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Xu Wei (1521-1593)
Yellow Carapace
Size: 114.6 x 29.6 cm
Material: ink and color on paper
Date: Ming Dynasty
Jiuquan, China: Tourists climb the singing sand dunes near the Crescent Moon Spring scenic area. The Crescent Moon Spring, named after its unique moon-like shape, is located at the north foot of the singing sand dunes.
via The Economist
The Chinese in Japan: Department stores and sweat shops
It’s one Japan for rich Chinese shoppers, another for low-skilled workers
On July 1st Japan relaxed visa requirements for well-off Chinese tourists…
On July 5th Kyodo, a news agency, reported that 21 Chinese were among 27 foreign trainees who died last year on a government-sponsored skills-transfer scheme for developing countries that over the past four years has brought in an average of 94,000 workers a year, mostly from China.
Of the 27, nine died of heart or brain diseases, four died while working and three committed suicide. A few days earlier officials confirmed that a 31-year-old Chinese trainee who died in 2008 after clocking up about 100 hours a month of overtime was the victim not of heart failure, as originally reported, but of “karoshi”, the Japanese affliction of death from overwork.
NYT: Chinese Factories Now Compete to Woo Laborers
High demand for factory labor has emboldened workers and inspired a spate of strikes, resulting in higher salaries and better treatment for some laborers. “Guo Yuhua, a sociologist at Tsinghua University, said the new cohort of itinerant workers was better educated, Internet-savvy and covetous of the urban niceties they discovered after leaving the farm. “They want a life just like city folk, and they have no interest in going back to being farmers,” said Ms. Guo, who studies China’s 230 million-strong migrant population.” … “The young generation thinks differently than their parents, they have been well protected by their families, and they don’t like to ‘chi ku,’ ” Mr. Lau said. The expression “chi ku,” or eat bitterness, is a time-honored staple of Chinese culture. But for young workers in Zhongshan, it is not the badge of honor that an older generation wore with pride.
Making Room for NGOs in China
There is a cottage industry taking root around corporate social responsibility in China, and over the last six months, I have picked up amongst their numbers a growing concern about the health and prospects for non-governmental organizations (NGOs), especially those not directly chartered and…
Shanghai Is Trying to Untangle the Mangled English of Chinglish
For English speakers with subpar Chinese skills, daily life in China offers a confounding array of choices. At banks, there are machines for “cash withdrawing” and “cash recycling.” The menus of local restaurants might present such delectables as “fried enema,” “monolithic tree mushroom stem squid” and a mysterious thirst-quencher known as “The Jew’s Ear Juice.” Those who have had a bit too much monolithic tree mushroom stem squid could find themselves requiring roomier attire: extra-large sizes sometimes come in “fatso” or “lard bucket” categories. These and other fashions can be had at the clothing chain known as Scat.
lolu:
“Yellow Ox Mountain” by Miao Wang, director of “Beijing Taxi.” The ping pong ball falling into Mao’s silhouette at the center of ping-pong ball is such a phenomenal image.
When I showed Beijing Taxi to a group of seniors in a cultural outreach presentation at an assisted living facility in small town New England, an elderly lady who earlier on had made strong comments about China asked me why I didn’t show more. I told her that it’d be showing soon and she should watch it.
Yellow Ox Mountain, although released quite a few years ago, isn’t in DVD I don’t think and is only screening. Really hope to get it to Exeter in the future.
The 101-story World Financial Center, China’s tallest building (left), Jin Mao Tower (center), and Oriental Pearl TV Tower signal the city’s rising ambition.Fascinating photos of Shanghai, that run the gamut from modern architecture to scenes of torn down residential buildings.
Journalists’ E-Mails Hacked in China - NYTimes.com
(via aznyellojersey) “Yahoo, which in 2005 sold its China operations to the Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba, has faced criticism for cooperating with government security officials in the past. In 2004, Yahoo turned over data that officials used to help prosecute several dissidents. One, a journalist named Shi Tao, was later given a 10-year sentence for leaking a secret propaganda directive.” “Unlike services offered by Google and Microsoft, emails sent through Yahoo’s Chinese domain, .cn, are stored on local servers and subject to Chinese law, a factor that has driven some privacy-conscious users away from Yahoo’s e-mail services.”
(via color-dujour)
China, WTO, and Censorship
“There is a movement afoot to build a case for filing a complaint against China at the World Trade Organization, alleging that China’s efforts to censor the Internet are in violation of the terms of its WTO membership … In the face of such a ruling, China would have four potential courses of action: (via siliconhutong)
… So the real question must be whether the motives behind this action are, in fact, commercial, or whether the issue of business access is a cover for another agenda. Given the that a commercially satisfactory result in the case is unlikely, and given that the advocates for the complaint that Reuters quotes are free speech organizations, not business groups, this action is in danger of being perceived more as a political assault against the underpinnings of Party rule in China than as a straight commercial dispute, both in Beijing and in Geneva.”
Beijing Taxi Trailer:Three cabbies’ bumpy ride on China’s road to modernization, directed by Miao Wang (UChicago alum ‘90 who majored in economics)
“BEIJING TAXI is a feature length documentary that vividly portrays the ancient capital of China going through a profound transformational arch. Through a humanistic lens, the intimate lives of three taxi drivers thread through the morphing city of Beijing confronted with modern issues and changing values. With stunning and poetic imagery of Beijing combined with a contemporary score rich in atmosphere, we experience a visceral sense of the common citizens persistent attempts to grasp the elusive. Its society is living through enormous contradictions adjusting to a new capitalist system from a Communist-ruled and educated society. Set in the Beijing before and after the 2008 Olympics, BEIJING TAXI takes us on a lyrical journey into fragments of a society riding the bumpy roads to modernization. Though the destination is unknown, they continue to forge ahead.”
(via threewaters)
Success Story: Beijing Taxi
“In terms of pledge rewards, I feel like it’s important to create some value in the rewards. I always believe that if you put your heart into creating something, people will sense that, and more willing to stand behind that. You’ve put all your heart into this film you’ve worked on for so long, your rewards should in some ways reflect the same heart and attention you’ve put into the film and not just something you slapped together.”
Producer Ted Hope has a great essay up from Miao Wang on how she managed her recently successful Kickstarter campaign. She discusses rewards, email newsletters, and all kinds of useful nitty-grittys. Go read it!
kickstarter is an awesome web 2.0 fundraising campaign platform driven by social media. from the trailer, the documentary seems like a great piece of ethnographic research about modern-day China in the midst of Olympic transitions; the director is a UChicago alum who majored in economics!
