternative production base to avoid
implemented as part of the trade war, which has made a severe dent in China’s investor and consumer confidence.China’s GDP growth slid to 6.2 per cent in the second quarter, the lowest reading since records began in the first quarter of 1992, and below the levels reported during the global financial crisis, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Monday.
However, Shandong party chief Liu, the former head of the National Audit Office who led the nationwide investigation into local government debt in 2014, said he was not concerned with GDP growth in Shandong.
“Now our GDP growth rate has dropped a little, and the growth rate for fixed asset investment has dropped a little,” said Liu. “Some people worry that the growth of Shandong is slipping. I can tell you responsibly, not only [growth] will not slip, we have to take a step back these years in exchange for the healthy development of the next few years.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in axe, ‘new’ industries, boost, China alert, despite, Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC), inefficient industry, manufacturing heartland, prepares, reduce pollution, shandong province, Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, slowing economy, Uncategorized |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- Zhang Lin, a Beijing-based independent political economy commentator, questions why returnees are becoming ardent supporters of the government-directed model
- China’s economic boom offers returnees far more advantages than Western societies could upon their graduation
The number of Chinese students studying in the US and European schools soared, offering fresh hope that returnees with an overseas educational background would facilitate China’s transformation into a society that resembled the west. Photo: Xinhua
At the turn of the century, many people foresaw a “westernisation” process taking place in China – the development of a market economy and a freer society – especially after China joined the World Trade Organisation in 2001 with a clear commitment to reform its state-owned enterprises.
The number of Chinese students studying in the US and European schools soared, offering fresh hope that returnees with an overseas educational background would facilitate China’s transformation into a society that resembled the west.
But it has not turned out as expected, with more and more returnees who graduated from Western universities becoming ardent and vocal supporters of the Chinese government-directed model. It seems strange on the surface that young Chinese people, who have several years’ first-hand experience of Western democracy and freedom, would become big fans of an intrusive state.
One explanation is that the overseas students who worship the Western lifestyle never return to China.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Chinese students who studied abroad did not rely on wealth or family background, but excellent academic achievement, and most of the students who went abroad were funded by China’s Ministry of Education. After experiencing the huge gaps between China and the West at that time in terms of living standards and social development, many chose to stay after graduation.
China’s overseas study policy at that time dictated that these students needed to return back within five years, or else their families could have faced punishment. Despite this, according to statistics from 2002, 92 per cent of Chinese students who obtained doctorate degrees in the United States during the 1990s choose not to return to their homeland.
Things began to change in the late 1990s. China’s private businesses started to boom after Deng Xiaoping’s “southern tour” in 1992, with many government officials and local leaders quitting their public jobs to pursue private wealth, in a trend dubbed “smashing their and jumping into the sea”. Blessed by their connections to the state apparatus, many of them became filthy rich in the process.
These Chinese nouveau riche could suddenly afford foreign university tuition fees and started sending their children to study abroad. The Chinese government also relaxed its policy on overseas education, and most overseas Chinese students became “second generation” rich and powerful.
At the same time, western universities particularly in the US and Britain opened their arms to the flow of Chinese students who were willing to pay hefty tuition fees and sometimes willing to make sizeable donations.
Most of these returnees, whose families have made significant gains from China’s state-led market economy, were beneficiaries of the Chinese model
According to statistics from the “Report on the Survey of Overseas Students” covering the years 2000 to 2011, 1.9 million Chinese students studied abroad, with 91.3 per cent of them “self-funded”. By 2014, the proportion of overseas students who returned to China had risen to 51.4 per cent, according to the “2015 China Returnees Development Report”.
This report also pointed out that 32 per cent of returnees were willing to work for the government.
Most of these returnees, whose families have made significant gains from China’s state-led market economy, were beneficiaries of the Chinese model. The experience of studying abroad, ironically, only enhanced their understanding of their advantages and privileges back home.
China’s economic boom offered far more chances for this well-educated, and well-connected, group than Western societies could, upon their graduation. If they chose to stay in the Western country where they studied, they were faced with the prospect of starting from scratch, but if they chose to go back China, they could get a better job, probably earn more money, inherit the wealth of the previous generation and live as a member of the elite.
That China’s overseas returnees are supporters of the Chinese model indicates that the Western concept of freedom is not always a powerful incentive. If competition between countries is competition between elite groups, conflicts between the Chinese model and the US model may last for several generations and spread to more countries.
Posted in big fans, China’s Ministry of Education, China’s students, Chinese economic model, Chinese model, Deng Xiaoping, economic boom, Freedom, from overseas, Report on the Survey of Overseas Students, returning, southern tour, Uncategorized, US model, Western democracy, World Trade Organisation (WTO) |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- Schoolboy learned to taxi aircraft by watching repair crews
- Stunt won him admiration of pilots and prospect of learning to fly
A Chinese teenager’s efforts to fly a plane ended with a costly crash but might have set him on the path to becoming a pilot. Photo: Weibo
A Chinese teenager who crashed a seaplane into a railing at a lakeside car park in eastern Zhejiang province may have pranked his way into a career as a pilot.
The 13-year-old was caught on camera as he took two planes from their Taihu Lake hangar under cover of darkness on Monday morning, Dushi Express reported on Friday.
The schoolboy, from nearby Huzhou city, spent part of last weekend watching staff at the SeaRey base work on repairs and maintenance. Security camera footage showed him arriving there on an electric bike just after midnight on Sunday.
He then dragged a 450kg (990lbs) plane from its hangar, jumped into the cockpit, started the engine and drove it across a car park, hitting a crash barrier as he tried to make a turn.
The boy gained access to the plane under the cover of darkness. Photo: Weibo
Abandoning the plane, he went back to the hangar and took another for three circuits of the car park before fleeing on his bike.
The teenager caused 8,000 yuan (US$1,200) worth of damage to the 1.88 million-yuan seaplane, the report said.
His parents only learned of their son’s trip when police called on Monday evening and a payment of 2,000 yuan towards the repair bill was negotiated, it said.
Chinese pranksters’ subway landmine stunt blows up in their faces
The SeaRey base director, surnamed He, was quoted as saying that starting and taxiing the plane involved a few simple steps, but that it would have been impossible for the boy to fly it as that required professional piloting skills and 30 hours of training on the flying boat itself.
But he praised the teenager for being observant.
“We pilots all admired him,” the director said, adding that he would like the boy to train at the base and become a pilot.
Source: SCMP
Posted in admiration, bright career, car park railing, career, Chinese teenager, drove seaplan, Dushi Express, hangar, Huzhou City, learning to fly, pilot, pilots, prospect, repair crews, Stunt, Taihu Lake, taxi aircraft, Uncategorized, zhejiang province |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- China has inflated its population data so much that its status as the world’s most populous country may be false
- This happens so provinces can get education subsidies and Beijing can hide the results of decades of family planning
Children in Xianghe county, Hebei province, learn the traditional art of paper-cutting during their summer vacation. The over-reporting of student in enrolment in Chinese schools points to a bigger problem with obtaining an accurate population count. Photo: Xinhua
China’s official demographic figures, including the now-cliched “country of 1.4 billion people”, seriously misrepresent the country’s real population landscape. The real size of China’s population could be 115 million fewer than the official number, putting China behind India in terms of population.
This massive error, equal to the combined populations of the United Kingdom and Spain, is a product of China’s rigged population statistics system, influenced by the vested interests of China’s family planning authority.
To start with, the raw data of China’s population figures were “adjusted”. China’s total fertility rate, or the number of kids per woman throughout her life, dropped below the watershed level of 2.1 in 1991, from which moment the population size of the next generation would be smaller than the current one, and the average total fertility rate was 1.36 in 1994-2018, according to data from census and surveys. However, the family planning authority in charge of the country’s population control refused to believe the numbers and “adjusted” the rate to 1.6-1.8 and, accordingly, the official population size.
For instance, the real total fertility rate in 2000 was 1.22, according to a census result, but the government revised it to 1.8. Accordingly, the country had 14.1 million new births in 2000, but the government revised the figure by 26 per cent to 17.7 million. A census, which is conducted every 10 years, should provide the truest picture of China’s demographic situation. But for the 2000 census, the government was unhappy about the original finding of 1.24 billion and revised it up to 1.27 billion.
One incentive to inflate population size is that China’s
family planning authority needs to present a picture of a “rapidly growing population” to justify the country’s brutal family control policies and even the very existence of the birth control apparatus.
The basis for these adjustments, according to the Chinese government, is the size of primary school enrolment. For the official statisticians, the primary school enrolment data should be reliable because public education covers every Chinese child. They were wrong, however, because primary school enrolment data in China is often inflated so that local authorities can claim more education subsidies from Beijing.
China should simply adapt to having fewer babies
In 2012, one school in Anhui was found over-reporting its student size by 42 per cent to claim subsidies, and another school in Hubei province was discovered in the same year over-reporting student size by more than 300 per cent – and these two cases are the tip of an iceberg.
According to a report by CCTV on January 7, 2012, the Jieshou city in Anhui province reported 51,586 primary school students, when the actual number was only 36,234, allowing them to extract an additional 10.63 million yuan (about US$1.54 million) in state funding. On June 4, 2012, China Youth Daily reported that a middle school in Yangxin county, Hubei province reported 3,000 students, while the actual number was only 700.
The latest census in 2010 also shows the tendency of over-reporting. For example, the original aggregated population of Fujian province was only 33.29 million, which was revised to 36.89 million. China’s government claimed it found 1.34 billion people during the census, but there were inconsistencies. For instance, government data showed that China had 366 million new births in 1991-2010, but the group aged 0-19 in 2010 census was only 321 million.
The official number of births in 2011-2018 is also overestimated by 40 million. While Beijing is overestimating new births, it is underreporting the other end of population change – death. Some Chinese families have a tendency of not reporting deaths to the government in order to keep receiving social welfare.
Also, according to UN data, there was a net international emigration of 8 million from China in 1991-2018. But Chinese officials ignored this data.
China’s population to peak in 2023, five years earlier than official estimates
It’s not an easy job to get a country’s population number right. This is especially true in China, where the territory is vast and
domestic migration is frequent.
But Beijing’s mishandling of the country’s population figures has been clumsy and easy to spot. China’s real population in 2018 should be 1.280 billion, instead of the officially announced 1.395 billion. China’s economic, social, political, educational and diplomatic policies are all based on false demographic data. After decades of brutal implementation of birth control, often involving forced abortions and hefty fines, maybe it’s time for China to review its population figures carefully to take stock of the economic and social costs of this controversial demographic experiment.
Source: SCMP
Posted in 2018 should be 1.280 billion, Anhui province, Beijing, CCTV, China’s population numbers, China’s real population, demographic experiment, education subsidies, family planning policy, harmful legacy, Hebei province, inflated, instead of 1.395 billion, Jieshou city, provinces, UN data, Uncategorized, Xianghe county |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- Sun Ling became a cyber star in China after she responded to an online question: how can you get an overseas education if you are dirt poor?
- ‘I just put my story out there to show there is a possibility in your life even if you have a low starting point,’ the 29-year-old says
Sun Ling works as a contract software engineer at Google in New York. Photo: Sun Ling
To get where she is today, Sun Ling has beaten very long odds.
Born in a rural hamlet in central China’s Hunan province, Sun shot to Chinese social media stardom for her rags-to-relative-comfort career trajectory. Her story begins in a household of such modest means that her mother had to sell blood to make ends meet and a primary school education interrupted by the need for her hands in the family’s fields.
She has no fancy college degree, having gone to work on the assembly line at a Shenzhen factory directly from high school.
Yet today, the 29-year-old works as a contract software engineer at Google in New York, coding on workdays and playing frisbee on weekends, with an annual salary of about US$120,000.
Sun Ling with her parents, brother, niece and nephews in China. Photo: Sun Ling
Sun’s journey from factory worker to high-paid software engineer has garnered Chinese social media headlines such as “the most inspiring story of all times”, and internet users have applauded her as a “positive energy girl”.
But others have not been as flattering, with some questioning the credibility of her story and saying what she has accomplished is almost too difficult to be true amid growing concern about the lack of opportunity and social mobility in China.
“I don’t consider myself a success and I have no intention to become a role model,” Sun told the South China Morning Post on Thursday. “I just put my story out there to show there is a possibility in your life even if you have a low starting point.”
A look inside Google’s new campus outside Silicon Valley
Her story became known in China after she posted an answer on Zhihu, the Chinese version of Quora, responding a question: how can you get an overseas education if you are dirt poor?
In the answer she posted earlier last month, Sun detailed her 10-year journey in making the seemingly impossible possible.
“It is not the orthodox way of studying overseas, just for your reference,” Sun wrote in the post, which has received nearly 35,000 likes on Zhihu. The answer was picked up by other social media; one of her most popular stories, which is circulating on WeChat, has been viewed more than 100,000 times.
Sun said her story was not a textbook “American dream” or “Chinese dream comes true” experience, but rather one driven by the simple motivation to forge a better life.
I just put my story out there to show there is a possibility in your life even if you have a low starting point Sun Ling
When Sun was born in 1990, her parents were farmers in a small village about a 2½-hour drive from Hunan province’s capital city, Changsha. Growing up in a place where a middle school education was considered good enough for a girl, Sun was forced to temporarily drop out of school when she was about 13 to ease the financial burden on her parents, who favoured her brother, the only son in the family.
“I begged and begged till my father allowed me to return to school,” she said. “But to be honest, my strong desire to stay at school at the moment was mainly because farming was too hard. The work got calluses on my hands.”
Sun in her home village in Hunan province in 2013. Photo: Sun Ling
Among her 11 village friends, she was the only one who completed high school. But the education she received at the rural school failed to get her into any college in China. So, like her peers in the village, she went to Shenzhen to become a factory worker.
But the routine of shifts spent examining the quality of batteries bored her. “I have no idea what kind of life I want to live, even today. But I am very certain about the life I don’t want to live,” Sun said.
She quit the factory job after eight months and enrolled in a computer training programme to learn what she regarded as the must-have skills to leave the blue-collar life behind.
That is the thing I like about America: they value what you are able to do more than where you come fromSun Ling
To have enough money to complete the training to become an entry-level software engineer, she worked three part-time jobs, including sending out fliers and waitressing at restaurants, and lived on three credit cards.
After more than a year of training and a debt of 10,000 yuan (US$1,450), in September 2011 she was hired as a software engineer by a Shenzhen company responsible for developing an online payroll system. With her own cubicle, a monthly salary of 4,000 yuan and weekends for herself, the job met all of Sun’s expectation as a “white-collar office lady”.
But the excitement of the new life didn’t last. She started to feel small in a big city where “everyone else is so excellent, with fancy degrees”.
To overcome her educational disadvantage, she signed up for an English training programme and a long-distance programme that allowed her to earn a degree from Shenzhen University. All of this took place while she maintained her software engineering job.
To practise her English, in 2014 she picked up ultimate frisbee, a game where in Shenzhen at the time, most of the players were expats. With a different circle of friends, most of whom had overseas experience, Sun started to dream of a life outside China’s borders.
Sun was born in a rural hamlet in central China’s Hunan province. Photo: Sun Ling
In early 2017, she discovered a master’s programme at Maharishi University of Management in Fairfield, Iowa, which features a controversial “consciousness-based education” system that includes the practice of meditation.
Sun applied and was accepted into the university’s computer science programme.
According to her, its design fit her well as it allowed students to have internships or jobs on a work-study visa after months of attending classes on campus. The rest of the programme could be completed remotely.
After nine months studying on campus and 60 job interviews, Sun received a job offer from EPAM Systems, a vendor for Google, late last year.
Google moving some hardware production out of China
Of her work as a contract software engineer at Google’s Manhattan headquarters, Sun said she was very “lucky” since many of her colleagues had a PhD or studied at top-tier American universities.
“But none of them treat me like I don’t deserve all of this,” she said. “That is the thing I like about America: they value what you are able to do more than where you come from.”
However, her story has not been without controversy in China’s cyber world.
Supporters have sent an increasing number of messages from various online channels, thanking her for an inspiring story and seeking her advice on life decisions. Sceptics claim she just got lucky, and some have accused her of being an advertising tool for Maharishi University of Management.
Chinese family paid US$1.2 million for Yale spot. Why weren’t they charged?
“At first, I got really angry,” Sun said. “I don’t think I deserve all the criticism for simply sharing my real life experience. But then I realised that not everyone has the same attitude in life.”
“I had no resources and I had very few options,” she said. “It is natural that people think it is difficult or even impossible to do. But for me it is actually not that difficult. Just keep learning and keep trying new things step by step, day by day.”
Her journey continues. Sun has been practising English and trying to fit better into her life in the US by doing short video interviews on the streets of New York streets. She has also taken courses about artificial intelligence online.
“My next goal is to become an in-house Google software engineer,” she said. “It won’t be easy. But your life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in American Dream, Changsha, China alert, Chinese dream comes true, comfort zone, cyber star, Fairfield, from, Google, her story, Hunan Province, Iowa, lights up, Maharishi University of Management, meditation, New York City, Quora, restaurants, rural China, shares, Shenzhen, Shenzhen factory, Silicon Valley, social media, software engineer, Sun Ling, Uncategorized, upward mobility, Zhihu |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- City’s richest person was ‘very pleased’ to have bumped into group of youngsters in Hokkaido, mother says on social media
- Li has a personal fortune of US$31.7 billion and is known for his charitable acts
The youngsters from Shanghai got a wonderful surprise when they met billionaire Li Ka-shing at an airport in Japan. Photo: Weibo
Christmas came early for a group of children from Shanghai on Tuesday when they met Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing at an airport in Japan while en route to a dance competition and he offered to pay for their trip … and buy them each a gift.
The 45 youngsters and their teachers from the Little Pigeon Dancing Group in the east China metropolis were passing through New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, when the serendipitous meeting happened, according to social media posts.
“The children bumped into Mr Li Ka-shing at the airport, who looked very pleased and volunteered to take pictures with the children,” Zhang Zhuo wrote on Weibo – China’s Twitter-like platform – on Thursday, adding that she was the mother of one of the dancers.
“Today a staff member from the Li Ka Shing Foundation contacted the dance group and offered to sponsor the trip to Japan,” she said. “The children shot a video to wish him good health,” she said.
Li met the youngsters from the Little Pigeon Dancing Group in Hokkaido. Photo: Weibo
One of the dance teachers wrote on Weibo that Li was “so pleased after seeing the children at the airport that he decided to sponsor for the trip”.
“So rich and generous, charitable and loving,” she said.
It was not clear exactly how much Li donated, but based on a post by another of the teachers, the cost of the trip was 18,840 yuan (US$2,700) per child, so it would appear to have been in excess of US$120,000.
As part of the offer, the foundation said also that the children should treat themselves to a gift.
Zhang said her daughter treated herself to an eraser, as it was something she wanted to buy before the trip.
“It is not about how expensive the gift is. It’s happiness that counts. We must know to be grateful and moderate,” she wrote.
Li’s influence at Shantou University under threat
Born in 1928 near Shantou in south China’s Guangdong province, Li moved to Hong Kong as a child. According to the latest Forbes list he is richest person in Hong Kong and 28th richest in the world, with a personal fortune of US$31.7 billion.
In 1981 he helped to establish Shantou University and since then the Li Ka Shing Foundation has donated more than 10 billion yuan to support its development.
Last month, the university announced that starting this autumn, for the next four years all new intakes will have the entire cost of their university education paid for by the foundation – a donation of about 100 million yuan a year.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Airport, billionaires, Christmas, dancers, Forbes list, guangdong province, Hokkaido, Hong Kong, Japan, Li Ka Shing Foundatio, Li Ka Shing Foundation, Li Ka-Shing, Little Pigeon Dancing Group, meeting, New Chitose Airport, pays, Shanghai, Shantou University, trips, Twitter, Uncategorized, Weibo |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- Delicate balance for Disney in its portrayal of China’s classic tale of female heroism
- Too Americanised, or pandering to a mainland Chinese audience?
Chinese-American actress Crystal Liu Yifei plays the title role in Disney’s Mulan. Photo: Disney
Since the trailer for Disney’s live-action film Mulan was released last weekend, both mainland Chinese in the East and the diaspora in the West have been abuzz about their cultural identity and its representation in Hollywood – albeit for different reasons.
Chinese viewers have, on one hand, been enthusiastic about the casting of Chinese-American actress Crystal Liu Yifei in the lead role and the chance for a seemingly more “authentic” Chinese story to be told on the global stage.
On the other hand, they have pointed out historical inaccuracies – such as the southern Chinese setting when the source material states that Mulan is from the north – and expressed concerns that the plot has been too “Americanised”.
Meanwhile, many Chinese-Americans were surprised to discover upon watching the trailer that the beloved 1998 animation had changed beyond recognition – most notably with the absence of talking dragon Mushu and male love interest Li Shang. Some also felt that the new film pandered too much to a mainland Chinese audience.
“The idea of a mythic mash-up of China [in the new film] … seems to play to the idea of a unified, singular China, an artistic representation of the one-China policy, which is troubling to me,” said Jeannette Ng, a British sci-fi author with Hong Kong heritage.
“A lot of the time, this conversation acts like the only Chinese people who matter are the ones who live in mainland China – that they are the only truly authentic ones and everyone else is too Westernised to count,” she said.
The online discussion indicates the delicate balance Hollywood interpretations of Chinese classics have to strike in portraying Chinese versus American values, as big US-China co-productions try their hardest to integrate the two for bigger global box office takings.
Despite ticket sales in China falling 3.6 per cent in the first half of 2019, owing to tightened government censorship, China is still projected to overtake the US box office next year, according to a recent report by professional services firm PwC.
Disney has tried hard to make the new film more true to its ancient Chinese source material, with a detailed – if inaccurate – historical setting featuring the ancient tulou roundhouses of the southeastern province of Fujian, and a star-studded, all-Asian cast with several icons of Chinese cinema such as Jet Li, Hong Kong actor Donnie Yen and Gong Li.
Disney’s live-action version of Mulan is truer to the ancient source material. Photo: Handout
“Disney’s tent pole movies are aiming at a global audience. That being said, given that China is the largest international market and the story is based on a Chinese folk tale, Disney will definitely take the Chinese audience’s taste into consideration,” said a Chinese film producer, who asked to remain anonymous, at a major US studio in Beijing.
“However, this is also a double-edged sword, as people tend to be more picky when they see things they are familiar with.”
Indeed, several Chinese media think pieces have questioned whether elements of the original legend had become too Americanised in the film, leading to an inauthentic representation of a beloved Chinese heroine.
For instance, the Disney trailer suggests that Mulan joins the army to escape an arranged marriage, breaking away from family traditions and establishing her independence as a woman unbound by gender roles.
But in the original folk song Ballad of Mulan, on which the film is based, she volunteers to take the place of her ageing father in the army – making her a symbol of filial piety, courage and patriotism in traditional Chinese culture.
Some critics say Mulan has been Americanised. Photo: YouTube
In a widely shared analysis discussing whether Disney’s Mulan was a feminist icon, Peking University Press wrote: “Perhaps this is a cross-cultural creative misunderstanding that reflects the core differences between Chinese and Western culture. If Mulan is seen as a feminist symbol, I fear this may be wishful thinking.”
However, both Chinese-Americans and Chinese nationals agree that the film, slated for release in March, is an inspiring tale for young girls.
“I feel like the people who are criticising the film are too attached and focused on the nostalgia factor. They are not seeing the bigger picture and the positive implications of this movie,” said Alex Diep, a 23-year-old American of Vietnamese-Chinese descent.
“They are disregarding that this film gives an opportunity for young Asian girls to look up to Mulan and see her as a role model,” he said.
Some Chinese have interpreted it as an inspiring fable of female strength and liberation, especially when ingrained patriarchal values and government initiatives such as the one-child policy have restricted women’s rights over the years.
“[Mulan] remains one of the very few fighters and not conventionally feminine figures in the Disney princess canon,” Ng said.
“[T]his is some sort of feminism education for a single-child generation in China that girls can fight like men do,” tweeted Chinese journalist Li Jing.
Chinese-Americans are also optimistic that it will be a sure-fire win for Asian representation on the big screen, especially after the success of last year’s romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.
“[Critics of the trailer] are disregarding the fact that this movie is another opportunity to showcase Asian people in a movie where we are not perceived as a negative stereotype,” Diep said.
Others feel that the film can help build a bridge between East and West.
“Mulan is a Chinese story. It comes from a completely different culture, one which I’m not at all convinced that Hollywood, or the West at large, truly understands yet,” said
New Yorker Jonathan Pu, who is of Taiwanese descent. He said he enjoyed the lighthearted animation, but that it did not define his expectations for the remake.
“If Disney can stay true to the source material and convey [filial piety] in a way that even just some of the audience can grasp, then it will go a long way towards building bridges,” Pu said.
Ultimately, the success of this American spin on Chinese culture will rest on box office sales, which Disney hopes will exceed the 1998 animation that flopped in mainland cinemas. Recent Disney live-action remakes have had a mixed reception in China – Dumbo flopped in March, while The Lion King did moderately well on its release last weekend.
“I’m sure there will be a mixed response when the movie is released but it should have enough buzz and do well,” said the Beijing film producer.
“I hope it will be able to convey the spirit of Mulan and inspire millions of young girls.”
Source: SCMP
Posted in army, Ballad of Mulan, China’s classic tale, Chinese culture, Chinese identity, Chinese-American actress, courage, Crazy Rich Asians, Crystal Liu Yifei, different questions, Disney, Donnie Yen, Dumbo, East, female heroism, Filial Piety, Fujian, Gong Li, inspires, Jet Li, Mulan, patriotism, Peking University Press, PwC, roundhouses, sparks, symbol, The Lion King, traditional, tulou, Uncategorized, volunteers, West |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- National outrage sparked when high-profile traveller Li Yaling shares details of incident on social media
- Employee on long-term sick leave disrupts flight to Beijing but airline says she is a private traveller
Air China has flown into an internet storm after a flight attendant on long-term sick leave scolded business class passengers. Photo: Shutterstock
National flag carrier Air China has come under fire after an employee made a scene during a flight and accused three business class passengers of attacking her, leading to them being held and questioned for seven hours last Friday after their arrival in Beijing.
Playwright Li Yaling, who was travelling business class on flight CA4107 from Chengdu uploaded a video and lengthy post detailing the incident to her nearly 1.3 million followers on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging platform.
Li’s video showed a female passenger, who claimed to be an Air China supervisor, scolding passengers for using their phones while the plane was on the runway at Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, southwest China.
The scolding lasted half an hour, according to Li, even after the passengers stopped using their phones and explained they had been switched to flight mode. Air China permits smartphones in flight mode to be used during its flights.
A screenshot of the video filmed during the Air China flight, and later posted to Weibo, of the incident in business class. Photo: Weibo
The woman paced about the cabin as the plane taxied down the runway and continued to make a scene until the flight approached Beijing. She was seen making a call, asking for the police to be notified that the passengers had “attacked” her and “endangered aviation safety” and to come and take them away.
The passengers were stopped by the crew and removed by the police, who took them to the airport police station where they were held for seven hours before being released with a warning, according to Li’s post.
“I want to ask Air China what the position of the Air China supervisor is,” Li wrote on Weibo. “Is she independent or your employee? What legal rights does she have? Has she abused her power, if any?”
Li’s post shocked internet users who reacted with sympathy. Some posted video clips or their own accounts of the same woman making similar false accusations on buses, subway trains and other flights, leading to similar problems for individual passengers, as well as travel delays.
Li later said on Weibo she was contacted by the airline on Saturday afternoon and told the woman was a former flight attendant who had been on sick leave since pouring hot water on a passenger more than 10 years before and had subsequently been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
Unlucky coin toss lands another Chinese airline passenger in trouble
In a public statement on Monday, Air China said the dispute had involved an employee who was on leave for health reasons and had been on a private trip. The airline said three passengers and four crew members had been taken to the airport police station to help with an investigation into the incident.
Li followed up her Weibo posting on Monday, meeting several senior officials at Air China’s headquarters, where she was told the situation was a dispute between passengers and the airline had fulfilled its responsibilities.
Air China said it could not stop the employee from boarding its flights.
Li said she felt sympathy for mental health patients but not for the woman, who she said had apparently endangered public safety on flights several times. Li also demanded compensation for paying a high price to travel in business class, only to suffer two hours of verbal abuse.
Rush to emergency exit lands Chinese first-time flier in detention
The situation angered many on social media, who felt the airline had not taken enough responsibility for the incident. Some said they would not choose Air China again.
“The incident is not about passengers switching off their phones, it is about how your airline’s employee caused a row in business class,” one Weibo user wrote.
“This is a serious threat to flight order and safety, yet Air China can’t handle it. I will not consider flying with Air China again. Safety comes first after all,” said another.
Online news portal Ifeng.com ran a survey on the incident, with nearly 88 per cent of the 160,000 who took part agreeing that the airline should take responsibility for the incident. A total of 84 per cent said Air China had mishandled the incident and some 58 per cent said they would consider other carriers ahead of Air China in future.
Influential party newspaper People’s Daily also weighed in, criticising the airline for evading the crucial point in its public statement posted to Weibo on Monday night.
“The public does not question the significance of caring for patients with special diseases, but showing humane care does not mean inaction and to maintain the company image does not [mean] blindly protecting its employee,” the newspaper said.
“After all, the travel rights of all passengers and public safety are more important.”
Article 34 of China’s civil aviation rules for domestic transportation of passengers and baggage stipulates mentally ill patients or passengers whose health conditions may endanger themselves or affect the safety of other passengers shall not be carried.
However, in the eyes of the psychiatric profession mental health patients have the same right to fly as anyone else, as long as they are not posing any threat to others.
“The law on mental health protects some basic rights of mental patients and they are entitled to all rights of citizens, as long as they are not in an acute onset of mental illness,” said Ye Minjie vice-president of Kangning Hospital, which is affiliated to Wenzhou Medical University
“We can’t treat them as if they were secondary citizens or deprive them of basic rights just because they have had episodes before,” he said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in Air China, business class, flight uproar, Kangning Hospital, mayhem, mental health patients, passengers, People’s Daily, police questioning, psychiatric profession, seven-hour, smartphones, Uncategorized, Weibo, Wenzhou Medical University |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
- Some 150,000 residents of Baishizhou have to leave by the end of September to make way for malls, hotels and high-end residential projects
- They worry about finding affordable housing in the city, and their children’s education
Urban villages like Baishizhou provide affordable housing, mostly for migrant workers. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
As their eviction deadline nears, all Chen Jian can think about is the wrecking ball – and where his family is going to go. He often dreams about the negotiations – with officials, real estate developers, landlords. On other nights, he cannot sleep at all.
“I’m mostly worried about my daughter – she starts secondary school in September,” said Chen, 41, who works as a quality supervisor for a foreign trading company.
His family of four lives in a cheap one-bedroom flat in Baishizhou, one of the last standing chengzhongcun, or “urban villages”, in the flourishing commercial zones of southern Chinese city Shenzhen.
The villages provide affordable housing – costing from a few hundred to a few thousand yuan per month – to a mostly migrant worker population that provides services and labour.
But Baishizhou, in the Nanshan district, will not be standing for much longer. Many tenants in the area have received eviction notices since June, telling them to move out before the end of September to make way for a real estate project led by Shenzhen-based developer LVGEM Group.
The developer bought the land and buildings from their landlords, and it plans to knock them down and replace them with malls, hotels, high-end residential projects and skyscrapers.
Some 150,000 people are affected, mostly migrant workers, and they will have to find new homes, change jobs or even move back home at short notice.
Chen Jian lives in a one-bedroom flat in Baishizhou with his wife, daughter and son. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
For Chen and more than 2,000 other families, their children’s education is the most urgent issue. He said they could move somewhere else nearby, but the rent would be more than four times higher. A cheaper area would mean a long walk to school for his daughter from the nearest subway station.
As the breadwinner, Chen’s monthly income of 12,000 yuan (US$1,750) has to cover the whole family. His wife takes care of their three-year-old son and their daughter, 12.
“If I were here by myself, I would just pack up my bags and go,” said Chen, who moved to Shenzhen from Henan province. “But I can’t – I have children, I would do anything for my children.”
Families who’ve lived in old Chinese town for generations being kicked out to make way for tourists
Urban villages are a phenomenon that grew from China’s rapid development. In the 1980s, soon after Shenzhen became the country’s first special economic zone, the local government expropriated mostly vacant land from villagers and allowed developers to build commercial properties there.
The locals invested the large sums of money they received into new living spaces in their villages, which they rented out to the migrant workers that flowed into the city amid a manufacturing boom.
These chengzhongcun emerged as a tangle of damp alleyways, where electricity and telephone wires hang like spiderwebs. They bustle with fruit carts, soy milk shops, cobblers, karaoke parlours, short-stay love hotels and hair salons offering massage services. The “handshake buildings” where people live are packed together so tightly that residents could reach out of the window and shake their neighbour’s hand in the opposite flat.
“I call this ‘voluntary urbanisation’,” said Duan Peng, an architect based in the city. Since he moved to Shenzhen in 2001, Duan has spent many days and nights in Baishizhou. He said its development was in line with the government’s urban planning policy, since it allowed migrant workers to live in a relatively prosperous area in the city centre rather than on its periphery.
“Handshake buildings”, where residents can shake their neighbours’ hands through the windows, are a feature of China’s urban villages. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
Chen moved to Shenzhen with his wife in 2000, and both their children were born there. They moved to Baishizhou in 2008 after he was introduced to his landlord, who is from Chen’s hometown and rented him the flat for 650 yuan a month.
The rent has gone up by just 300 yuan in the 11 years they have lived there. They have watched as new developments sprang up around them – amusement parks, a golf course, malls and an area that is home to some of the country’s top tech companies including Huawei, Tencent and DJI.
How the eviction of Beijing’s migrant workers is tearing at the fabric of the city’s economy
But away from the shiny new developments, 150,000 migrant workers from all over the country are packed into 2,500 buildings in Baishizhou, where rents and services are affordable.
The urban village is full of people like Chen. Small business owner Wang Fang came to Shenzhen from northeast China in 2003 and has lived in Baishizhou ever since. Six months ago, she signed a three-year lease on a commercial space and opened a dumpling restaurant, but she is worried about the future.
“I can’t go back home, I already have a Shenzhen hukou,” she said, referring to the household registration document that gives access to public services. “I don’t have land there any more and can’t make a living there [as a farmer].”
She has not been told she has to leave the restaurant, but Wang and her two sons have until the end of September – when the building’s water and electricity will be cut off – to vacate their flat.
“It’s only a matter of time before the business is shut down as well,” she said.
Small shops and street vendors line Baishizhou’s bustling alleyways. Photo: Phoebe Zhang
According to an online poll of 1,031 Baishizhou residents this week, about half said they may have to find another job, and more than 600 were concerned about their children’s education. The survey, conducted by Shenzhen University urban planning professor Chen Zhu, also found that 70 per cent of those polled planned to find another flat in the city, while 28 per cent would leave.
Duan said the evictions and redevelopment would inevitably affect the surrounding areas, as well as the residents.
“The prices of services in the neighbourhood will increase, because many of the workers [now providing those services] will move far away, and rents will increase as well,” he said.
But for many such redevelopments, while the government, landlords and village officials might be consulted, the tenants are left out.
“Most of these residents, their voices and their interests aren’t on the negotiating table – their losses aren’t calculated in the real estate developer’s demolition costs,” Duan said.
A receptionist at LVGEM said he was not aware of any complaints about the redevelopment, while emails to the company went unanswered.
Meanwhile the developer’s partner, Baishizhou Corporation, told Southern Metropolis Daily it would provide legal services, rentals support and school buses for tenants who will be displaced.
But it is not enough for migrant workers like Chen. Like many of those facing eviction, he fears he will have to pay more rent, and there may not be a school bus service in his area.
He mentions a slogan plastered on walls in the city, “Once you come, you’re a Shenzhener” – part of a government campaign to lure talent and investors.
Chen said he worried that Shenzhen wanted only hi-tech workers and luxury residential compounds in the city, leaving little room for low-income workers.
“Despite what the slogan says, you ask yourself, are you really a Shenzhener?” he said.
Source: SCMP
Posted in affordable housing, automotive special economic zone (SEZ, Baishizhou, breadwinner, chengzhongcun, commercial properties, dumpling restaurant, education, evictions, forced out, hotels, household registration document, hukou, landlords, malls, migrant workers, Nanshan district, negotiations, officials, real estate developers, residential projects, residents, Shenzhen, Shenzhen University, Shenzhener, skyscrapers, subway station, tourists, Uncategorized, urban villages, wrecking ball |
Leave a Comment »
22/07/2019
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – China will be able to place armed forces at a Cambodian naval base under a secret pact between the two nations, the Wall Street Journal said on Sunday, although Cambodian officials denied such a deal had been struck.
The agreement, reached this spring but not made public, gives China exclusive access to part of Cambodia’s Ream Naval Base on the Gulf of Thailand, the Journal said, citing U.S. and allied officials familiar with the matter.
Such an arrangement would boost China’s ability to assert contested territorial claims and economic interests in the South China Sea, challenging U.S. allies in Southeast Asia.
Chinese and Cambodian officials denied such a pact existed, the Journal said.
“This is the worst-ever made up news against Cambodia,” Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen told the pro-government news site Fresh News on Monday.
“No such thing could happen because hosting foreign military bases is against the Cambodian constitution.”
Cambodian defence ministry spokesman Chhum Socheat told Reuters the report was “made up and baseless”.
In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, “As I understand it, the Cambodia side denied this.”
But he declined to respond to repeated questions whether China also denied the report.
“China and Cambodia are traditionally friendly neighbours,” Geng told a news briefing.
“We have cooperated in various areas. Our cooperation is open, transparent, and mutually beneficial and equal. I hope the relevant parties do not overinterpret it.”
Hun Sen’s strongest regional ally, China has poured billions of dollars in development assistance and loans into Cambodia through two-way frameworks and its Belt and Road initiative.
The initiative, unveiled by Chinese President Xi Jinping in 2013, aims to bolster a sprawling network of land and sea links throughout Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.
It has attracted a flood of Chinese commercial ventures in Cambodia, including casinos and special economic zones.
This month the U.S. Defense Department suggested China may be attempting to gain a military foothold in Cambodia, in a letter to Cambodia asking why the nation had turned down an offer to repair a naval base.
In a statement, the State Department urged Cambodia to reject such an arrangement, saying the nation had a “constitutional commitment to its people to pursue an independent foreign policy”.
It added, “We are concerned that any steps by the Cambodian government to invite a foreign military presence in Cambodia would threaten the coherence and centrality of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in coordinating regional developments, and disturb peace and stability in Southeast Asia.”
Cambodia denied reports last November that China had been lobbying it since 2017 for a naval base that could host frigates, destroyers and other vessels of the People’s Liberation Army Navy.
Source: Reuters
Posted in africa, armed Chinese forces, Asia, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Beijing, Cambodia, Cambodian Prime Minister, deal, denies, destroyers, Europe, Fresh News, frigates, Gulf of Thailand, Middle East, naval base, People’s Liberation Army Navy, President Xi Jinping, Ream Naval Base, Southeast Asia, U.S. Defense Department, Uncategorized |
Leave a Comment »
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 