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Blogs » Politics » Teacher wanted on accusation of child abuse |
- Teacher wanted on accusation of child abuse
- Wukan Official Resigns, Rips Village Leader
- Photo: Freeway Talk, by Mark Hobbs
- China: Failure to End the Slaughter of Migratory Birds
- In China, Calls to Nationalize People’s Liberation Army Increasingly Mainstream
- Chinese Dominate Top Materials Scientists
- Ministry of Truth: No Bad News on People’s Daily
- Word of the Week: Don’t Understand Actual Situation
- Iron Man 3 and Sino-foreign Film Co-productions: An Update
- The Daily Twit – 10/24/12: Huawei, CNOOC & Iron Man, Oh My!
- Chasing An Impossible Dream: China’s Beleaguered “Middle Class”
- Teacher arouses public anger for abusing young pupils in north China
- Trouble at Foxconn? Quick! To the Bandwagon!
- After Forced Evictions, a Nightmare of Red Tape
| Teacher wanted on accusation of child abuse Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:27 PM PDT
A group of photos of child abuse were uncovered by web users from a personal blog of a kindergarten teacher in Wenling, Zhejiang, sparking another wave of public outrage online. A poor kid was seen crying when a female teacher lifted her up by her ears. The teacher seemed to be amused however and laughed, and the other teacher took a photo of it. In other photos, the teacher continued to make fun of her young pupils in the classroom, by throwing them into a trash bin, sealing their mouths up with tape, or punishing them to stand in a corner. She shared the photos on her personal blog with her friends, and often laughed about them. The matter has quickly promoted a surge of criticism from netizens when exposed, who demanded serious punishment against the teacher and swore to find her out.
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| Wukan Official Resigns, Rips Village Leader Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:09 PM PDT With some villagers in Wukan conceding that "the honeymoon is over" as their democratically elected leaders grapple with the challenge of resolving the grievances that sparked mass land grab protests late last year, David Bandurski of The China Media Project reports that one such official has publicly announced his resignation:
Bandurski also included a photo of Zhuang's resignation letter, which had emerged on the Weibo account of Wukan resident Zhang Jianxing. Zhuang specifically calls out Lin Zuluan, the man who led last year's protests and was selected as both Wukan party chief and then head of the village committee in the March elections. Zhuang Liehong had been one of the more vocal activists in Wukan, both during the protests and as a participant in the village's democracy experiment. Bandurski cites a March article in the Sydney Morning Herald which mentions Zhuang:
Radio Free Asia also quoted Zhuang in April, after Guangdong vice provincial secretary Zhu Mingguo promised to return some of their lost farmland by May 1, as saying that the committee had not received much help in reclaiming the land:
As recent frustrations indicate, the May 1 deadline came and went without the return of the villagers land. See also previous CDT coverage of last year's Wukan protests. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Photo: Freeway Talk, by Mark Hobbs Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:58 PM PDT  Freeway Talk © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| China: Failure to End the Slaughter of Migratory Birds Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:14 PM PDT The migratory bird season has come; yet instead of searching for food in the warm lake areas of China, a large number of birds are being slaughtered for human consumption. Every year, according to Hunan's local news, more than 150 tonnes of wild birds are caught in certain villages in Hunan. This year the annual slaughter began in September. The problem was exposed in a documentary, The Slaughter of Migratory Bird in their Seasonal Journey (鳥之殤，千年鳥道上的大屠殺), which has been widely circulated online and has thus put pressure on the State Forestry Administration (SFA) to act. An emergency notice was issued on October 22, 2012 which urged the Hunan authorities to investigate and penalize the illegal killing and business exploitation of wild birds. The documentary shows the particulars of the bird hunting business in Hunan province. The hunters can catch up to 3 tonnes of wild birds in just one night. The birds are then either sold in local markets or transported outside the province [zh]: Unlike other Western countries, the habit of eating wild birds and animals in China has not changed with industrialization and modernization as civic activities such as environmental and animal rights advocacy are repressed. Instead, the development of modern hunting tools has resulted in the large-scale slaughtering of wild birds and the incorporation of wild birds into local restaurant cuisine. To counter such food culture and market demand, both grassroots authorities and concerned citizens are urging people to stop consuming wild birds [zh]:  Say No to Wild Bird Consumption. A poster uploaded by Jiangning police online on Weibo.
Despite the online call to arms, ordinary netizens are still talking about the pleasure of eating wild birds in social media:
It takes a long time to change food culture and the problem obviously lies with the law enforcement carried out by government authorities:
Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0) |
| In China, Calls to Nationalize People’s Liberation Army Increasingly Mainstream Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:08 PM PDT  Each with the same uniform, each with different thoughts. (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff/Wikimedia Commons) As the 18th National People's Congress approaches, bringing with it a once-in-a-decade political reshuffle, China has been working harder than ever to smooth over a variety of sensitive matters, from questions of Tibetan independence to protests in Sichuan. Yet few might realize that China's People's Liberation Army—a military commonly viewed as a staunch holder of the Party line—is itself a controversial topic this time around. On Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, prominent academic and vice president of the Law School of China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) He Bing (@何兵) touched a nerve with this post, retweeted over 12,000 times in less than 12 hours: "I spoke with a comrade in the army. He said, these days ideological work is the hardest to perform. They used not to let soldiers use cell phones while allowing officers to use them; [but] the soldiers refused to obey. On what grounds? [they would ask]. Now, it's been decided they can use them on weekends, but in actuality most of the time they are almost openly used. Soldiers have fully-developed thinking skills before they enlist. For example, we teach them that the People's army must be loyal to the Party, because the Party represents the interests of the People. The soldiers say, 'Isn't it just easier to be loyal to the People directly? What's the use of being so roundabout?' Ai, so difficult!"[Chinese] One user drew a connection between the seemingly anecdotal post and an issue that has made the rounds in Chinese media over the past few months: "Is this about the nationalization of the army?" The People's Liberation Army (PLA) has always been a branch of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but China's state-run media outlets have been pushing back against calls to shift the army's allegiance from the Party to the state. It is unclear where these calls are coming from, but dissident media reported that Deputy Chief of Staff Zhang Qinsheng was suspended earlier this year for making the suggestion. Editorials in China's state-run media have declared the nationalization movement a plot by "domestic and foreign hostile forces." According to Dr. Michael S. Chase, writing for the Jamestown Foundation, such commentary and emphasis on the importance of a Party-led army "suggests [that] ensuring the PLA's loyalty to the Party is a preoccupation for Hu Jintao and other top leaders as the succession process unfolds." Most of the 3,500-plus comments on the post lauded the PLA soldiers' independent spirits. One Weibo user remarked approvingly, "Those born in the 90's aren't duped so easily." Wrote another, "In the information age, the old methods are no longer effective." Though some questioned how it would be possible for the army to serve the "People" directly, very few voiced support for the CCP as the primary recipient of the Chinese army's allegiance. As one commenter put it, "These days, we love our country, but not our Party." This is not the first time Professor He Bing has taken a public stance on a controversial issue. He has also spoken out on food safety, which concerns an increasing number of Chinese, most famously when he revealed the use of growth hormones on cows by Chinese dairy farmers. Yet he is not a marginalized dissident; on the contrary, he is a prominent and popular academic who continues to work and speak openly within China, and has even been featured in the state-run and Party-line Global Times. His post about the PLA has not been censored, nor has his Weibo account been deleted. With his frequent and provocative tweets, the educator Professor He appears to believe his own earlier words still ring true: "Facing the Internet, the traditional model for ideological education is powerless." None of this means, of course, that China has decided to nationalize its army, nor does it show that censorship is history. Still, this post and the support it has garnered at least evinces a heightened belief among Chinese web users that it is worthwhile to voice their political opinions, noteworthy considering the Chinese government's demonstrated willingness to prosecute individuals for tweets and t-shirts. Footnotes (? returns to text)
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| Chinese Dominate Top Materials Scientists Posted: 23 Oct 2012 08:18 AM PDT Thomson Reuters released a ranking of the world's top 100 materials scientists, based on their research impact in the past 10 years. Altogether 15 Chinese made the top 100 list, while 6 of them occupying the top 6 slots.
Yang, Yin, Xia, Sun and Wu all graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) in Hefei, Anhui Province.  |
| Ministry of Truth: No Bad News on People’s Daily Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:36 PM PDT The following example of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, has been leaked and distributed online. Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation. Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. Last June, People's Insurance Company of China (PICC) applied to sell its 55% stock in China Huawen Investment Holdings in preparation for an IPO, which includes holdings of the state-run newspaper People's Daily and its subsidiary companies. In the process, PICC claimed that People's Daily owed $501 mil to Huawen (abbreviated Huakong in the directive below), a charge the newspaper denied. People's Daily agreed to transfer its 25% holding in Huawen to PICC last December [zh]. PICC currently plans to IPO at the end of the year.
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Word of the Week: Don’t Understand Actual Situation Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:00 PM PDT Editor's Note: The CDT Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon is a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness. The Word of the Week features Lexicon entries old, new and timely. If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net. 不明真相 (bù míng zhēn xiàng): don't understand the actual situation  Invented character combining the four characters in the phrase "don't understand the actual situation." This stock phrase is often used by the government and official media to describe participants in "mass incidents" (群体事件 qúntǐ shìjiàn), such as riots and protests. It suggests that those who participate in mass incidents do so not because of any real grievances, but because they have been duped by a few schemers with "ulterior motives." Even state-run media have questioned this demeaning term. In July 2009, Xinhua ran an editorial suggesting that this phrase should not be the immediate explanation for all mass incidents. The Southern Metropolis Daily commented in August of that year:
Netizens have since co-opted the phrase. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Iron Man 3 and Sino-foreign Film Co-productions: An Update Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:04 AM PDT
The question was whether, or for how long, the government was going to allow projects like these to come into China as co-productions without actually living up to the spirit of the law. At the time, it sounded like Iron Man 3 was pushing the envelope, with even the film's director suggesting that the China end of the production might be limited to some background shots over here into which the main stars could be digitally inserted later. Weak. So now a trailer for Iron Man 3 has come out, and it is bereft of Chinese elements. You never know what the final version is going to look like, but if I was working at SARFT (the government regulator), I would not be pleased. Julie Makinen has an update in the LA Times:
Uh huh. Sure. It wasn't so long ago that we were told that the big stars of the film wouldn't be coming here at all. Something smells funny. Julie also came up with this telling quote:
Right. In other words, stop screwing around and decide whether you want this to be a real co-production or not. As each day goes by, it gets less and less likely. To be fair, time has not run out yet, but this is getting silly. To make matters worse, Iron Man 3 still has a "Mandarin problem." I've written about the possible inclusion of old-time Iron Man foe a couple times, saying first that since the Mandarin was a Chinese villain, you'd have to be nuts to try and get that past SARFT. But then after rumors surfaced that indeed the Mandarin would be part of the film after all, I sort of ate my words. Well, it seems as though these guys are trying to have it both ways. The Mandarin, played by Ben Kingsley, will indeed be the/a villain in the picture, but at the same time they are trying to pretend he isn't Chinese.
Dude, Kevin, stop bullshitting us. Yes, Kingsley in the Mandarin outfit doesn't look Chinese. And if his name was "Bob the Bastard," I'd even go along with the fiction. But it isn't. This is an established character, and the name you're using is frickin' "Mandarin." Kinda suggests a China connection, doesn't it? Additionally, it looks like the guy is sporting a queue. Maybe SARFT isn't familiar with the English word "Mandarin"? Or perhaps "Mandarin + queue" will suggest a throwback to the bad old Qing days? This movie is making me crazy. I've half a mind to let my hair grow back just to check and see whether it's turned grey. Then I can put it into a queue. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| The Daily Twit – 10/24/12: Huawei, CNOOC & Iron Man, Oh My! Posted: 24 Oct 2012 04:50 AM PDT What? You ask. No links page dominated by the U.S. election, territorial dispute or stats on China's economy? That's right. Today's a throwback to the "good old days" of relatively normal news. Let's start off by going to the movies: LA Times: 'Iron Man 3': First footage reveals new villain, no China — Julie Makinen has an update on the ongoing Iron Man co-production saga, which I wrote about on three separate occasions. Will they film in China or not? Will they be approved as a co-production by SARFT? What the heck is Dan Mintz planning on doing here? Expect a quick post from me on this tonight/tomorrow (on the co-production side as well as the movie's content). Wall Street Journal: 'Iron Man 3′ Trailer: Where's China? — Apparently someone else noticed the distinct lack of Chinesification in the trailer. Forbes: Dazzled By China's $2 Billion Movie Box Office? Try Getting Paid — Slightly different topic, still on movies in China. A very interesting lawsuit is pitting a film producer trying to get his fair share of box office receipts. He is going up against industry behemoth China Film Group. Good luck. Now for some updates on our favorite Chinese outward investment stories, both of which deserve separate posts (but I'm not going to promise anything!): Seeking Alpha: The CNOOC-Nexen Takeover Deal Is Now Less Likely To Happen — Malaysia's Petronas had its Canada deal blocked, prompting some folks to say that CNOOC now has an uphill battle. Shanghai Daily: CNOOC's Nexen bid may succeed — The optimist's view. Also reflected in Reuters: China's CNOOC hopeful on Nexen bid. Want China Times: US investors file class-action lawsuit against CNOOC — More bad news for CNOOC. They are being sued in the US for failure to properly disclose an oil spill and its effects on the company. Global Times: CNOOC responds to suit — What misleading statements? Seriously? We'd never do anything like that. Bloomberg: Nexen Sale Said to Turn on China Backing Canada Deals — As I've said before, reciprocity can be a cold-hearted bitch. BBC: Huawei offers access to source code and equipment — Huawei does not want to see what recently happened in the U.S. replicated in Australia. Guardian: Huawei acts to clear its name — More on Huawei's efforts Down Under to allay fears. And the usual news bits and pieces: Telegraph: China announces major reshuffle of People's Liberation Army — Get used to some significant moves in the days before the big government meetings. Here's another one, this time on energy, from Xinhua: China issues white paper on energy policy (a link to the full text is in the article). Bloomberg: The Most Dangerous Thing About China: Americans' Attitudes — Some survey data on both sides of the US-China relationship. The Hill: WTO moves forward on China auto, and U.S. aircraft trade cases — Negotiation period is over and panels are being set up to hear these disputes. Stay tuned. New York Times: Better Ways to Deal With China — Great article by Eduardo Porter. The RMB is the wrong target for U.S. policy towards China. Reuters: Japan, China diplomats meet over island dispute that sparked violent protests — No, it isn't over yet, but at least they're still talking. That's good news, right? © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
| Chasing An Impossible Dream: China’s Beleaguered “Middle Class” Posted: 23 Oct 2012 02:27 PM PDT  This MG is one of many objects of desire that a Chinese middle-class existence won't get you. (Pedro Simões/Wikimedia Commons) The term "middle class," once a foreign concept in an impoverished China, is now used more than ever to describe an emerging power. Helen Wang, author of The Chinese Dream, has estimated that the Chinese middle class has already grown to more than 300 million people. That's about 25% of the Chinese population—and almost the size of the entire population of the United States. And there's room to grow. Earlier this year, a symposium held in Beijing called Global Trends 2030 International Symposium released a report predicting that more than 80% of Chinese will join the middle class by 2030. If that sounds high, it's worth nothing that a recent Brookings Institution report pegs the number of those in China who "could" be middle class only slightly lower, at around 70%. The Global trends report has stirred heated discussion on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter. An eye-popping 152 million-plus comments have weighed in on the question, "What is the Chinese middle class?" Most appear skeptical about the estimated figure in the report and the definition of "middle class." Experts have their own ideas. As Helen Wang noted in an interview with CNN, a household considered to be middle-class in China earns somewhere between US$10,000 and US$60,000 a year. The interviewer noted that while the lower end of this spectrum puts Chinese wage-earners below the U.S. poverty line, "considering the much lower cost of Chinese life, living standards there aren't bad at all." But this analysis neglects to fully account for rising inflation on almost everything in China over the past five years. Most commenters who would by dint of their income be included among the "Middle Class" expressed doubt about their putative membership. @周靖蛟shelly, a trend watcher with over 22,000 followers on Weibo, opined: "The fragile middle class: In an economy where the state-owned banks and enterprises are protected, deposit rates are too low to keep up with rising inflation. Behind the large amount of investment is not consumption, but household savings—ordinary household deposits are transferred to the state-run system or to the few hands of the affluent. The middle class is so thrifty and insecure." [1] @腾24 agreed. "Impossible! Middle class people shouldn't have to worry about basic issues such as house, medical care or education. But many Chinese are still working so hard to meet basic needs. I'm way behind. "[2] @说话就算数 wrote: "A good salary, a house and car, a good medical system; it's so hard to reach such a level for 85% of Chinese. Let's line up to wait for this beautiful dream!"[3] For most Chinese, "middle class" means more than just a stable income. It means a secure and comfortable life with an affordable home, safe food, and good medical and education systems. Simple as it may seem, that's a dream many Chinese spend a lifetime fighting for. According to an article published in 2010 on the People's Daily website entitled "Chinese Middle Class: Slaves to their Houses, Cars, Bank Cards, and Children," China's so-called "middle class" are facing a great deal of pressure: The glamorous yet fragile term "middle class" comes with a salary that can't keep up with rising real estate, a heavy work load, and uncertainly about the present and future. An earlier piece on People's Daily online pointed out "the depression of the Chinese Middle Class": "Only through hard work can I be irreplaceable at work, guarantee my apartment, continue paying my car loan; pay for my child's education and even his/her study abroad in the future, and pay for the high medical expenses of the elderly. Most unfortunate is that the middle class becomes a workaholic and a 'psychiatric patient' due to pressure from work and family." This pressure is real, and it's taking its toll. Chinese newspaper Southern Metropolis ran an article called "The Trouble With China's Middle Class: They Only Look Happy" which describes a 2011 study in which a Chinese sociologist named Lu Xueyi (陆学艺) distributed 2,000 questionnaires in the city of Chengdu, a large city in western China. Although Lu estimated that 25% of China's population—and 32% to 34% of Chengdu's population—was middle class, respondents did not seem to agree. Only 14% said they considered themselves middle class, while 56% strongly denied it. If so many Chinese deny their identity as middle class, then what is "middle class"? Some have come up with their own method to identify a Chinese "middle class," a set of criteria more ideal than real: 1. Enjoys an annual income of over RMB200,000 (about US$32,000). 2. Owns stocks. 3. Owns an apartment and a car. 4. Enjoys nightlife, usually for business occasions or for a concert. 5. Holds a foreign passport, or at least has stayed in a foreign country for more than three years. 6. Owns at least one Apple product, such as an iPad. 7. Well-presented and with good manners, featuring an American style, but worshipping Europe at heart. 8. Up to date on the latest opera and ballet. 9. Mixes foreign words into Chinese speech. 10. Dresses casual, but looks elegant. Superficial as this list appears, it offers a glimpse into the mentality of an average Chinese citizen：One who lacks a feeling of material security and shows a craving for Western lifestyle and culture. Huang Xiaobai (@摆渡人Andy), a freelance reporter, wrote emblematically: "It's not hard to own Apple products, but it's really difficult to own an apartment in the first tier cities and make 300,000 RMB per year."[4] Some argue that members of the Chinese middle class are too materialistic, caught in their own trap. Zhang Xu (@迅格格_do4), Chief editor at Chinese Educational Television, wrote, "The middle class and soon-to-be middle class have fallen down at the dawn and outside the threshold. Even though they have a bit of money, most of them are not happy. It seems Chinese people are not accustomed to a happy life, as if they had always been bullied, but there's no one bullying them. They don't know what to do with themselves."[5] Perhaps that's why so many members of the Chinese middle class deny their own identity as such, facts and statistics notwithstanding. Constantly striving for more and comparing themselves to others, they find themselves falling short. In a society of great income inequality, that attitude will only lead to frustration and stress–even for those Chinese living in comfort their parents would have found unimaginable. Perhaps a 1980s Chinese song called "Middle Class" by Zheng Zhihua (郑智化) best describes the ambition and depression of today's surprisingly unhappy Chinese middle class: My burden is heavy, my shoulder hurts, I carry my "face" in the crowd; My vision is a high, my strength is small, My desires are many, my salary is low, I often drink cola and eat hamburgers, But the hunger and emptiness in my heart cannot be filled.[6]
Footnotes (? returns to text)
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| Teacher arouses public anger for abusing young pupils in north China Posted: 23 Oct 2012 05:48 PM PDT
Recently, a video that captured a female teacher abusing a baby girl in a kindergarten classroom in Taiyuan city, North China's Shanxi province, has aroused public anger online. It was learned the girl, 5 years old, was beaten by the mad teacher, because she failed to solve a math problem. The teacher repeatedly slapped in the girl's face dozens of times in just ten minutes, according to the footage. With the exposure of the video, the teacher was also found to have abused other children often. The girl's father said, his daughter returned home with swollen and red face many times. Under the pressure, the kindergarten now has dismissed the teacher. |
| Trouble at Foxconn? Quick! To the Bandwagon! Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:57 AM PDT Over last few weeks the Apple supplier Foxconn has been in the news yet again for the usual reasons: fights, strikes, riots, underage workers, etc. Every few months the same sweatshop narrative comes up about Foxconn (because apparently it's the only manufacturer in China), and every time unverified and wildly exaggerated media reports hastily come out (and that doesn't even include super-fraud Mike Daisy). I'm always disappointed when this happens; not only because of the eagerness to jump on a largely bogus narrative, but also because it overshadows what I think are the much more interesting nuances of factory life in China. Yes, the hours are long, life is hard and conditions aren't enviable, but there are deeper issues than that. Last week I recorded a podcast (listen here) with Liu Zhiyi, a former intern from Southern Weekend, who got a job at Foxconn's Longhua factory for 28 days in 2010 in order to do undercover reports. One of the big misconceptions resulting from the sweatshop narrative is that workers are routinely forced to work ungodly hours. In fact, the workers themselves usually demand as much overtime as they can get. While at Foxconn, Liu described this saying, "For the workers desperate for making money, overtime is like 'a pain that can breathe.' Without it, the days without money make them 'suffocate.'" They've travelled so far from their hometowns to work that any idle time not spent making money is seen as a waste. The conditions are another misconception. At Foxconn, they're pretty good – especially compared to other factories. (James Fallows recently posted some photos from the same factory Liu worked at – here, here, here and here). Liu said about the factory, "I have entered a system, and the system can provide everything that I need for my body. We have gymnastics, swimming pool, exercise room… The only thing they don't provide is time." Because of the long hours (which remember, the workers desperately want and will seek elsewhere if they don't get), it's easy to lose touch with some simple human needs. Liu explained how roommates are always turning over or working different shifts, so it's hard to make friends (or even learn people's names). And because different departments are usually skewed one way or the other toward a single gender, it's even harder to find a lover. He said the resulting emotional imbalance and conflicts over girls are often what spark fights in the factory. The thing that surprised Liu most though, and what he sees as the biggest problem, is how workers seem completely puzzled about their futures. Earlier he wrote: "They often dream, but also repeatedly tear apart their dreams, like a miserable painter who keeps tearing up his drafts. 'If we keep working like this, we might as well quit dreaming for the rest of our lives.'" He says they're almost all focused foremost on making a lot of money, but they don't know how much is enough or what the next step is after making the money. They hope to move up in the world through their hard work, but they often don't know where the path is, or if there even is a path. This, he says, could be a major problem in the future if society and the government can't address it. Anyways, Liu was very insightful about his time in the factory. I hope you'll listen to the full podcast.   |
| After Forced Evictions, a Nightmare of Red Tape Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:42 AM PDT Forced demolitions have been labelled China's greatest source of social unrest; Amnesty International reports that evictions have given rise to over 40 self-immolation protests in recent years. At 2Non—"Non Fiction Non Profit", a new China-focused non-profit media organisation—ChinaGeeks' Charles Custer tells the stories of some of the many victims who have struggled to win legal redress, and examines the roots of local governments' "addiction" to land seizures.
Well-known singer Zuo Xiao, meanwhile, is fighting to stop the demolition of his home in Changzhou. China Media Project's Comic China series includes a cartoon posted to Sina Weibo in support, showing the singer brandishing a megaphone and a clenched fist on the roof of a building marked for destruction. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us |
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