This Week in Chinese News

[Wolfman]

I was thinking today that, for all the news that we see about China in the international media, it covers only a tiny portion of what actually happens here, and generally does it from an outsider's perspective. I thought it would be interesting to at least some forum members if I supplied snippets of news from the Chinese media, to give another perspective on what's happening over here. By far the majority of the information will come from the China Daily website (which is the largest English-language newspaper in China), and is presented in full awareness that this is a government controlled publication and will be far from unbiased in the news it presents.

My purpose is partly to inform (to show news stories that don't make it into the Western media, and to show the kind of news that Chinese are reading), and partly to amuse. And, of course, hopefully to inspire some conversation about these and other issues in China. I will do my best (time permitting) to do such an update once a week.

And for those who wonder about how much the internet in China is censored, I'd encourage you to also check out the China Daily forum; it has tons of both Chinese and foreign participants, and discusses pretty much every controversial subject, with many different perspectives. I think many will find it rather surprising what actually is allowed in China.

So now...the first installment of This Week In Chinese News

Olympic budget boosted to $2 billion

The budget for the 2008 Beijing Olympics has been increased from $1.6 billion to $2 billion to finance enhanced security measures, a top official said on Friday.

Yeah, big surprise there. And I'm betting its gonna' be boosted more before the Games finally happen.
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China completes new 'bullet' train body

The body of the first Chinese designed and manufactured high-speed train, with a possible speed equal to that of the famous Japanese bullet train, has rolled off the production line, according to the builder.

Also not terribly surprising news, the Chinese may not be great at innovation, but they are incredibly good at copying and improving on ideas developed by others. Of course, remains to be seen if they can convince people to buy this.
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China to readjust holidays to ease tourism burden

China is planning to readjust its public holidays to relieve the increasingly heavier burden placed on its hot tourist attractions during the "Golden Weeks", officials from the China National Tourism Administration was quoted as saying by Hong Kong-based Wen Wei Po.

I'm fully in favor of this idea; every year, China has two week-long holidays that are absolutely insane. More people than the entire population of Canada suddenly go careening wildly across China. Tourist sites are swamped, and transportation (train, plane) is simply unable to handle the volume of traffic. Having more holidays, but for shorter periods of time, would be a really big improvement, in my opinion.
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Scholars struggle to put gay marriage in spotlight

While their old school friends are walking up the aisle, China's homosexuals have been left on the shelf. Despite the nation's rapid development, society remains deeply conservative, and gay weddings are unimaginable for the majority of citizens.

Officially, homosexuality is still classified as a psychological disorder by the Chinese government. Unofficially, within the past few years it has become much more prominent and acceptable, at least in major cities, with gay bars opening up at numerous locations, and many young people openly declaring that they are gay.

But there's still an awful lot of homophobia, also; and no legal protection whatsoever for homosexuals. It would be perfectly legal to fire someone for being gay, for example.

This is one of the hot topics in China now; the younger generation of urban Chinese are, for the most part, much more open to homosexuality (with "openness" ranging from a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, to complete support for gay marriages). The fact that this issue is now being seriously discussed in academic circles, and in the media, is another indication of the shifting viewpoints on this issue.
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Strong protest lodged over US Congress award to Dalai Lama

Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Thursday summoned US Ambassador to China Clark T. Randt to lodge a strong protest against the US awarding the Dalai Lama with a "Congressional Gold Medal". "The move is a blatant interference in China's internal affairs. It has hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and gravely undermined bilateral relations," ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told a regular news briefing Thursday.

Yeah, big surprise here. China objects to something to do with the Dalai Lama. Here's the part that is sure to spark plenty of debate (although it engages in some hyperbole, there is some truth to it, as well):

The human rights situation in Tibet when the Dalai Lama exercised the rule of feudal serfdom and theocracy was the worst in the world, Qiangba Puncog said. He stressed that only after the central government introduced the policy of regional autonomy for ethnic groups in Tibet did the Tibetan people begin to manage their ethnic affairs and enjoy democracy.

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China set to clamp down on polluting factories

One morning this summer, residents of Wuxi City, in China’s eastern Jiangsu Province, awoke to find their beloved Taihu Lake had turned rancid. The water was filled with a bloom of blue-green algae that gave off a rotten smell. The water was tested to be undrinkable.

For almost three decades, the city had welcomed some of the world's biggest polluters to settle there. Churning out paper, photographic film, dye, fertilizer, cement and other products for the global marketplace, the businesses helped make Wuxi into one of the country’s wealthiest industrial cities.

While China is starting to make some inroads on dealing with pollution issues, its response is far from adequate, and enforcement terribly inconsistent. Still tons of problems, and a lack of consensus on what to do about it.

Remarkably similar, in fact, to the situation in many of our own countries.
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College girls go nude before camera for eternal beauty

They are college girls in Xi'an, an ancient city in landlocked Shaanxi Province, which served as the capital city of some 13 dynasties in the Chinese history, including the world-renowned Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

Now over 1,000 years later, Xi'an girls have really made a giant leap forward -- revealing their bodies, compared with their Tang Dynasty sisters' off-the-shoulder-top vogue. They take snapshots, nude.

Not just in Xi'an (also home to the famous Terracotta Warriors), this is a phenomenon which is becoming quite popular all across China. It may not seem like terribly big news, but it actually signals a massive shift in attitudes towards sexuality, nudity, etc. Five years ago, a studio that offered such photos would have been closed down, and girls who got such photos denounced as degenerate whores. Now, it is both popular and acceptable (at least among the younger generation).
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China to build world's largest national park

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region has planned to build the world's largest national park by integrating the scattered neighboring tourist resorts into a whole.

"If you build it, they will come" Of course, if China does it, it must be the biggest in the world. Forget the whole "everything is bigger in Texas" idea; the Chinese take it to a whole new level.

That being said, this is a very positive development, in my opinion. The Chinese gov't is starting to recognize both the value/importance of preservation, and that they can generate tourism revenue without destroying nature preserves.
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Forbes: Woman, 26, mainland's richest

A 26-year-old woman worth $16.2 billion is the Chinese mainland's richest person, topping a list of tycoons whose wealth has soared amid a boom in stock and property prices, the business magazine Forbes said Monday.

Yup, forget the whole idea of Communist economic equality; more and more Chinese are becoming ridiculously rich, a scenario that would have seemed almost impossible only a decade ago.
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Former Shanghai chief in custody, trial pending

Former Shanghai Party Chief Chen Liangyu is now detained in jail and waits for trial, China's disciplinary watchdog confirmed in Beijing Thursday. Gan Yisheng, spokesman for the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China (CPC), said Chen's case has been handed over to prosecutors. "The prosecutors are investigating Chen's case and the court will decide the date for the trail," he said.

Yet another story in a long string of stories about government efforts to crack down on corruption. What is particularly notable is that, in the past, those in high positions were generally exempt from such prosecution; but now, they are going after major government officials and political leaders, also. Of course, this trial is likely to end, as do most such trials, with a summary execution via a bullet to the back of the head.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Also not terribly surprising news, the Chinese may not be great at innovation, but they are incredibly good at copying and improving on ideas developed by others. Of course, remains to be seen if they can convince people to buy this.

Isn't a Chinese developed bullet train along the lines of a Chinese orbital spacecraft? A "welcome to 1961 (or whatever year)" moment.

This is one of the hot topics in China now; the younger generation of urban Chinese are, for the most part, much more open to homosexuality (with "openness" ranging from a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude, to complete support for gay marriages). The fact that this issue is now being seriously discussed in academic circles, and in the media, is another indication of the shifting viewpoints on this issue.

The kids must be reading history about their emperors or about all those young women Mao give syphillis to and realizing CCP mores aren't all their cracked up to be.

They are college girls in Xi'an, an ancient city in landlocked Shaanxi Province, which served as the capital city of some 13 dynasties in the Chinese history, including the world-renowned Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).

Now over 1,000 years later, Xi'an girls have really made a giant leap forward -- revealing their bodies, compared with their Tang Dynasty sisters' off-the-shoulder-top vogue. They take snapshots, nude.

I can die without archeologists opening Shi Huang Ti's tomb, but I'd die a lot happier if I could get access to those photos somehow.

 

[Ziggurat]

Given the unprecedented gender imbalance in China, it would seem to me like a rather good idea to make homosexuality widely accepted. Lots of young men unable to find women is a recipe for serious social turmoil, might as well encourage some of them to find other men instead.

 

[Damien Evans]

Given the unprecedented gender imbalance in China, it would seem to me like a rather good idea to make homosexuality widely accepted. Lots of young men unable to find women is a recipe for serious social turmoil, might as well encourage some of them to find other men instead.

[south park]LETS ALL GET GAY![/south park]

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Given the unprecedented gender imbalance in China, it would seem to me like a rather good idea to make homosexuality widely accepted. Lots of young men unable to find women is a recipe for serious social turmoil, might as well encourage some of them to find other men instead.

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not, but are you suggesting homosexuality is just a "lifestyle choice" rather than an innate or developed sexual orientation? And what happens to the equation if, as homosexuality becomes an acceptable "lifestyle choice" more women "chose" to be lesbians than men "chose" to be gay?

If you are being sarcastic, than I agree. Given the idiotic cultural baggage the Chinese associate with daughters then I only hope they, and the Indians, being more accepting of homosexuality will stem the tide of potentially tens of millions of frustrated men using their testosterone for military applications.

The same applies to Muslim countries and martyrdom and phenomena like Jannisaries because of the insidious mix of unequal economic opportunity and polygamy.

 

[Ziggurat]

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic or not,

Only partly.

but are you suggesting homosexuality is just a "lifestyle choice" rather than an innate or developed sexual orientation?

I'm not suggesting that people who are gay chose to be that way, no. But gay people can chose to take wives. Happens all the time. And it happens more often if gays are persecuted. For every gay guy who takes a wife in order to blend in, some straight guy is missing out on the chance to get married, because in China there aren't enough women to go around. By encouraging gays to be open, China wouldn't create any more gay people, but they might free up a few wives for the straight men.

And what happens to the equation if, as homosexuality becomes an acceptable "lifestyle choice" more women "chose" to be lesbians than men "chose" to be gay?

Well, obviously my plan has a flaw. Curses! Foiled again!

I guess China will have to continue to persecute lesbians while encouraging gay men to come out of the closet. Which is a shame, because lesbians are hot.

 

[yinyinwang]

Yet another story in a long string of stories about government efforts to crack down on corruption. What is particularly notable is that, in the past, those in high positions were generally exempt from such prosecution; but now, they are going after major government officials and political leaders, also. Of course, this trial is likely to end, as do most such trials, with a summary execution via a bullet to the back of the head.

The chances of being caught are very low and more often than not those who get behind the bars are simply the losers of political power struggles, so I would call it political fight in the disguise.

 

[corplinx]

are you suggesting homosexuality is just a "lifestyle choice" rather than an innate or developed sexual orientation?

He was probably referring to the well known phenomenon where people who identify as heterosexuals resort to homosexual acts when in gender unbalanced situations. You can see this sort of sexuality switch in any america prison.

I'm not sure why you would read what he said and infer some sort of questioning of whether or not there may be people with a genetic or early developmental inclination toward to being gay.

 

[Ryokan]

Given the unprecedented gender imbalance in China, it would seem to me like a rather good idea to make homosexuality widely accepted. Lots of young men unable to find women is a recipe for serious social turmoil, might as well encourage some of them to find other men instead.

You do know that quite a lot of gays are female, right? Maybe even as much as half of them.

 

[fuelair]

a connection to the most important story (and you know what I mean).. Maybe NSFW - but probably ok. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-11/18/content_392782.htm

 

[Wolfman]

Isn't a Chinese developed bullet train along the lines of a Chinese orbital spacecraft? A "welcome to 1961 (or whatever year)" moment.

Certainly, the Chinese are playing catch-up right now. But tell me...how many countries in the world today are actually producing orbital spacecraft and high speed bullet trains? Like I said, the Chinese are not really innovating here; what they are doing is showing their ability to compete with other top nations.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Only partly.

He was probably referring to the well known phenomenon where people who identify as heterosexuals resort to homosexual acts when in gender unbalanced situations. You can see this sort of sexuality switch in any america prison.

There's a fascinating part of Sagan's Shadow's of Forgotten Ancestors where he discusses experiments with Norwegien Rats IIRC. And again, IIRC, in Frank Herbert's The White Plague where the male the female balance shifts towards there being too many males where homosexuality is adopted by choice. I'd just like a discernment between a situation where males are just needing a hole to plug and acceptance of homosexuality being resultant from idiotic gender preferences of children leading to an imbalance between availible men and women.

I'm not sure why you would read what he said and infer some sort of questioning of whether or not there may be people with a genetic or early developmental inclination toward to being gay.

It was a bit of a troll dude, and Zig didn't take the bait. My question was about genetic determinism vs. social opportunism and he answered that.

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Certainly, the Chinese are playing catch-up right now. But tell me...how many countries in the world today are actually producing orbital spacecraft and high speed bullet trains? Like I said, the Chinese are not really innovating here; what they are doing is showing their ability to compete with other top nations.

This is half a good point but it begs the question of how many industrialized nations are laying fresh tracks for streetcars* or creating new fish farms. I'm not suggesting China should reinvent the wheel - again - I'm suggesting that they've got a long way to go until they are a technological superpower. As for orbital spacecraft, Russia is largely moribund but they are developing new versions of the Soyuz and Progress capsuls which have been maintaining the ISS. I am was a year old when Apollo 11 happened and China is a long way from putting a man on the moon.

I'm not being as critical of China's technological development as I think you see me being, I'm just saying...

* which wouldn't be a bad idea, I'm just talking in terms of technology.

 

[Schneibster]

A good look into a different culture. You seem to be good at that, Wolfman. Keep it up, you have an appreciative audience.

 

[Wolfman]

I'm not being as critical of China's technological development as I think you see me being, I'm just saying...

Oh, didn't think you were being that critical...was just adding some perspective. I agree that China's not quite up to the technological status of some western countries...but it is catching up quite quickly. This article isn't intended to so much to say "Look, the Chinese have caught up with us", as it is to say, "Watch out for that bullet train you see in the rear-view mirror...it may be behind you right now, but its catching up pretty darn quickly!"

A good look into a different culture. You seem to be good at that, Wolfman. Keep it up, you have an appreciative audience.

Thanks

 

[Foolmewunz]

I read a cross-section of Asian and global news every week, and I always include a detailed look at the China Daily site.

Something that would've been unheard of as little as ten years ago, my company even subscribes to their e-clip service, which summarizes issues of interest in the business community.

I don't find the China Daily news any more slanted than the news out of Malaysia, Indonesia, or even Singapore.

 

[yinyinwang]

I read a cross-section of Asian and global news every week, and I always include a detailed look at the China Daily site.

Something that would've been unheard of as little as ten years ago, my company even subscribes to their e-clip service, which summarizes issues of interest in the business community.

I don't find the China Daily news any more slanted than the news out of Malaysia, Indonesia, or even Singapore.

Under intensive government censorship, it is not easy to find out the truth and facts, and if you can not read Chinese, you are more likely to get the government side of the story.But I happen to know some news sites which provide English version of China affairs:
http://boxun.us/news/publish/

 

[UnrepentantSinner]

Ummm, where's my link to those college girls in Xian getting nekkid?

 

[yinyinwang]

Ummm, where's my link to those college girls in Xian getting nekkid?

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=porn&btnG=Google+Search&meta=

 

[fuelair]

Ummm, where's my link to those college girls in Xian getting nekkid?

I gave one in post #10 - then one just below yours.

I don't know about the google, but mine included a sample.