Blogs » Society » Chinese kidnap victim reunited with his family after more than 20 years

---

• Chinese kidnap victim reunited with his family after more than 20 years
• Illegal Taxi Driver In Shanghai Runs Over German, Breaking His Leg, Then Nearly Kills Him Trying To Flee
• Farmer’s suicide attempt after son’s advanced degree doesn’t pay off raises question about social structure
• Guangzhou to ban plastic surgery for minors, was apparently letting minors get plastic surgery
• Presented By:
• Find of the Week: The Grumpy Pig’s French Toast
• Take Me Home Goes Tokyo @ ZEAL
• Come Say Hi to City Weekend and Get Free Beer
• The Nanfang threatened with legal action over restaurant review
• Buy Bruce Lee's former house, get trained by his ghost maybe
• The Atlantic Has Some Amazing Images Of Contemporary China That You Should Look At
• ‘Dropping ”Mao Thought” Suggests Reform’: Vancouver Sun–Or Not
• Laowai Comics: The Ideal English-Teaching Candidate
• Ai Weiwei’s Gangnam Style Video Is Called “Grass Mud Horse Style,” And It’s Just As Bad As China’s Other Parodies
• Dish of the Day: Huang la ding (yellow catfish and tofu hotpot) @ Shao Shan Mao Jia Cai
• Photos: Children and parents in Ningbo break down at filial piety rally
• North Korea's Air Koryo offers online booking, one-star service
• Mid-Week Links: Official Iron Man 3 trailer (with Chinese elements), Agent Zero Gilbert Arenas close to signing with Guangdong, and Hu Jintao at knifepoint
• Weibo Watch: The Heritage-listed House Destroyed in Shanghai
• Suck it naysayers, Chinese economy making slow but steady recovery (UPDATED)

Chinese kidnap victim reunited with his family after more than 20 years Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:00 PM PDT Austin Ramzy at TIME has the remarkable story of Zhou Chengliang, who was finally reunited with his family after being kidnapped in 1988, thanks to online efforts to link victims of kidnapping with their relatives. [ more › ]

Illegal Taxi Driver In Shanghai Runs Over German, Breaking His Leg, Then Nearly Kills Him Trying To Flee Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:12 PM PDT The driver of an unlicensed taxi in Shanghai who ran over a German this summer had his day in court yesterday, getting sentenced to three years and three months in prison, according to Dongguang News. But first, to the recently released footage: Around 3 am on July 15, a German named Sasha and two friends got in an unlicensed taxi operated by Wang Mou. The driver asked for 100 yuan. Thinking it a ridiculous price, Sasha got out while his friends stayed behind, perhaps to chastise Wang, or maybe to negotiate further (this part is not clear). Sasha then walks back toward the cab, and as he crosses from the front, the inexplicable happens: the car turns and accelerates, running over Sasha's left leg and fracturing it. Sasha's friends rush to his aid, but Wang does a second inexplicable thing just then: he accelerates again. The car passes right over the fallen German — thankfully not killing him — and speeds off into the night. We're not sure when or how, but authorities eventually find Wang. In the video from court on Tuesday, he expresses deep regret, saying he spent 20,000 yuan to purchase the car and operate his business. He claims Sasha and his friends "blocked" his car around Fuzhou Road, near the Bund, maybe implying they share a little of the blame. While other details remain sketchy, I think we can all agree on this: one should never hit-and-run. Ku6 video for those in China after the jump.

Farmer’s suicide attempt after son’s advanced degree doesn’t pay off raises question about social structure Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:07 PM PDT A master's graduate coming from rural China did not find an ideal job in the city and returned to his village to work on the farm. His father, who has been a peasant for his entire life, felt so humiliated and depressed by his son's choice, or rather, lack of any, and attempted suicide. On the Internet, 43 percent of netizens surveyed thought it was "sadness of the education system" that a farmer's son continues to farm despite having received advanced education. Miao Weifang, 41, used to be the pride of the entire Liushugou village in the remote suburb of Baoding, Hebei province in central China. In 2008, he was accepted into the master's program in recent and modern Chinese history at Hebei University, and became the very first one with an advanced degree in the tiny village with fewer than 100 residents. Miao Weifang (in white shirt) After Miao graduated from the program three years later, he wanted to get a stable job with decent income which offers a comfortable working environment that is suitable for him to pursue his dream of writing. In other words, he desires an Iron Rice Bowl, a nickname for a job in the civil service or any state-run institution, for example, a school or a news organization. But the doors to the civil service, whose entrance examination imposes an upper age limit of 35, are effectively closed to 40-year-old Miao by then. So he focused on state-run institutions. He tried quite a number of them, but always came back from interviews with disappointment. He once applied to a teaching position at a junior high school in Baoding and passed several rounds of interviews before he got eliminated at the final round. He believed the recruiting process is not fair. In July, another middle school contacted him and offered him a teaching position that pays 2,500 yuan per month (US$400), but Miao insisted on getting 2,800 yuan a month. The school, unhappy with Miao's haggle, refused his request. After the series of setbacks in his job hunting, Miao returned to where he belonged – the farm – and started farming. Speaking of his choice, Miao said, "Do you call this escape, flinch, or a choice of compromise? Maybe it is a combination of all." Miao works on his family farm. Most of his fellow villagers found it hard to understand and kept talking about it in disbelief. Miao Xiping, a resident in the village, said, "So many years of education this kid received are wasted. What he learned has nothing to do with farming." Others even used him as a cautionary tale figure: "Look at him. What a waste of time. Do not follow his example." Miao's parents also "regret supporting the son's education." They had always expected their kid to get a good job after graduation so that the poor living conditions at their household can be changed. But in the end, he came back as a farmer. They felt stressed-out that they had become the talk of the town. Miao's father, deeply depressed, took over 100 sleeping pills to commit a suicide at one night after his wife fell asleep. Luckily, his wife timely woke up in the middle of the night and found him unconscious. He was rushed to a local hospital and finally got saved. "I was thinking, after I die, I will see none of those worries," Miao's father recalled. Miao's father lies in bed in local hospital after being rescued. On October 11, a video blogger uploaded a short documentary of Miao's story to Youku, one of China's largest video sites, and gave it the title "Master's Student Return to Do Farm Work After Graduation; Old Father, So Pissed, Took Poison". The video was reposted by many social media and discussion forums. Many netizens lamented that "Knowledge hardly changes destiny." Of the 25,637 net users that responded to a survey on NetEase, 43% said it's "Sadness of education (system)"; 20% said that they "feel sympathetic", but also believed "what the father did was too extreme." Only 15% said it is an isolated incident and should not be magnified. One net user at NetEase, one popular net portal, wrote, "We spent a gunny bag of money on college and bought a gunny bag of books. After we finished reading the gunny bag of books and graduated, we found that what we make is less than a gunny sack's worth." Another user wrote, "What else can he blame for not finding a good job? He does not have a good father!" The story of Miao's failed education has resonated deeply with China's new social class, Diao Si, or "young unprivileged losers". We often hear news media talk about the widening gap between the haves and have-nots in China, but it would be so disheartening to Chinese youth if the only problem were the unequal distribution of wealth. Rather, it is the solidification of social classes and their hereditary nature that have shattered so many 'Chinese dreams'. "Knowledge changes destiny" used to be part of a pep talk given to students from humble roots in that education was their only stepping stone to success and breaking into a higher class. For thousands of years in Chinese history, the wide citizenry's paths had centered on studying for imperial exams that could hopefully pluck them out of their class and groom them for the officialdom, as they knew, only the powerful have money. Without the power base, personal wealth was never guaranteed. Today, rather than reforming the system and turning China into a land of opportunities for everyone, the government has taken the rigidly stratified society to the next level. This is especially true for those living in the bottom of hierarchy. 'Second-generation farmers', or nong er dai, is the definitional label that children of farmers who left for the city receive, even if they have spent more time in the city than in the remote villages, as if they will be forever trapped in the identity. The 'second-generation rich' and the 'official offspring', in contrast, refer to children who have inherited the class and status from their parents and will never have to worry about the future. Success is predicated more on family connections, access to resources and opportunities than on education alone, and those are exactly what 'young unprivileged losers' do not have. There are many rags-to-riches stories in today's China, but those protagonists were lucky enough to emerge in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, which was so anti-elitist that anarchists turned the social structure upside down, and ride the tides of the economic reform in the 1980s and 1990s. In the last decade, the old set of rules of the game that everyone plays has come back, but the competition to gain a foothold has only gotten fiercer. A century ago, if you were educated, you might stand out from the rest of the population and earn yourself a ticket to good life. Today, you don't even get enough education if you are poor, and even if you manage to get a college degree, like Miao did, by spending your family fortune, so many more people are like you, and without connections that make you different than others, you are nobody. "Those students studying abroad can afford to do dishes happily, but it is impossible here," said one net user. The unprivileged Chinese youth are faced with the same problem: they want a decent job, but their talents are not appreciated; they want to start their own enterprises, but they have no capital, political or monetary; they think about giving up and going broke, but there is no social safety net to live on. In the pressure-cooker-like real world, every one of them feels the sense of urgency, insecurity and madness and tries to change their own destiny, but the entire country does not even have a single decent prescription for their dire situations. They cannot tolerate the status quo, and feel powerless to change it. They pin their hope on a force to tear down the current social structure and built a new one that offers fairness, equality and transparency. They take out the portrait of Chairman Mao because they long for an egalitarian society with no wealth gap or corruption, but they do not even understand Mao or have any idea about the atrocities and tragedies brought about by the Cultural Revolution. This, can be the largest hidden peril in the next decade.

Guangzhou to ban plastic surgery for minors, was apparently letting minors get plastic surgery Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:00 PM PDT Guangzhou has announced new rules which will ban minors from having cosmetic surgery. The ban is "aimed at tackling the country's growing obsession with going under the knife, an official statement said." [ more › ]

Presented By: Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:00 PM PDT

Find of the Week: The Grumpy Pig’s French Toast Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:43 PM PDT Date: Oct 25th 2012 10:38a.m. Contributed by: geofferson

Take Me Home Goes Tokyo @ ZEAL Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:13 PM PDT Date: Oct 25th 2012 10:08a.m. Contributed by: cityweekend_sh

Come Say Hi to City Weekend and Get Free Beer Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:58 PM PDT Date: Oct 25th 2012 9:56a.m. Contributed by: cityweekend_sh

The Nanfang threatened with legal action over restaurant review Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:00 PM PDT The Wikipedia page on the Streisand Effect should be required reading for all small business owners (and some large airlines), we might then have less idiots trying to sue their way out of bad press. The Nanfang, a Guangdong based blog and community portal, was recently threatened with legal action over the publication of a not-so-favourable review of a Dongguan restaurant. [ more › ]

Buy Bruce Lee's former house, get trained by his ghost maybe Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:00 PM PDT You may soon be able to own American-Chinese kung fu legend and fast food mascot Bruce Lee's former Kowloon residence for the low, low price of HK$180 million. [ more › ]

The Atlantic Has Some Amazing Images Of Contemporary China That You Should Look At Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:12 PM PDT The Atlantic is running an ongoing series called "Scenes From 21st-Century China," in which it seeks to show the PRC is a "vast, dynamic nation that continues to grow and evolve." (We last posted about this in June.) Its latest installment, published Monday, features 42 stunning hi-res images that go a long way toward accomplishing that mission. We've sampled a dozen of them here, but you should really go give them all a look. The symbolism in many of the pictures is poignant and not half as obvious as the Icarus allegory above.

‘Dropping ”Mao Thought” Suggests Reform’: Vancouver Sun–Or Not Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:37 PM PDT The Vancouver Sun (and other publications) notes that 'Dropping 'Mao thought' suggests reform:Recent policy statements lack references to Marxist-influenced ideological leader': The subtle dropping of references to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong from two policy statements over the last few weeks serves as one of the most intriguing hints yet that the ruling Communist party is planning to move in the direction of reform. What is means has drawn mixed views. This from the Vancouver Sun: "It's very significant," Zheng Yongnian, the director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore, said of the removal of a reference to Mao Zedong thought and the implications of that for the direction leaders were taking. And, this from the China's Global Times: In addition to political reforms, the public has also directed its attention to the amendment of the Party constitution at the upcoming Congress. A Xinhua report on a Politburo meeting on Monday, during which Party leaders discussed a draft amendment to the Party Constitution and a draft report to the 18th National Congress, didn't mention the words "Mao Zedong thought" and "Marxism-Leninism," leading to speculation by Western media that the amendment would drop the wording in the Party constitution, which signals the CPC's intent on reform. However, Zhang [Xixian, a professor with the Party School] refuted such speculation as groundless, saying that it was an over-interpretation. Over-interpretation or not, some interesting shifts may be taking place. Here's NDTV's take on the issue: All worth following.

Laowai Comics: The Ideal English-Teaching Candidate Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:00 PM PDT Ed's note: Today marks the BJC premiere of the webcomic Laowai Comics. We'll be debuting LC's Thursday cartoon every week at around this time, always after the jump. You'll also find a link to LC's Monday cartoon at the bottom of the post. Needless to say, we're incredibly happy and excited to have this talented artist onboard. We highly recommend you check out his archives. And in case you're wondering, our other resident artist, Torval Lokison, had this week off, but he'll be back next Tuesday with another edition of Acid Dumplings. [Monday's Comic]

Ai Weiwei’s Gangnam Style Video Is Called “Grass Mud Horse Style,” And It’s Just As Bad As China’s Other Parodies Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:49 AM PDT If there's anyone in China who might understand what it means to parody something — actually, truly parody, and not just copy or co-opt — it's Ai Weiwei. He's an artist, you know. Who better than he to skewer China's nouveau riche and be this country's answer to PSY? You think Gangnam, South Korea is a district of gross decadence and put-on fakery? You must not have seen the expat communities in Shunyi, or the empty apartments in SOHO purchased by moneyed speculators, or the nearly complete compound on Xihuangchenggen South Street, between Zhongnanhai and Xidan, which required demolishing a neighborhood and, when done, will be 100 percent exclusive. There's enough material in Beijing alone for a dozen "Gangnam Style" videos, but we don't need a dozen. We — this country of China — need one. And we need someone — someone like Ai Weiwei — to do it. Sigh. I'm here to tell you Ai Weiwei did not do it. What did he give us? Four wasted minutes of Artist and Friends. Dancing. In front of vines and potted plants. With clips of the original Gangnam spliced in for some reason. That's it. If, in the name of art, Ai Weiwei dropped an IKEA-purchased brass pot on our feet, we'd have less reason to be so dismayed. It's true, of course, that Ai could be making fun of himself, which would be a step up from, say, China Style. But it's not a good sign that the best thing I have to say about this video is that it could be intentionally trying to suck, and that's why it doesn't suck. It's a face-saving excuse though; how else do you explain the lack of buildup, storytelling, or point? The most eye-opening scene — if your eyes were already open and you needed to look up — was when Ai Weiwei handcuffed himself to a friend and the two danced in tandem. By then, however, I'd lost all hope that this video cared. What makes it all the more disappointing — and infuriating — is that it began with so much promise, specifically the inflammatory characters "Grass Mud Horse." A homophone for "fuck your mom," this is the type of sensitive phrase that attracts censors like blood to sharks, precisely because its intended purpose is to fight censorship. For an artist like Ai Weiwei — purportedly "provocative" — to employ these characters signals that he "gets it," that he's picking up the ball and running with it. Except he doesn't run. He barely even trots, as it becomes apparent. One might be tempted to argue that Ai Weiwei, meta genius that he is, is giving the middle finger to Chinese authorities who desperately want to push soft power. By not creating substance, even though he is in a prime position to do so, he is telling viewers that creativity cannot be forced, and certainly cannot be pushed by the government. But then why is it only on YouTube, broadcast to everyone except those in China? No, Ai Weiwei is not saying F-U to Chinese authorities, or censors, or anyone here. He's merely refilling his cache of cool with the Western world, reminding his Western fans and Western journalists that he's a good guy who "gets it." He gets it because he knows how to dance on an invisible horse, and hey, that's something you like, right? Obviously I'm being much too harsh, and expected way too much. Ai and his assistants must have been in the throes of boredom one day when one of them said, Hey, you know what's fun? Nothing in the world is more fun these days than pretending to ride an invisible horse, so the Ai team took a picture, made a video, and went on their way, never expecting that some asshole would read way too much into their vanity project. But let me ask you this: have we not reached to the point where we can allow ourselves to look slightly deeper? As a society, I mean. Gangnam Style was always about more than the tune, however catchy, and the jig, however fun. Why must all our parodies of it intentionally ignore its intended purpose, and as a result live down its potential? Xinhua, in its assessment of Gangnam, criticized China by way of observation: "The mentality of shanzhai and copying has gradually eaten away at China's ability to be culturally creative." I never thought I'd see the day when an Ai Weiwei project would fail to rise above a Xinhua critique.

Dish of the Day: Huang la ding (yellow catfish and tofu hotpot) @ Shao Shan Mao Jia Cai Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:50 AM PDT The whole catfish are light and flaky so you don't bloat after polishing off three-four of them, and the rich chicken broth warms your stomach like a gastrointestinal water heater. [ more › ]

Photos: Children and parents in Ningbo break down at filial piety rally Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:00 AM PDT       In scenes reminiscent of Jesus Camp, a documentary about an American evangelical Christian summer camp in which youngsters were preached into hysterical demonstrations of faith, primary school children in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province burst into tears during a filial piety rally. [ more › ]

North Korea's Air Koryo offers online booking, one-star service Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:00 AM PDT Air Koryo, the "unique national flag carrier" in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, has launched an online booking system in English and Korean, offering flights from Pyongyang to Beijing and Shenyang in China, and Vladivostok in Russia. [ more › ]

Mid-Week Links: Official Iron Man 3 trailer (with Chinese elements), Agent Zero Gilbert Arenas close to signing with Guangdong, and Hu Jintao at knifepoint Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:35 AM PDT Via Daily Mail: "The 300ft spiral staircase has been installed on the wall of the Taihang Mountains in Linzhou to offer the thrill of mountaineering without the danger." We're very excited and proud to announce that starting tomorrow morning, Laowai Comics will be appearing on this site every Thursday. If you're wondering whether you should check out LC's impressive backlog of work, the answer is yes. Links will always be here. Introducing: 2Non.org, Charlie Custer's new project. "China's Property Rights Law and other laws governing land use in China do not expressly forbid forced demolitions and evictions, but they do dictate that 'appropriate compensation' for land, fixtures, and resettlement expenses must be provided by the government, and that these compensatory funds cannot be divided, misappropriated, or embezzled. But these laws have thus far utterly failed to prevent local officials and developers from abusing the system for profit, in part because they are vague and in part because they are enforced only selectively, if at all, in many locations." [2Non] Another environmental protest. "An environmental protest in a small fishing town in southern China has turned into a protracted, violent nine-day clash between villagers and police, with stones thrown, tear gas deployed, and dozens injured and arrested, witnesses said Monday. // …The most recent incident began with a plan by local officials to build a coal-fueled power plant and a harbor for receiving the shipped coal in the village of Yinggehai, on Hainan island at the southern tip of China. // Fearing that such a plant could devastate the environment, residents, who mostly depend on fishing as their livelihood, began to protest the project Oct. 13." [Washington Post] 7-to-1 is a landslide. "Obama is still very popular in China, and would win 7-to-1 over Romney, according to a poll in Sina Weibo, China's top social media site. But more and more Chinese bloggers are rooting for the Republicans for their 'free market' values and because of an assumption that a Republican president might be more likely stand up to the Chinese government on the issue of human rights." [Asia Society] "Comfortable" probably as in being able to eat Western meals three to five times a week. "China's online community is agog with discussion after a survey suggested a salary threshold of around 9,000 yuan (US$1,439) per month to enjoy a comfortable life in first-tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing." [Shanghai Daily] Gearing up for the National Congress, can you sense it? "The subtle dropping of references to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong from two policy statements over the last few weeks serves as one of the most intriguing hints yet that the ruling Communist Party is planning to move in the direction of reform." [Reuters] China and the US can be successful together. "In recent debates, each presidential candidate argued he is tougher on China than the other. Americans are being sold a bill of goods—that China's growth is the U.S.'s loss. It simply is not true. It is not a zero-sum game. // China's growth—specifically, the huge increase in spending by Chinese, the largest expansion of a consumer market in history—represents one of America's best chances for future prosperity. Imagine 1.3 billion people with annual incomes rising from $4,000 to $12,000 over the next decade. They want brands—often U.S. brands. The U.S. has the resources and intelligence to become China's leading trading partner and capture the benefits." [Bloomberg Businessweek] We'll be talking more about this soon. "The Beijing-based startup behind the flirty hook-up app Momo is preparing to take it international, with an English version of its iPhone app submitted to Apple last week. The dating app has been picking up users at an incredible rate; I notice it was at 500,000 last December, two million by this March, and 10 million by August. And now? Now Momo has reached 16 million users." [Tech in Asia] Tibetan farmer sets himself on fire (graphic photos). "Following Tuesday's incident, International Campaign for Tibet sent a photo allegedly showing Dorje wrapped in blankets after the immolation, his neck and head badly charred and swollen. It was not clear whether he was still alive when the blurry, poorly lit picture was taken." [Huffington Post] Iron Man 3 preview interlude: Finally… Rare is the story about Chinese fiction. [Businessweek] "Off-duty cab driver enjoys pretending to be on-duty." [China Daily Show] Gilbert Arenas nearing deal with Guangdong Southern Tigers? [NiuBBall] An average migrant worker turned nationalist rioter. [South Sea China Conversations] A new blog from chinaSMACK. [japanCRUSH] Finally, finally… Via Fergus Ryan via Sina Weibo

Weibo Watch: The Heritage-listed House Destroyed in Shanghai Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:26 AM PDT Date: Oct 24th 2012 12:23p.m. Contributed by: amberwoo

Suck it naysayers, Chinese economy making slow but steady recovery (UPDATED) Posted: 24 Oct 2012 07:00 AM PDT China's economy is making a slow but steady recovery after its weakest period of growth in three years, according to a survey of purchasing managers, with new orders and output at their highest in months. [ more › ]

You are subscribed to email updates from Update » Blogs » Society To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610