one night is definitely not enough. I LOVED BEIJING. it was awesome, other than the grey polluted skies. and oh, it seems I bring the dust storms with me. dust storm in sydney, dust storm in beijing. not good for health.
so… I climbed the great wall, walked the tiananmen square, toured the forbidden city, ate street food. it was so interesting. if it wasn’t for my back pain troubles that bothered me on the last 2 days I would probably have seen more.
and yeah, I can speak terrific chinese I never knew I could. but it just came out, china accent and all. awesome.
it was a wonderful week and time spent with my rents, goodness knows I miss them so much now. in many ways I’m all alone.
thanks for a much needed much appreciated break. thanks for everything God.
ISLAMABAD (APP) – Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on Sunday employed air-to-air refuelling skill successfully thus attaining another milestone to prove itself ‘second to none’ as envisioned by Father of the Nation Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
The attainment of the capability was a part of the on-going High-Mark-10 exercises kicked off a week ago. The first Air-to-Air Re-Fuller aircraft of Pakistan Air Force which had joined PAF in the mid of December-2009, today took active part in the exercises and ably re-fuelled two fighter aircraft in the PAF’s inventory, a senior officer of PAF said while talking to APP here.
The PAF is expecting delivery of three similar re-fuelling aircrafts by June this year. By virtue of its ability to refuel Air Defence aircraft in air, PAF’s overall capability in terms of its effectiveness to defend the airspace of the motherland has significantly enhanced, he said.
The area of exercise High Mark-10 is spread over the entire country from Skardu in the North up to the Arabian Sea in the South. The exercise has been tailored to include joint operations with extensive participation from Pakistan Army and Pakistan Navy that would further enhance might to conduct joint operations amongst the three most essential services.
High Mark-10 is aimed at conducting operations in near-realistic tactical environment while integrating new inductions and providing role-oriented training to combat and support elements of PAF and other services. “It is designed to achieve stipulated objectives with special emphasis on exposing PAF combat crew to simulated air battles based on contemporary concepts,” he said. He said, all the Main Operating Bases (Peace Time) and Forward Operating Bases (War Time) are operative during the on-going exercise.
New inductions like JF-17 Thunder aircraft and force multipliers such as Saab-2000 Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) aircraft and Air-to-Air Refueller aircraft are participating in the exercise for the first time.
Exercise High Mark is the biggest operational event in the PAF’s history that is being conducted after a pause of five years. The ever changing geo-political environment in the region demands change in the employment concepts and doctrinal changes in the application of air power with emphasis on joint operations, he said. Exercise High Mark 2010 would provide PAF an opportunity to validate these concepts that are vital in the overall defence of the country.
On January 22, we had our first cultural trip to Shao Xing (绍兴). Shao Xing is another city in Zhejiang Province that is known for its rice wine production. Also, there is a lake called East Lake that is the sister lake of West Lake in Hangzhou. Here in Hangzhou, West Lake is a beautiful lake surrounded by pagodas and beautiful scenary. It was great to see the East Lake in Shao Xing. It was surrounded by rock cliffs that were carved out of the mountains in order to remodel the area for a Chinese emperor. We took a boat ride around the lake, walked around, and then went to a traditional Chinese restaurant for lunch where we ate regional foods. One of the famous Shao Xing dishes is smelly tofu (which I did not dare to try because it smelled a bit too pungent for me). However, I did try some other foods like duck neck. Besides these foods, we also ate some more palatable foods like rice, vegetables, and other delicious things. We also drank some locally produced rice wine. Rice wine is very strong, but great to try as I felt very Chinese with a rice wine shot in my left hand and a duck neck in my right hand.
This is a picture of some of the foods we ate at the restaurant. As you notice, it’s on a rotating glass circle so that the dishes can easily be moved around the table for all to enjoy.
The first picture here is me holding some incense that Chinese people typically will burn to show respect to their ancestors. Despite being far away from my family, this gave me a good opportunity to show them respect, light some incense for them, and feel more connected to the Rodkey clan while in Shao Xing. To the right, there is a photo of Sam and I wearing our complimentary hats. The tour company gives us a hat like this during each cultural tour with a phone number written on the underside of the hat brim in case we run into problems. They are really funny and an innovative way to make sure everybody has the phone number in case of an emergency.
The first photo here is a sign welcoming us to East Lake. To the right is a photo of the lakes and the boats that we took rides on during our visit.
This is a picture of an enormous statue. The statue is of a Chinese warrior named Da Yu. We hiked up a mountain with many stairs winding up to the base of the statue. He is holding a farming tool because he was known for farming despite being a warrior.
The conservative Heritage Foundation, no friend of socialism, has ranked Canada ahead of the United States in economic freedom, at 7th and 8th place, respectively.
From their 2010 Index of Economic Freedom, the top 10 countries with the most economic freedom in descending order are:
Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada, United States, Denmark and Chile.
Ranked by Business Freedom, Trade Freedom, Fiscal Freedom, Government Spending, Monetary Freedom, Investment Freedom, Financial Freedom, Property Rights, Freedom from Corruption, and Labor Freedom, Canada beats the U.S. on 7 out of 10, ties on Investment Freedom, and falls behind only on Government Spending and Labor Freedom.
Particularly embarrassing to the U.S. should be Canada’s ranking of 90% for Property Rights versus 85% for the U.S., given that the U.S. Constitution explicitly provides for just compensation for the taking of property, and the Canadian Constitution does not. Instead, it leaves property rights to the jurisdiction of the provincial legislatures. Even the Chinese Constitution provides for compensation for the taking of property, whereas Canada’s doesn’t.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
I recently finished up a short but hectic trip to China, specifically the Yangtze River Delta region, China’s most prosperous and most populous area, and where one half of my grandparents are from. The tour went to several cities of which the most well-known are Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou.
Of course, going on a travel tour, a Mandarin-speaking one where I was the only non-Taiwan person, meant that there were many things that could have been better or avoided such as the frequent trips to boutiques selling stuff like pearls and silk. This was a staple part of the tour because this is how our Chinese guides earned the pay, from commission and not from salaries. Waking up at 5.30 am and leaving in the morning and coming back at 9 or 10 at night to a different hotel in a different city every day was also something that was seriously less than enjoyable. The amazing price of this tour was what made us choose it, it being so low that it was almost as if the hotel accommodation and restaurant meals were free, because ideally I would have preferred to just go to the key cities and spend a few days in each each. I didn’t spend more than a day in each city, so my views below are based on brief and fleeting observations and that certainly misses a lot of stuff.
It’s no secret that Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta, which includes the provinces of Zhejiang and Jiangsu, have become amazingly developed in the past decade, and this was borne out by the amazing skylines, the amount of fancy apartment and office buildings, the massive construction projects, the proliferation of cars on the roads, and the general appearance of the people. In some ways, Shanghai and Hangzhou and even Wuxi are better off than Taipei. Their streets were larger, straighter and cleaner, and they had side lanes only for motorcyclists and cyclists, unlike Taiwan’s free-for-all. These cities were also more attractive than Taipei, though one can also say that some Taiwan cities are also more attractive than Taipei. The people weren’t dressed too shabbily too, and some of the women certainly match up to or exceed those here in terms of attractiveness.
But before people think that I must be getting drunk on the Communist Party’s Kool-aid, there were definitely some noticeable deficiencies. First is that, the apparent large number and immense size of construction projects may be good for economic growth rates and gives the impression of progress and wealth, but the question remains whether these projects can be fully utilized. I went to a huge mall in Suzhou on a weekday night and it was largely deserted though the stores were all open. I also noticed for many of the restaurants in all the cities except Hangzhou that we went to for lunch and dinner, there was a noticeable lack of patrons and many empty tables.
In Hangzhou, my mother and I broke away from the tour to have dinner with relatives and stroll along Xihu. This pleasant evening ended with a half-hour’s wait for a taxi to take us back to our hotel, that included seeing lots of taxis driving past but with passengers inside. The driver said that because it was a Friday, it was the busiest day of the week for taxis hence the long wait for a free one, but I thought such a major tourist destination and a wealthy city should not have such a scarcity of taxis. The street lights along Xihu were quite dim, though maybe this was to keep down light pollution along the lake, but so were the lights along some of the streets we drove past, suggesting maybe inadequate electricity or really serious electricity-saving measures.
China has the world’s largest population and this is reflected in its cities where little-known ones can have populations over one million. Hangzhou has over 3 million in its metropolitan area so it’s not surprising that transportation, especially public transit, can be insufficient. The most serious concern has to be whether all these new construction projects can really benefit the people or instead be large, fancy malls or office towers that don’t have enough occupants.
Space.com has an article up about Chinese plans for a lunar rock receiving lab, as well as general updates on the Chinese program.
Presenting at the 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (LPSC), Chinese experts noted plans for their processing center, which sounds roughly equivalent to NASA’s famed Lunar Receiving Laboratory. China currently plans to have the Chang’e-3 lander down in 2013, with the Chang’e-4 rock hauler touching down in 2017 and the Chang’e-2 luanr orbiter launching later this year.
There’s an almost aside quote towards the end of the article that caught my attention:
“”In addition they have started participating in discussions for the International Lunar Network (ILN) mission…” – Ray Arvidson, Washington University Professor
Details on that ILN have been slim so far, but to see a current mention after NASA’s cancellation of Constellation is interesting. A NASA site says about the project:
“NASA will undertake landed lunar missions and is architecting a conceptual “global lunar network” as a backbone of its envisioned robotic surface activities. This concept, called the International Lunar Net-work (ILN), aims to provide an organizing theme for all landed science missions in the 2010s by involving each landed station as a node in a geophysical network.” -NASA Science Mission Site, ILN
Clearly, with NASA taking a step back, someone else would likely step in to ‘architect’ the continuation of the network…and from that quote about the recent Chinese “discussions” about it, it sounds like someone is. Guess international lunar development will roll on, with or without NASA, at just the same pace
I’ve decided that I do not currently participate in enough challenges and so I am joining the China Challenge. I came across this challenge through Amy’s blog A Striped Armchair and when I thought about it I noticed that I actually have four books on China on my bookshelves, waiting to be read. Thus, it wasn’t all that hard to decide what books I want to read for this challenge. I am still looking for a good non-fiction book on China and I could do with some more fiction-recommendations as well. I am joining the Fast Train to Shanghai level, which has the following rules:
Read 5 books about China
1 should be a translated work of fiction by a Chinese author (or not translated if you have the language skills.) I will make exceptions for Chinese authors that also write in English– their English works are fine.
1 should be nonfiction
I’m thinking that I’d like to participate on some of the activities mentioned for the Silk Road Trek (for example, reading a Chinese blog, watch a Chinese movie, eat Chinese food, etc), but I know I won’t be able to read 10 books on China this year. So I might just cheat and report on these activities anyway.
The books that I have selected for now are:
Red Dust by Ma Jian: A book about a journey through China by the author. I picked this book up a few years ago at a book sale. It’s part of the Vintage books “Take Your Imagination East” series.
Miss Chopsticks by Xinran: Another booksale buy. Part of the blurb is the fascinating sentence: “Women, their father tells them, are like chopsticks: utilitarian and easily broken.” I think I could read this for the Women Unbound Challenge as well, but we’ll see.
Becoming Madam Mao by Anchee Min: This has been on my shelves for forever, I don’t even remember when or where I got it from. I’ve never read it, because the size of the book makes me hesitant to pick it up. I think this book will be the hardest to actually start reading for this challenge.
Wu. The Chinese Empress Who Schemed, Seduced and Murdered Her Way to Become a Living God by Jonathan Clements: This might be my non-fiction pick for this challenge, although I might want to read more non-fiction about China this year. It’s advertised as “the true story of the first and only woman in Chinese history to become ruling emperor’. Something about this line tells me that this might be a rather too-popular non-fiction read. Actually, I bought it thinking that it would be a fiction book. But there are some notes at the end of the book, so let’s just say I’m curious to see what I’ll think of it when I’ve read it.
I have a copy of Wild Swans by Jung Chang waiting to be reread on my shelves. I remember how I loved this book when I was a fourteen-year-old, but I’m thinking that I might want to add a book that I haven’t read already.
Do you have any recommendations on books I might like to read about or related to China?
The UK’s ambassador to Beijing has warned that China could face isolation internationally, should it fail to give its consent to fresh sanctions against Iran.
“It’s not in China’s interests to find itself isolated from permanent members of the Security Council or the E3+3. It would damage China internationally,” Sebastian Wood said on Friday.
Wood said that China favored a different approach to the Iranian nuclear issue but he hoped that “fluid” talks would persuade Beijing to accompany others in imposing more sanctions against Iran.
“China has emphasized a need for engagement and diplomacy and wants to see the situation resolved soon. We have seen tactical differences in recent weeks but it’s a fluid discussion,” he added. #mce_temp_url#
Considered by many to be the Eighth wonder of the world- The Terracotta warriors and horses are the most significant archeological excavations of 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometer East of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum in Lintong, Xian, and Shaanxi province. It is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to China. The Terracotta army was discovered by accident in 1974, when local farmers digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-sized terracotta figures. Excavation in 1976 revealed two further pits both filled with terracotta warriors. On the eastern side of the tomb smaller pits have been found containing the bones of horses and smaller size terracotta figures of grooms. Since than, discoveries have continued to be made at the site and to date remains of nearly 8000 terracotta figures have been recovered.
The Terracotta warriors were made during the Qin dynasty of ancient China, a dynasty known for fighting. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 13, Qin Shi Huang had begun to work for his mausoleum. It took 11 years to finish. It is speculated that many buried treasures and sacrificial objects had accompanied the emperor in his after life. Qin shi Huang is remembered for instigating the building of the Great Wall of China, and the fanatical fear of death ultimately gave us the legacy of the terracotta warriors. The warriors were intended to protect the emperor’s tomb and support him as he reigned over an empire in the afterlife.
The terracotta warriors are unique, according to historian Sima Qian, construction of this mausoleum began in 246bc and involved 700,000 workers. Not only are they life size and individually modeled in clay, but the detail of the figure is astounding. Qin Shi Huang specifically stated that no two soldiers were to be made alike. Not only can we observe the construction of the body armor of terracotta army, with even the heads of the rivets standing out, but the soles of the shoes of the kneeling warriors are modeled with fine tread pattern. The heads and hands of the warriors were made separately, and each head is reputed to be different and individual. The warriors vary in height, uniform and hair style in accordance with rank. The colored lacquer finish, individual facial features, actual weapons and armor from battle used in manufacturing these figures created a realistic appearance.
The terracotta warriors provide a wealth of information for military historians, and their existence is a testimony to the power and wealth of Qin Shi Huang. The site was listed by UNESCO in 1987 as a world cultural heritage site.
Cheap Flights to China are also one major reason that not only makes this attraction busier but also, affordable for all. Cheap flights to China are operated and provided at large by Chinese Airlines. Some cheap flights from Uk include Indian and Middle East airlines as well. Yet, if you can get some seats available in the promotional offers by British Airways, they beat the rest in being the cheapest flights to China from UK.
It’s Friday so I’m going to keep this light-hearted and keep it brief. I just have a couple of things to show you.
Firstly, Bloomberg’s exceptional interactive piece which illustrates how certain economic variables (in particular Debt) and their trends provide a good fundamental support volatility. This is very easy to use just click on anything which is green to interact and expose more information. I’d encourage you to take a look at this.
One of the potential sources of volatility comes from sovereign risks, another source is China’s policy actions which affect us all over the World, whether we choose to believe it or not. Perhaps the most hotly debated is the Renminbi currency peg. Yesterday Roachie says that Talk of Overheated China Economy is ‘Overblown’. Interestingly, he implies that a certain overcapacity in office space is needed to accommodate the massive rural to urban migration still occurring in China.
Lastly, just to end on a philosophical note, here is a talk I love from Daniel Kahneman, the father of Behavioral Economics. This talk has nothing to do with finance or economics – it’s about happiness. Worth a listen, if you have a few spare moments on a Friday.
Macro Data to Watch:
Japanese Industrial Production
Indian Industrial Production
Spanish Inflation
Canadian Jobs
Markets
I’m not sure if you’ve seen this as the luster of Gold gets all the attention but Platinum is back to its highs again. It’s been slowly creeping up there for the past few weeks.
Another big rally from Citigroup – that stock is up 18% in 3 days on 3 billion shares volume. Time to sit up and take notice – Citigroup’s market cap is now $120 billion.
Source: Bloomberg
Global Stocks to Watch:
Keep an eye on Citi and the financials in general going into the weekend – can we hold on to all those gains?
Earnings:
Taiwan: Formosa Petrochemical and Hon Hai Precision
The three Chinese operators have been readying their smartphone portfolios and services since the 3G licences were awarded in 2009. Here we analyse the different smartphone strategies of China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom, and assess the challenges and opportunities presented by the emerging smartphone market.
Table of Contents :
Executive summary
In a nutshell
Ovum view
Key messages
Challenges and opportunities
China Mobile has an early lead, but needs to raise awareness of OPhone brand
Pricing and subsidies are critical in this market
China will benefit from industry-wide focus on low-cost smartphones
China’s censorship system could prevent international vendors from penetrating the Chinese market
Smartphone competition in the Chinese market
Operator strategies for smartphones
OPhone: home-grown by China Mobile
iPhone and GPhone: China Unicom’s hope
RIM’s BlackBerry: China Telecom’s first step
Comparison of OPhone and iPhone
3G showed strong growth in 4Q09
SWOT analysis
China Mobile
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
China Unicom
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
List of Tables
Table 1: OPhone on China Mobile versus iPhone on China Unicom
Table 2: 3G development by China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom
List of Figures
Figure 1: China’s mobile operators compared
Figure 2: Current OPhone models
Figure 3: UI comparison of the OPhone and iPhone
More Information: http://www.aarkstore.com/reports/Smartphones-in-China-market-overview-38140.html
The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom、 Trailer
Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s new documentary looks at the current Tibet situation. As Tibet erupts in flames and exile Tibetans march on their homeland, can the Dalai Lama find a peaceful solution or will the voices from within his own ranks calling for stronger action prevail?
The Sun Behind the Clouds: Tibet’s Struggle for Freedom http://www.whitecranefilms.com/film/sun-behind-clouds.html
While the world markets continue its melt-up, here’s some Big News from China – according to Bloomberg, all loan guarantees by local governments are now declared null and void.
Yes. Null and void.
For those wondering what the BFD is, try putting yourself in the shoes of those who lent approximately US$3.5 Trillion (yes, it’s T, not B) to local governments across the Middle Kingdom.
This is the financial equivalent of “Fire One” in nuclear weapons parlance (haha Gorby – you’re such a kidder). Creditors (fortunately..ahem…Goldman Sachs is one of them) are now wondering which congressman to lobby to get their money back. Opinion is probably divided between creditors: half of them will want the US to launch its entire nuclear arsenal towards Beijing, while the other half are eyeing a 40th story leap as the less painful option.
From Bloomberg, “China to Nullify Financing Guarantees by Local Governments”
China plans to nullify all guarantees local governments have provided for loans taken by their financing vehicles as concerns about credit risks on such debt surges.
The Ministry of Finance will also ban all future guarantees by local governments and legislatures in rules that may be issued as soon as this month, Yan Qingmin, head of the banking regulator’s Shanghai branch, said in an interview. The ministry held meetings on the rules on Feb. 25 with regulators including the China Banking Regulatory Commission and the People’s Bank of China, Yan said March 5.
China’s local governments are raising funds through investment vehicles to circumvent regulations that prevent them from borrowing directly. A crackdown on local- government borrowing, estimated at about 24 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion) by Northwestern University Professor Victor Shih, could trigger a “gigantic wave” of bad loans as projects are left without funding, Shih said this month.
“Beijing’s fiscal situation probably isn’t as good as it looks at first glance,” said Brian Jackson, an emerging markets strategist at Royal Bank of Canada in Hong Kong. “Perhaps at some stage the central government is going to have to bail out the banks or the regional governments and take it on its own balance sheet.”
Fiscal Risks
Central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan said March 6 during the National People’s Congress that while “many” local financing vehicles have the ability to repay, two types cause concern. One uses land as collateral, while the other can’t fully repay borrowing, meaning that the local governments may be liable, leading to “fiscal risks.”
Premier Wen Jiabao, at the opening of the annual parliamentary meetings last week, said the central government would sell 200 billion yuan of bonds for a second year to help local governments fund infrastructure projects. Wen also warned of “latent risks” in China’s banking system as he pledged to continue a moderately loose monetary policy and a proactive fiscal stance.
The parliamentary meetings will end March 14 with Premier Wen’s annual press conference in Beijing.
A few cities and counties may face very large repayment pressure in coming years because of debt ratios already exceeding 400 percent, a person with knowledge of the matter said in January. The ratio is of year-end outstanding debt to annual disposable fiscal income.
Regional Concerns
The financing vehicles of large coastal cities are well-funded as most have publicly traded subsidiaries that can raise capital from the markets and rely less on bank loans. Entities in northern and western China are of particular concern, the banking regulator’s Yan said while attending the parliamentary meetings.
The 1998 collapse of Guangdong International Trust & Investment Corp., which borrowed domestically and overseas on behalf of southern China’s Guangdong province, left creditors including Dresdner Bank AG of Germany and Bank One Corp. in the U.S. with $3 billion of unpaid bonds. It marked the first time that Chinese authorities failed to bail out one of the nation’s state-owned trusts.
Commercial banks have already been told to assess their exposure to such lending and stop providing further credit if problems are found, Yan said.
Commercial Banks
Bank of China Ltd. President Li Lihui said in an interview last week that the nation’s third-largest lender has reviewed its exposure to borrowings by local governments and identified some financing vehicles that didn’t have adequate liquidity to make payment. The bank plans to exit projects without proper collateral and reduce new advances to local governments this year, Li said.
Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. Chairman Jiang Jianqing said the lender found some risks in such borrowing arms. These situations aren’t yet widespread, Jiang said. The bank has already inspected its loans extended to local government financing vehicles in 2008 and 2009 and “so far didn’t find many big problems,” ICBC President Yang Kaisheng said yesterday.
China’s banks doled out a combined 9.59 trillion yuan in new loans last year, helping the government engineer a turnaround in the world’s third-largest economy. The credit binge sparked concern about more bad loans and asset bubbles.
Northwestern’s Shih estimated that borrowing by China’s 8,000 local-government entities may have totaled 11.429 trillion yuan in outstanding debt by the end of last year and they had credit lines with banks for an additional 12.767 trillion yuan. That may result in bad loans of up to 3 trillion yuan.
China’s banks had 497 billion yuan of non-performing loans as of Dec. 31, accounting for 1.58 percent the nation’s total advances, according to the banking regulator.
Many economists and experts at the IMF and World Bank have said that China’s GDP growth could be over 10% this year. That is based on the increased demand for consumer goods among China’s growing middle class and a potential rising demand for China exports which should be stimulated by a recovery of the economies in Japan, the US, and the EU.
It turns out that China’s senior leaders want to mute those expectations. The country’s Premier Wen Jiabao said that the world’s most populus nation will target GDP growth of only 8% this year. One of the reasons that China is less ambitious about its economic improvement is concern that inflation will rise and the manufacturing sectors will “overheat”. Both these worries have been expressed by economists since China’s $585 billion stimulus package showed signs of improving production and a demand for consumer goods. But, the liquidity pumped into the marketplace also cause a surge in bank lending and probably a rise in real estate and equity prices. China has begun to cut access to capital for both individuals and companies, a process that will slow growth.
The FT quotes Wen Jiabao as saying that the banking sector contained “latent risks.” In other words, capital availability has become so great that the government has lost control of the growth rate of the economy.
The 8% target could also be a screen. Factory output in China is up sharply and has risen since the middle of last year. This is extraordinary because the recession was still in full force in every large nation outside of China during most of 2009. The demand for Chinese goods could not have rebounded so considerably for such a long period of time. Western nations did need to replenish inventories, but that is not, in and of itself, sufficient to sustain a long-term increase in factory output in China.
It has probably begun to occur to China’s senior leaders that they cannot keep up GDP growth because the demand for the nation’s exports is slowing as the economies in the US and most of Europe lose much of the steam that they seem to have picked up in the fourth quarter of last year. A deceleration in the need for exports will also put pressure on China’s middle class which relies on factory jobs driven by rapid growth of industrial production and easy access to capital to keep up its demand for consumer goods. That, in turn, will add another weight to China GDP expansion.
China will not grow as quickly as expected this year because the global economy is stalling again.
It was recently reported in Africa Business Source, that a Chinese green energy firm, Yingli, became the first Chinese company to become an official 2010 World Cup sponsor. This should not be shocking given China’s recent interest (and investment) all over the African continent. But it is an interesting move given the “green” credentials of the company. Not only are they spreading the renewable energy gospel around the continent with their sponsorship they are also getting in on some of the other CSR initiatives such as the 20 Centres for 2010, the Official Campaign of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, by providing solar panels.”
Of course Yingli sees the benefits of their sponsorship as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yingli Green Energy, Liansheng Miao stated
“as one of the world’s leading solar companies we are excited to be joining other world-class brands as an international sponsor of the FIFA World Cup. This sponsorship links Yingli Green Energy to the world’s most popular and passionately followed sport. We feel privileged to have this opportunity, and look forward to offering our expertise to help FIFA leverage this much-loved sport to promote a better, greener environment.This sponsorship links Yingli Green Energy to the world’s most popular and passionately followed sport. We feel privileged to have this opportunity, and look forward to offering our expertise to help FIFA leverage this much-loved sport to promote a better, greener environment.”
If the price of solar continues to decrease as energy efficiency improves, I can see solar becoming a major player around the Continent. Becoming a household name in solar energy in Africa seems like a really smart move by Yingli and I could see this sponsorship investment having a very high ROI. Their sponsorship immediately gives them extensive brand coverage and puts them in the same light as major brands such as Satyam, Continental, Coca-Cola, Adidas, etc. It will be interesting to see how else Yingli decides to take advantage of this opportunity and engage with communities and countries all over the continent.
For the full article click here: http://www.africabusinesssource.com/articles/world-cup-2010-articles/yingli-green-energy-becomes-first-chinese-company-to-sponsor-2010-fifa-world-cup/
I think a fireworks store just exploded. I heard of it happening. That or someone was goin’ a little nuts with ‘em. It started out loud and constant, like the speed of those fireworks they launch off from the ground near the end of the show. Then it started getting louder and quicker and more and more and more. it was bright daylight, and must have happened around a corner, since I couldn’t see anything when I looked out the window.
Even during the day, even this far away from the new year, you still hear some fireworks go off every few minutes. That was definitely the biggest I’ve heard.
SPECIAL DOUBLE POST!!! 2 FOR ONE!! FIREWORKS FIREWORKS FIREWORKS!!!
During Spring Festival, or Chinese New Year, take your pick, Fireworks are legal for a period of about 2 weeks. Today must be the last night, ’cause it is crazy. They’ve been going off all day, including in broad daylight. It’s been pretty spectacular since sundown, not a minute when there aren’t some fireworks going off in 3 directions, and like major fireworks, and like major fireworks that people can just BUY. In the CITY. It was snowing too. Down on the street where the fireworks were a few blocks away, it seemed like I was in a warzone, bombs going off not far away as I cross the bridge over the street to get to the bank. It must have been mindblowing on actual the actual New Year. Judging from today, your imagination can go wild and it would probably be accurate. The sky must have been lit up, like when that transformer exploded while I was watching Collateral at the drive-in. If you want to go to China and see something cool, go during Spring Festival. If you want to go to China and see anything else, DO NOT go during Spring Festival.
Mark Faber advised hedge fund managers to buy gold and live on farmland away from cities.
The bleak warning of social and financial meltdown was delivered today in Tokyo at a gathering of 700 pension and sovereign wealth fund managers.
Speaking today, Dr Faber said that investors, who control billions of dollars of assets, should start considering the effects of more disruptive events than mere market volatility.
“The next war will be a dirty war,” he told fund managers: “What are you going to do when your mobile phone gets shut down or the internet stops working or the city water supplies get poisoned?”
His investment advice, which was the first keynote speech of CLSA’s annual investment forum in Tokyo, included a suggestion that fund managers buy houses in the countryside because it was more likely that violence, biological attack and other acts of a “dirty war” would happen in cities.
He also said that they should consider holding part of their wealth in the form of precious metals “because they can be carried”.
One of Dr Faber’s darker scenarios involves growing military tension between China and the United States over access to limited oil resources.
Dr Faber, who advised his audience to pull out of American stocks one week before the 1987 crash and was among a handful who predicted the more recent financial crisis
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Marc Faber Warns Of 20% Fall In US Stocks (benzinga.com)
1st Takeaway: The chapter talks about the young bulge in the emerging markets and how companies like MTV have successfully targeted the young segment in the emerging markets. In an entertainment industry this is particularly interesting point because for example in India there are multiple film industries (Hindi, Telegu, Tamil and others) and each of these industries caters to specific segment of the population. Companies like MTV India realized the essence of the how each of these segments are different and were able to come up with a package that catered successfully to the market with shows like MTV Bakra, Roadies and others. Similarly in other countries MTV was able to blend itself and become successful. In the same breadth Channel [V] a production from Star TV follows the regional flavor with presences in Asian countries. The important takeaway is that consumers’ in emerging countries have different preferences than developed countries. Hence for a company to be successful in emerging market then it has to first learn about the consumers and then come up with products that fit the need of consumers. A failure to understand the consumer’s taste is a recipe for disaster.
2nd Takeaway: In Emerging market consumers are more entrenched in tradition and culture. A company needs to understand and recognize it to be successful. A very good example of it is the Middle Eastern version of the popular English show “Big Brother”. Even though the program was sanitized to the maximum but a small incident of a social kiss was it undoing. Whereas a similar incident of a social kiss in a program in other developed or developing countries might not have caused any news. Hence when doing business in emerging markets the margin of error is small and a small mistake can be the last nail in the coffin. So a strong understanding of local culture and tradition is very important.
3rd Takeaway: Africa Rising: There is a huge youth market in Africa and companies like Unilever, Bel Group, Toys R Us and others have been successfully at targeting the group. The long-term success of these business stems from the strong relationship with the consumers based on the deep roots in the local cultures and markets, creating products that help them to ‘feel good, look good and get more out of life’ and the total commitment to exceptional standards of performance and productivity. These brands have been successful because the companies are deeply committed to meet the everyday needs of people. For any companies to venture into Africa they would have to understand the needs of the people, live up to the expectation of them and provide highest quality of products. There is no short cut to success in any market whether they are in developed or emerging markets.
This week was my first week back and work and also our first week with our niece living with us as a nanny/housekeeper. Both have been going well, with a few snags along the way, as was expected.
Actually, I shouldn’t complain at all about work because when I went to pick up my schedule on Monday I got a huge surprise — I’m only teaching eight hours this semester! This happened due to the convergence of two circumstances, the first being that my graduating seniors are focusing on their math and science subjects this semester in preparation for their AP exams and taking fewer English courses, having already finished taking the TOEFL, the English language exam they need to get into colleges in America, the second being that while I was on maternity leave the school hired a part time teacher to cover my classes and now that I’m back and another full time teacher (a good friend of mine from Kunming, in fact, someone who used to work at the school I started there) is arriving, there’s a surplus of teachers. The school could have let the part-timer go, but they wanted to keep him around just in case, since decent foreign teachers aren’t easy to come by. So what that all means is that I am working eight hours a week. I have several days where I only teach a class or two, and on Thursdays I have no classes. I really couldn’t have asked for a better schedule to start back at work again. To top it all off, four of my eight hours are teaching a “preparation for overseas study” course that was sort of my own creation. It is a fun class where I go in and talk to my graduating seniors about what they can expect from life in America, cultural differences, college and campus culture, and stuff like registering for courses and getting along with your roomates. It is a lot of fun and they have loads of questions and are very curious about what to expect.
However, work is work, and it has been hard to leave my baby at home when she’s so small, even if it is only for a few hours a week. I know that I’m very lucky in that department though, because so many working mothers have 40 or 50 hour weeks, like I used to have at my original Beijing job, and this job, which allows me to work so few hours for the same amount of pay is really something I shouldn’t take for granted.
Another something we should try hard not to take for granted is the presence of our niece who has come to help us take care of our kids and look after our house. Cui Yu is seventeen years old and this is her first time being well and truly out of the home. She does a pretty good job so far, although I have to say that I feel a twinge of jealousy when she takes my daughter and gets her happy and smiling, which is silly, but I feel like already her bond with me is becoming less and less her only real bond, and more and more she’s opening up to more people. This is, of course, a good thing, but I did sort of cherish that time when I was her everything. Cui Yu has been taking Dylan out to the park too and she’s told me that people ask if he is her son, which makes me a bit territorial. I feel ridiculous feeling like I’m competing with a seventeen year old for my kids’ affection, but I am sure it is a combination of things — going back to work, Annika being so small, and having to share our space with someone new. In any case, Cui Yu, when all is said and done, is good with the kids but she’s still young and has a lot to learn. She has a tendancy to spend too much time chatting on the internet and I had to talk to her about holding the baby more when she is left with her, rather than just putting her in the bouncy chair or in her swing. Annika is a relatively laid back baby and she’s happy to sit in her bouncy chair for what seems like hours, but that doesn’t mean that it is the optimal place for her, especially when someone is available who could be holding her and interacting with her. My husband has gotten a bit short with Cui Yu several times as well because she lacks initiative. She’ll sleep in the morning until we actively wake her (which I told my husband he needs to do. If you want her up and helping, wake her up and get her out of bed) and she’ll put off cooking lunch until she’s asked to cook, rather than just taking the initiative and getting lunch started. There have been a few times too where she’s gotten Dylan worked up over something just by speaking without thinking — for example, teasing him by telling him it is bathtime when it isn’t, in fact, bathtime. Dylan loves bathtime more than anything in the whole entire world and the mere mention of the word “bath” can send him into a frenzy. When this happens at dinnertime it is quite inconvenient. We decided that in the future, whoever gets the toddler excited about taking a bath at innapropriate times gets to give the toddler a bath at an inappropriate time. Overall though, these are minor issues though and I think things are going well. Tomorrow we are giving Cui Yu the day off so we’ll see if she choses to go out and do something rather than spend the entire day chatting on the internet.
All in all I’d say this week has been a success. Let’s hope the next week goes relatively smoothly now that we’re all getting accustomed to our new setups and transitioning into a new routine.
Fortunately, a bubble can only burst once. Or can it? I blew up a balloon for my son, Noah River. It was long and stringy, the type a balloon artist would use to create the wheels of an inflated car. We played balloon volleyball with it, tossing it about and watching as it bounced off cabinets, eventually landing on the point of a fork. Then boom! It burst.
I picked it up to see if the shredded balloon might be salvaged. A little boy wanted the balloon to be awake again. Eventually, I succeeded in creating another balloon, albeit a smaller one with shreds of rubber hanging off of it.
Noah and I tossed it about again, hoping for a repeat of its former agility and liveliness. But alas! The new balloon flew, bounced and then quickly torpedoed downward rolling awkwardly and tiredly along the floor looking to forgo its responsibilities as a balloon.
Soon enough, it burst again – for a second time. Noah was again disappointed.
After the Holocaust, a depression took hold of the Jewish People as it did much of the world. Six million of our people were murdered, homosexuals were executed, the physically handicapped, the Roma, Soviets, Poles and German underground fighters were beaten and slaughtered. Millions were dead. Many unmarked graves, ugly holes in the cold floor of our earth, welcomed these poor spirits.
Humankind was devastated. With the death of so many, our bubble of hope exploded wildly, and oxygen of grief splattered all over the world.
Soon though, it inflated again – our hope bubble did – and humankind uttered, “Never again,” allowing for a positive transformation and an invigorated belief in the possibility of civility and peace. Something inside of us understood we had to stymie the activities of the wicked – the Hamans – and we could no longer let murder en masse happen.
Then came Mao Zedong and the 50 million murdered in China. Then came Pol Pot in Cambodia and 1.7 million murdered. Then Menghistu in Ethiopia and a million dead. Then Joseph Savimbi in Angola, Idi Amin in Uganda and Charles Taylor in Liberia. Then the Balkans. Then Rwanda. Then the Iran/Iraq war. Then the Congo. Then Darfur.
Burst!
Darfur. Fracture, rupture… bust!
Explode.
Never again – words.
With all the activism, monies and helicopters committed to the well-being of Darfur’s men, women and children, Esther never made it into Achashverosh’s court. Darfur is lost. “Never again” is in shambles. What happened?
Jan Pronk, the former head of the United Nations mission in Sudan, said the country had realized it could “get away with anything.” That’s what happened.
Sudan, like Al Capone in the roaring ’20s, and like Iran today, knew it could do what it wanted, when it wanted. Omar al-Bashir of Sudan laughed at petitions, UN resolutions and words like “unacceptable,” “genocide,” “must stop” – just like Pol Pot of Cambodia who couldn’t care about protesters. We, the people, were letting them feast on blood, and they ate heartily.
Refill that balloon.
The only way to stop the next genocide – and there will be another – is for all good people and all “good governments” to fight the enemy hand-to-hand, eye-to-eye, brain-to-brain, and not simply rely on embassy marches.
Like Mordechai and Esther, we need to grab Haman, tie him down forever – and always and recognize evil where it stands and courageously counter it.
How tragic that a balloon can burst twice. Yet with all this bursting, we’ll blow it up again – because humankind craves hope.
WASHINGTON — A coalition of human rights campaigners on Tuesday urged the US government to fund efforts led by the Falungong spiritual movement to circumvent Internet censorship in China and other nations.
Congress approved 30 million dollars in the 2010 budget to combat cyber censorship in China, Iran and elsewhere. But lawmakers have voiced concern that the funding since 2008 has been used ineffectively.
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, rights advocates — most from China — urged that money go to the Global Internet Freedom (GIF) Consortium, originally set up to evade China’s Internet “firewall.”
“By taking the right steps, the United States can make a historic contribution to its own security and to the advancement of democracy by rapidly tearing down the information firewalls of the world’s closed societies,” it said.
The letter was signed by exiled leaders of the 1989 democracy uprising in Tiananmen Square including Chai Ling, Wu’er Kaixi and Xiong Yan, along with figures behind the landmark Charter 08 petition for greater freedoms in China.
Other signatories included Rebiya Kadeer, the leader of exiles from China’s Uighur minority, along with activists campaigning for greater openness in Cuba, Myanmar, North Korea and Syria.
GIF software was designed by the Falungong, which was banned by China in 1999 and branded an “evil cult” following a silent mass gathering in Beijing by its members.
But the technology was also put to use last year by Iranians who circumvented censorship to organize protests against clerical hardliners via Twitter and other websites.
The letter said that GIF servers, which nearly crashed after the Iranian elections, could be upgraded to allow 50 million unique users a day, up from 1.5 million now.
Five senators — Democrats Robert Casey, Edward Kaufman and Arlen Specter, along with Republicans Sam Brownback and Jon Kyl — wrote a letter to Clinton last month voicing concern that the grant money was going to waste.
They faulted the State Department for restricting grants to groups working inside a country, countering that “the most successful censorship circumvention tools are operated remotely.”
Clinton, who testifies before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday, last month urged China to conduct a thorough probe into cyberattacks on Google and pressed technology firms to resist censorship.
Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service, Via PC World, Feb 22, 2010 -
Chinese president Hu Jintao has opened a microblog, adopting the technology despite his government’s work to stifle free speech by microblog users in China.
Twitter has been blocked in China since last year and authorities are asking its Chinese rivals to censor messages posted by users, adding another page to China’s playbook for quashing discussion of certain political and other sensitive topics online.
Hu’s microblog is on a service run by the People’s Daily, the official paper of the ruling Communist Party, and is only visible to registered users of the service. Hu had not made any posts as of Monday, but thousands of people were signed up to receive his messages, according to reports by local media including the Global Times.
Posts visible to the public on the microblog site showed many users saying they had just created accounts after hearing Hu had done so as well. Some users wished Hu a happy Chinese New Year.
Hu’s account had no picture but listed his political titles. It was not clear when the account was opened.
U.S. President Barack Obama has a Twitter account and other global political figures keep microblogs as well. Hu is the first elite Chinese official to open a microblog but he and other officials, including Premier Wen Jiabao , have previously appeared in online chat sessions targeted at the public. The government has sought to emphasize that it supports the growth of the Internet even though police monitor it for sensitive content, like discussion of elite government corruption or the banned spiritual group Falun Gong, and Web companies can be punished if they allow users to post such information.
Google, which is number two in China’s online search market, last month said it plans to stop censoring results on its China-based search engine, even if that means being forced out of the country. The move threw global attention on China’s censorship policies. Google has said it is in talks with Chinese authorities but has not yet removed the filters on Google.cn.
My mother had a beautiful set of china known as the “good dishes.” They were special to her and for decades she proudly displayed them in a glass-fronted china hutch in the dining room. That delicate set stayed protected within that china hutch through every Christmas, Thanksgiving and family get-together. Perfectly arranged and stacked they sat idle through every education and work- related achievement in the family. Ever at the ready, but never called; they watched the celebration of many weddings and the births of grandchildren and great-grandchildren alike. Never did a visitor come that merited the use of the treasured dishware.
We didn’t doubt that she loved us with all of her heart, but we sometimes wondered silently just what occasion would warrant the use of the “good dishes.” The years added up to a lifetime, and as her time grew short she passed them on to a daughter. The beloved porcelain went with just one rule: “Set the table,” she entreated, “use them enjoy them; don’t protect them from harm. Don’t wait for something big to come along. Let the people that you love know that they are special, and celebrate life with them any chance you get!”
It is very hot in Beijing during the summer months. A short ride away, The Summer Palace is the respite from heat and humidity. It is the largest preserved imperial garden in China, and truly magnificent. A long roofed corridor borders the Kunming Lake, perfect for a relaxing stroll and then onto a dragon boat to catch some extra cool breezes.
For the full history of The Summer Palace, visit http://www.chinahighlights.com/beijing/attraction/summer-palace.htm
One advantage of traveling alone is, I didn’t need to “keep pace” with a group. I could spend as much time as I wanted along the way. Recall from an earlier post, “support hose” was on my refrigerator list of the important “do not forget” items to bring. Without those, long walks would tire my legs out quickly. I still rested as needed, and Vicky was so charming. She walked with me, kept her arm linked with mine.
Where I live in New Jersey, I am close to the Delaware River and its towpath. It might be cooler on the towpath, but it sure is not The Summer Palace. This would be the summer home of my dreams!
So just pretend, this actually is my summer home and you are invited over as a guest. Certainly, you may click on the images for a larger view.
Recently a video interview with the warm Alibaba received extensive attention, many of my friends asked to sort out an interview text,
Warm in accordance with the text content of the discussion out inside the next time, we will release a part of the day, an interview text, everyone’s attention and discussion, the summary is not good enough warm, or hope that you will supplement Oh, He He ~~~~~
Issue 2. How to prepare for before you purchase it?
I think the retailers to purchase pre-preparation is necessary. This is at least the following 3 points should be very clear. Have a general plan, and avoid going to the wholesale market by those sellers of the beautiful MM temptation chaos sweeping a bunch of junk goods back. (Because we have several retail customers purchase just the beginning, there was no adequate provision to do the following, eat this loss, saying that sold a few months, and half of the shipment does not sell. Painful experience .)
1.Comprehensive consideration of the number and amount of purchase
a. For the newly opened shops are:
Distribution for the first time you can be estimated:
For example, that is 10 square meters of shops, probably about 100 goods shop. If you want to count and color code to Prepare all the necessary, then probably about 150 goods.
b.Usually getting goods are also to pay attention to the strategy：
Is to take a good amount of your income goods. Depending on your shop’s sales, there are planned purchase.
For example: If your shop monthly turnover of about 50000, you absolutely can not purchase more than 40,000. If you have only 5 million a month turnover, and you are in 8 million of goods, even if the over-sold 7 million, or pressure of 10,000 yuan. Although many goods stores, sales might be larger. However, the 2 million fewer goods, not necessarily how much less turnover. But will increase the pressure money. Because sales is for a single retail store has a critical value.
So, please keep in mind: a certain volume of business in accordance with their planned purchase.
2.Good control of the rhythm of each month of purchase
Always concerned about the home inventory. Summary before purchase goods also sold under the house before long, it is the most crucial of the total number of your purchase has a guide.
Because women’s update very quickly, this year, will sell the products this quarter, perhaps a few months, he was included in the obsolete product. Therefore, purchase is necessary to emphasize the rhythm, that is: the new quarter of red goods, intermittent purchase, festivals possession of goods, seasonal uniform when the Clearance.
a.Chong Cargo: In most parts of the rhythm of the domestic like this: in March last spring, in May last summer, in September last Autumn, in November last winter. Of course, if you are a novice, or for the quarter, the overall trend is not very self-confidence, can be relatively postpone that visit in the wholesale market for some time, have feelings, and then slowly try new.
Because it is the beginning of a new quarter, so sales of these goods may be longer, for example, in March of the goods can be sold for 4,5 month. Since the sellers time to a more adequate, and also periods of peak demand, so in March of the spring to the foot.
b.To continue to purchase, thenIn order to maintain the shop 20% of new goods. This ratio is arrived at through the data analysis. 20% of new goods both guarantee that your cash flow while assuring the shop there have been new on the shelves to keep the shop for new and old customers.
c.Festivals possession of goods: Every holiday, we all go out and spend a holiday, and shop some hot business. Then you can close up the new goods, specializing in selling slow-moving goods and the basic models have been easy to sell. Because of seasons, we are all directed at mood, atmosphere, go shopping, so this time, what will be easy to sell the goods. Moreover, when the major shopping malls are in discount promotions, you difficult to sell the products of the Shang Hao price.
d.Seasonal uniform Clearance:This topic until the following stocks mentioned how to deal with the topic in more detail to explain.
3.A good grasp of the style of shops, consumer groups and clothing grade position.
This aspect, in fact, you consider opening a shop fitting should be determined well before the. Because these are related to your shop decoration and location closely linked. Then go to purchase before, we must remind ourselves once again sober, what kind of products are suitable for your shop. Do not go there, saw sales of MM wearing beautiful clothes look good, and then goes on by her powerful mouth of the instigation, has lost direction, blindly purchase a.
Some of the above is only done enough to prepare before they can proceed to purchase.
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Chinese archaeologists have unearthed 18 ancient tombs while working on a south-to-north water diversion project in Xingtai City (邢台) in north China’s Hebei province (河北省).
The tombs were found in Xiqianliu village, in Xingtai’s Qiaoxi District, Li Enwei, chief of the city’s cultural heritage bureau, said Wednesday.
Li said 16 of the tombs dated back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) and contained about 100 pieces of porcelain, tiles and copper coins.
The other two tombs date back to the Yuan Dynasty (1206-1368 A.D.) and had apparently been robbed of all their valuables.
“We excavated an area of 500 square meters around the reservoir area in the village in December,” Li said.
Before these tombs were unearthed last month, Li said archeologists had already discovered 104 ancient tombs along the water diversion route in Xingtai, he said. “These ones spanned the Warring States Period (475 B.C.-221B.C.) to the Qing Dynasty.”
The ambitious project to divert water from China’s south to the arid north runs for 93.3 kilometers in Xingtai city and passes 97 villages and 14 major heritage sites.
Archeological excavations began in August 2009 to preserve the cultural heritage.
Li and his colleagues believe the new findings will shed light on local history and folk customs such as funeral rites.
Amy and I took advantage of the the long weekend and traveled to Beijing to ring in the Year of the Tiger Chinese style. We ate Peking Duck, traipsed through the immense Forbidden City, admired the Temple of Heaven, hiked the Great Wall (and tobogganed down), strolled through Jingshan Park, and witnessed the most bone-rattling display of amateur fireworks ever. We returned to Seoul tired and sick, but we saw and did some amazing things.
My father just spent $700 on 4kg of rabbit fish. The rabbit fish, also known as Pek Tou He (direct translation: 白肚鱼; White Belly Fish) in Teochew dialect, is a must-have delicacy every Chinese New Year for Teochew families. I am not sure how this obsession with the rabbit fish came about, but it has been ingrained into my psyche over the years.
In a Social Psychology class on self perception we were asked to complete twenty statements starting with “I am…” as fast as possible, so as to ensure the accuracy of the response. After inspecting the list, I realised that race and nationality did not feature in any of my responses. The first line I wrote was “I am Linette Lim”, attesting to the importance of the self over any social group. I also identified with being a daughter and a sister, reflecting the importance of family to me. Interestingly, I had also put down “I am Teochew”. I think it has a lot to do with growing up in a large family, and being under the care of three grandaunts who only spoke Teochew.
In a generation of youth who are rootless – too far removed from their ancestral culture in India, China or Indonesia, yet finding that the Singapore identity too new, too shallow for them to take root in – I am an anomaly. I am an anomaly not because I speak Teochew more fluently than Mandarin, but because I am deeply aware, and rooted in my family’s history.
It was the elderly Teochew folk in my family who first shaped my understanding of the world. Let’s start with food. Initiated to the concept of Chee (鲜; freshness), I grew up obsessed over the freshness of food, particularly seafood. Food must not only be fresh, but unflavoured and unseasoned, and preferably, steamed. Seasonings and sauces will only guise the Chee-ness of the food, and that is a no-no. As I grew older I developed a sort of duality. I enjoy simple, steamed Teochew dishes but I, like many Singaporeans, appreciate a good spicy Lamb Rendang.
Conventional as they can be when it came to food, I must say that the people in my family were a progressive bunch when it came to other things. My great grandfather was a textile merchant from Swatow (汕头; Shan Tou) who came to Singapore in search of better opportunities. My grandaunts (currently in their seventies) went to convent schools run by the British. My grandmother was not the traditional wife who stayed at home; she was always out with friends. My father’s first job was in the Air Force, ignoring relatives who used the “好儿不当兵” adage against him. It was widely held view that a filial son would not join the military. Thus my identity stems from not just from Teochew culture, but also from the enterprising nature of Chinese immigrants and my family’s emphasis on individualism.
Writers more observant and eloquent than me have pointed out that while the Chinese immigrants of my grandparents’ generation referred to themselves as Teng Sua Nang (唐山人or Tang Dynasty people) contemporary Chinese immigrants call themselves Han Ren (汉人or Han Dynasty people) or Zhong Guo Ren (中国人or People of the Middle Kingdom). These labels provide a great insight into the differences between new and old migrants, and the slippery concept of Chineseness. Something called internet serendipity brought me into the contact with Willy, an Asian American girl in Los Angeles and we started an online discourse on Chinese identity and the Chinese diaspora. It fascinates me that my life would have turned out differently had my great-grandfather decide to expand his textile business elsewhere; and it fascinates me that the technology has enabled us to connect to each other.
My perception of self is very much defined by my sense of my family’s history, but because I have not lived through much of that, I am reliant on the accounts of my grandaunts. I am a product of my family’s past, as much as I am moulded by the schools I went to; the people I met in life; the books I consume. I am a patchwork of various elements, a Frankenstein if you will.
February 14th this year was the Chinese New Year’s Day, the peak of the Spring Festival which is the most important Chinese holiday. As all traditional Chinese festivals, it is based on the Lunar Calendar and we’re now at the start of the year of the Tiger. It is practically impossible to travel inside China right before the festival as it is usually spent with the family and this means that people travel to their hometowns from the place they study or work.
In many ways, Spring Festival is to the Chinese what Christmas is to many Norwegians; a time for family, good food and traditions. These traditions differ depending on where in China you are. Most of the traditions are based on Chinese folk religion and include elements of ancestor worship, symbols that bring luck and prosperity and rituals to scare evil spirits from following them into the new year.
One tradition I’ve seen a lot of is fireworks. These days there are fireworks everywhere, all the time. It started Saturday at about 11 a.m. and I’ve been more or less able to hear it every hour after that, either distant or close by. Traditionally, the fireworks were to scare away evil spirits. I don’t know whether this is still in people’s minds when they use them, but it sure is the most visible (and audible) sign that celebrations are taking place.
Tasha and I got to see some of the preparations for Spring Festival up close last week when we visited Cuty, one of our Chinese friends. We made dumplings! This is the traditional "Spring Festival-food" in Northern China; so many families make them before the celebrations start. Dumplings are basically meat and vegetables wrapped in dough and then either boiled, steamed or fried. It’s easy to get hold of dumplings in Nanjing any time of the year, but they are mostly mentioned in connection with Spring Festival.
According to tradition, we put a coin in one of the dumplings we made. The one who gets the coin will have a year filled with luck and prosperity. We cheated and put a coin each in the dumplings, so we all ended up with lucky coins ^^,
Another tradition is to put up paper decorations on the door. These usually have characters like "luck" on them and are supposed to protect the home in the year to come. And they are not removed from the doors until next Spring Festival when new ones are put up. So we have seen them on doors from we came to China, but now they are all new and shiny. Tasha and I decided to put two tigers on our door too, for decoration purposes only.
We celebrated New Year’s Eve (13th) by going to the old town of Nanjing (Fuzi Miao) where there were lots of lanterns and lights. Pictures say more than words, so I’ll leave you with some photos from my Chinese New Year.
Considered by many to be the Eighth wonder of the world- The Terracotta warriors and horses are the most significant archeological excavations of 20th century. Work is ongoing at this site, which is around 1.5 kilometer East of Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s mausoleum in Lintong, Xian, and Shaanxi province. It is a sight not to be missed by any visitor to China. The Terracotta army was discovered by accident in 1974, when local farmers digging a well broke into a pit containing 6000 life-sized terracotta figures. Excavation in 1976 revealed two further pits both filled with terracotta warriors. On the eastern side of the tomb smaller pits have been found containing the bones of horses and smaller size terracotta figures of grooms. Since than, discoveries have continued to be made at the site and to date remains of nearly 8000 terracotta figures have been recovered.
Sarah & Kyrre
Many economists and experts at the IMF and World Bank have said that China’s GDP growth could be over 10% this year. That is based on the increased demand for consumer goods among China’s growing middle class and a potential rising demand for China exports which should be stimulated by a recovery of the economies in Japan, the US, and the EU.
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