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Blogs » Society » Watch: World's longest high-speed rail line opens in China |
- Watch: World's longest high-speed rail line opens in China
- An Iranian In Jiangsu (An Expat Christmas No. 8)
- Kindhearted woman learns that if you feed wild mice, you may then have to kill them
- Celebrate 2013 with Three Strauss Orchestra Concerts
- The Ultimate New Year's Eve Party Knockout!
- Ah Why Not, Here’s A Classroom Of Chinese Preschoolers Singing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas”
- Qianyue Court: A Tasty Cantonese Spot
- Laowai Comics: The Ultimate Playground Insult
- On the Road
- Pickpocket Artist Gets Caught, Clobbered By Students
- Business As (Un)usual
- Watch: Chengdu Passenger Ignites Firecrackers On Moving Bus
- Cancelled (An Expat Christmas No. 7)
- First Question For Doing Business In China: Is It Legal?
- Mid-Week Links: New Year’s Eve party guide, another official undone by his mistress, and today is Mao Zedong’s 119th birthday
- Holy Crap, Road Collapse! This Time In Taiyuan, Shanxi
- How A Letter From China Decrying Slave Labor Ended Up In Portland, Oregon
- If children lose contact with nature they won't fight for it
- Shanghaiist Year in Review: Top 10 dishes of 2012
- Party of the Week: JZ Lounge Gets 2013 Started Right
| Watch: World's longest high-speed rail line opens in China Posted: 26 Dec 2012 07:30 PM PST China on Wednesday opened the world's longest high-speed rail line that more than halves the time required to travel from the country's capital in the north to Guangzhou, an economic hub in southern China. [Associated Press] [ more › ]     |
| An Iranian In Jiangsu (An Expat Christmas No. 8) Posted: 26 Dec 2012 08:18 PM PST
By Felix Christmas in China. If there's one topic that comes up often in conversations with relatives and friends about my life in the Middle Kingdom, that's gotta be the one. How do I cope? How does it feel to be so far away from the family, in very un-Christmasy China? I usually just shrug. Truth is, I never really was into the whole Christmas thing that much, as far as I can remember. And don't expect some kind of angsty emo-kid rant or endless diatribe about the lost traditions and over-commercialism here. Sure, I enjoy the days off, and the big family party, but couldn't care less for everything else: Jesus, the bland Christmas food, giving or receiving presents (something I actually love doing, but hate being socially pressured into), the horrible Christmas songs that you hear over and over and over in every shopping area from Halloween onwards… moving to Asia wasn't that bad in that regard. I was losing the days off and the possibility to attend the family reunion, but not being eye- and ear-raped by unwanted, saturated and tacky advertisement every time I hit a supermarket was well worth it. And after five straight Christmases here, I feel the same way as I did in 2008: nothing much. Life goes on. But the expat story I want to share with you isn't mine, but a friend's. Her name is Fariba, and she hails from Iran. Now, the latter is not just an anecdotal detail, as it shapes pretty much the story of one of the most interesting encounters I have ever had in the past year. As a small-city laowai, I'm used to sparse interactions with the odd foreigner, nearly always North American, or at the very least, Western European; in short, people who share a similar cultural background with me. As such, conversations tend to be the same, but with Fariba, I knew right away it wouldn't be the case. She was happy to talk to an English-speaker, her Chinese being nearly nonexistent after only three weeks in the country, and I was glad to hear her perspective and stories about China seen through the eyes of a non-Western expatriate. Even though she was in her late-20s, well educated (Master's degree in engineering, fluency in English and a good smattering of French) and had many international friends, it was the first time she had ever left Iran. Apprehensive she was upon learning she'd be sent by herself to a small industrial town, but also hungry for the experience. The things she was looking forward to the most? Not having to wear the hijab was number one; number two, finally getting to taste pork. The latter was a bit of an underwhelming experience, and I couldn't help but crack up laughing hearing her story, picturing herself with a Chinese coworker munching on a plate of pig rectums rather than a juicy ham or some perfectly fried bacon as her very first non-halal experience. Her stories were refreshing, partly because of her sweet naiveté, and also because her cultural shock was much different than the ones I have heard about a million times before — not the kind of stuff you usually encounter in old-grumpy-white-men-dominated expat haunts! But where is Christmas in that story? I'm coming to it: as we were walking down the aisles of a supermarket to get some goodies, her large and beautiful Persian eyes lit up, she blurted, "Wow, I can't believe it, there is so much Christmas spirit here! It's wonderful!" I smiled at what I think was unsubtle sarcasm, but then realized she was dead serious. She was actually marveling at the somewhat minimalistic decorations, the undersized plastic tree, and the pointy red hats worn by the bored cashiers, even pulling me by the arm from time to time to point out something that really grabbed her attention. "Look at that! So cool!" or "They make special chocolate for Christmas?" So while the vast majority of foreigners I know or have known try their hardest to get the most out of their Christmases with their limited resources — organizing potlucks with other expatriates, planning Christmas lessons, clumsily decorating their unheated apartments with cardboard from the corner store, having extended Skype sessions with family at ungodly hours — yet still feel a burst of homesickness as the 25th rolls around, Fariba was actually embracing what was her first Christmas experience ever. How little, fake and "Chinese" everything was, it didn't matter at all. She could finally experience and see with her own eyes what she could only get from movies and stories told by her Western friends in Isfahan or Tehran. For her, Christmas will always be China. The two concepts are inextricably linked from now on. Felix is an avid cyclist and death metal fan currently living and working in Wuxi, Jiangsu province. He is also the artist of Laowai Comics. (Ed's note: "Fariba" is an alias.) |
| Kindhearted woman learns that if you feed wild mice, you may then have to kill them Posted: 26 Dec 2012 07:29 PM PST Via Global Times:
She was a Tom and Jerry fan. Personal note: ever since I was young, I've thought that Tom deserved to kill Jerry and use that annoying mouse's entrails for a mustache.
In conclusion, this woman should get a cat. Woman feeds mice, angers neighbors in building (Global Times, h/t Alicia) |
| Celebrate 2013 with Three Strauss Orchestra Concerts Posted: 26 Dec 2012 07:34 PM PST |
| The Ultimate New Year's Eve Party Knockout! Posted: 26 Dec 2012 06:30 PM PST  Good bye, 2012! You brought us a lot of joy, you exposed doomsday lies, you disappointed, you [insert your personal emotion here]. No matter whether it's a farewell with tears or you're glad to get rid of the year: It's time to celebrate one more (big) time to give 2012 the deserved kick in the butt and welcome 2013. Browse through our rundown of notable 2012 NYE parties, and have a fabulous time! [ more › ] |
| Ah Why Not, Here’s A Classroom Of Chinese Preschoolers Singing “We Wish You A Merry Christmas” Posted: 26 Dec 2012 06:12 PM PST I work as preschool rock star in Qingdao. Our annual New Year's production is coming up and it's a big deal. Preschool competition is tight and parents shop around. As the only foreign teacher at our branch (200+ kids ages 2 to 6), I have to find something English for them to do in the New Year's show. That means making them stop picking their noses long enough to appear to sing an English song. So we've practiced We Wish You a Merry Christmas and two other songs every morning, five days a week, since the beginning of December. The Chinese teachers took these videos (from three different classes) around mid-December. For a more realistic effect, turn your volume all the way up and listen to them on repeat. For three hours. Every morning. For a month. And have a Merry Christmas! Joel (alongside Jessica) blogs at China Hope Live. |
| Qianyue Court: A Tasty Cantonese Spot Posted: 26 Dec 2012 05:31 PM PST |
| Laowai Comics: The Ultimate Playground Insult Posted: 26 Dec 2012 02:00 PM PST
Laowai Comics is a biweekly webcomic. Beijing Cream is proud to debut its Thursday comic every week. Full archives here.
(Monday's comic - Christmas edition) |
| Posted: 24 Dec 2012 05:00 PM PST
This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Pickpocket Artist Gets Caught, Clobbered By Students Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST Pickpocketing is a tough profession. It doesn't pay much, for one. The legal risks are high. And if you get caught — at a university dorm, for instance — your existence will pretty much be disavowed by everyone you care about, and whatever happens, happens. On Monday, a pickpocket artist was nabbed on a college campus in a place swarming with students. The youngsters were not very forgiving, as you can see, even as some people in the crowd shouted, "Stop it, stop it." Reminds us of this — just a bunch of kids needing an outlet. |
| Posted: 26 Dec 2012 10:22 AM PST "I'm sorry, but the lavender pillow is out of order, can you please choose another?" A classic mixture of over-the-top yet sincere customer service sprinkled with cultural "close enough-ness" to be charming. A soft knock on my hotel door reveals a smiling young man with my Chinese Herb Pillow as I think "what a crazy idea". This is one example of why I love China and reminds me how lucky I am to experience firsthand this turning point in history. After its emergence from the cocoon in the late 70's, China is airing out its wings and we all know the inevitable flight will follow. However, as with a butterfly's flight pattern, it is impossible to predict the paths' trajectory. I have found that business meetings can also follow this same unpredictable pattern. I try keep in mind the continual subconscious pull of Confucian social harmony and general collective agency in the Chinese conscience, but does everyone really need to be given a chance to try show their "expertise" right in the middle of my presentation? It ends up feeling like an improvisation comedy word association game where everyone immediately starts to talk which in turn spurns alternate discussions with more word association games until that one late guy shows up and then half the room leaves for a smoke break and the other half explains what he has missed which in turns spurns even more word association games. I suppose one could argue that my presentation is the cause for the fracturing of attention, but it has happened with enough frequency to lead me to believe it doesn't all fall on my shoulders. For a Westerner, this can be quite baffling the first time once experiences it, but I have learned to accept it. In fact I often find myself being surprised at the orderliness and quietness of meetings back home. I fear I am entering a nowhere land between East and West where things simultaneously seem weird AND normal in each place – where people in both cultures view my opinions as strange and even borderline offensive. I am finally smart enough to realize that my initial impressions and opinions of things I see in China will very likely change eventually. One of my first interests was watching the wonderfully chaotic swirling mixture of cars, buses, trucks, electric bicycles, two-wheeled bicycles, three-wheeled bicycles, diesel farm buggies, and the fascinating assortment of what I like to call "other forms of transportation". My ability to understand was overpowered by it all, but now when in a Shanghai taxi and approaching a seemingly impossible traffic obstacle I find myself thinking, "yeah, we can make it, something might give", and often something DOES give, the driver adjusts slightly, and we glide through. For my fellow Americans…imagine being a running back suddenly breaking into the secondary, but instead of trying to outmaneuver line backers and defensive backs, you find an assortment of cars, buses, trucks of various sizes, bicycles, electric bikes (faster and deadly quiet), and pedestrians coming at you FULL SPEED from ALL DIRECTIONS. That ability to handle (potentially dangerous) incoming information will come in handy in remaining calm during business meetings when it appears all hell is breaking loose. After another stimulating day, it turns out the Chinese herb pillow wasn't such a crazy idea after all. |
| Watch: Chengdu Passenger Ignites Firecrackers On Moving Bus Posted: 26 Dec 2012 10:00 AM PST
In Chengdu on Friday at around 8 pm, a man surnamed Cai, 37, suddenly stood up and ignited a string of firecrackers in his bag, reason unknown. The driver, surnamed Huang, stopped the bus and let everyone out, but closed the door on Cai. Other passengers can be seen restraining him until the cops arrived. Two passengers were hurt, though not seriously. We're told the firecrackers completely shredded Cai's satchel. The incident is currently under investigation. |
| Cancelled (An Expat Christmas No. 7) Posted: 26 Dec 2012 06:00 AM PST
By Chris Clayman For religious folk, shut-ins, and fans of Home Alone, a one-man Christmas sounds nice enough. It's really touching how Kevin McAllister takes the time to set up a Christmas tree when no one is around to see his work. But the rest of us likely need others to validate these strange traditions. Does Christmas have meaning when you are the only one celebrating? My fellow teachers in our isolated Yunnan school are not true holiday comrades; "Christmas" in Ximu means shaokao and overpriced apples. I obviously welcome any Yuletide wishes! But it works only as formality, like saying "good show!" to the violin virtuoso after his performance: one sees the product and the other sees the process, the endless hours of repetition in practice. My co-teachers can't recall the Christmas mornings of their childhood, their sleepwalk through years of awkward family dinners, the mistletoe in the dorm hallway waiting for a willing couple. In this town, the holiday only exists because I exist. The sort of material fascination with holiday culture found in China's cities never made its way to the countryside. I guess I could walk outside drunkenly screaming shengdan kuaile, but most people would take my ramblings only as a reminder that yes, that weird Western holiday happens to be today. So that special festive feeling is confined to my teacher's dorm: a Santa poster and a Charlie Brown-sized Christmas tree, covered in student-made ornaments. When Skyping with friends and family back home, I've made sure to place these things within view, giving off the illusion of globe-spanning Christmas cheer. Early on I realized that one of my roles as teacher is as the Official Envoy for Western Culture. It's the only way to keep the Yule log burning, so to speak. So began the month-long challenge of teaching my first- and second-graders a few Christmas songs. Yesterday afternoon, with the rest of the school looking on, the students put on their cardboard Santa hats and gave their interpretations of "Jingle Bells" and "Deck the Halls." Between songs, two students took out the Charlie Brown tree, stepped in front of the choir, and hung stockings on the branches. In teaching traditions to six- and seven-year olds, sometimes you have to cut a few corners. The kids held hands and sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," maybe the only song they could fully understand. I'm no slouch in Chinese, but I'd like to see you try and explain the lines "boughs of holly" and "bells on bobtails ring" to your EFL students. Actually, I'd like to see you explain them to any adult. Their pageant was moving in the way most children's choirs move. The kids screamed each syllable, attracting the attention of some of the elderly who were wandering around the school. To me, the spirit of Christmas continues in the busted vocal chords of my students. When Anthony asked me to write about my Christmas experience in rural Yunnan, I made an ill-advised crack about BJ Cream's exhaustive car accident coverage. But someone died today, and Christmas is to blame. I'll be brief. My principal was suspiciously absent during the pageant. At dinner, a car pulled up in front of the cafeteria. Everyone who stepped out of the car — our current principal and a few teachers — looked like they had aged a few years. Then I heard the story: while gathering food for the Christmas shaokao, Mr. Li, our school groundskeeper, hit and ran over our school's former principal, a retired man from the nearest village. Under these circumstances, we effectively cancelled Christmas. The shaokao planned for last night will have to wait until another day. My principal came to my door, shook my hand, and told me Merry Christmas. It's just that sometimes there are more pressing concerns. Chris teaches at Ximu Elementary near Lincang, Yunnan province. He keeps a sometimes-active Tumblr, My Own Private China, and tweets @chrisclayman. |
| First Question For Doing Business In China: Is It Legal? Posted: 26 Dec 2012 05:10 AM PST A couple weeks back, I co-moderated a Doing Business in China seminar at which two lawyers speakers went through the steps for forming a China WFOE. My two cent contribution was on the need to make sure that what you are planning on doing in China is legal, and to do that before anything else. I then proceeded to tell (maybe for the hundreth time) of a company that called me many years ago to retain my law firm to handle their China WFOE formation. The company calling me was (and probably still is) a high powered New York City firm and they proceeded to tell me right out of the gate of how they had spent $500,000 researching the market in China and it was clear there was a huge need for their services and that they would be the first foreign company in China to provide such services . As they were talking, I kept thinking of how there is indeed a huge need for foreigners to provide such services, but that the reason none had yet done so was because those services were on the prohibited list for foreigners. A short digression here. China has what it calls its Catalog for Guidance of Foreign Investment. This catalog divides businesses into three categories: encouraged, restricted, and prohibited. Generally, foreign companies are allowed to operate an encouraged business on their own, as a Wholly Foreign Owned Enterprise (WFOE). Restricted businesses typically must be done via a Joint Venture (JV) and foreign companies cannot operate a prohibited business at all. So instead of my offering to form this company's WOFE, I instead asked if they had done any legal research regarding the legality of their proposed business in China. They told me they had not, and they then retained us to research it. Very quickly we got back to them confirming my suspicion. They business they had spent the last year and $500,000 researching was prohibited to foreigners (I believe it is now on the restricted list). Many love to tell of how "thirty years ago such and such company went into China in XYZ industry even though XYZ industry was clearly forbidden to foreign companies and now such and such company has X billions of dollars in sales in China." And though there are absolutely stories like that, they key to them is that they were thirty years ago and doing that today would almost certainly not end well. I thought of all this today when I read an article entitled, "Report: Amazon Kindle store hit by regulatory trouble in China." According to the article, "Amazon's new Chinese Kindle store is reportedly being investigated by Chinese authorities over charges that the store does not have a license to sell e-books in the country."
The article goes on to talk about the "stiff competition" Amazon will be facing in China's ebook market and also notes how "Amazon's former China chief told Reuters this year that the company hopes to bring the Kindle to China within the next two years." So what is going on here? Let me start out by making very clear that I have zero inside information and so whatever I say about what Amazon may be doing is pure speculation. With that out of the way though, there are a number of plausible explanations, including the following:
If either number one or number two above are true, there is little more for me to say. But let's assume for a moment that number three is true. If true, there is some explanation for it. Amazon is a huge company. Amazon has a ton of money. Amazon is not exactly unfamiliar with spending massive amounts of money to gain market share and then worry about profits later. Is that what Amazon has done here? Maybe. If it is, is this in some way instructive for your business? Unless you have something approaching Amazon-like money, it is NOT. The bottom line here is that if you are a normal foreign company looking to do business in China, the best way for you to go about that is to first make sure that what you are proposing to do in China is legal in China and then do everything necessary to make your business legal in China. It is that simple. What do you think? |
| Posted: 26 Dec 2012 05:00 AM PST
I think we know the "real you" well enough, sir. "The deputy secretary-general of Zhanjiang City in Guangdong Province has been removed from his post after local Party discipline watchdog confirmed online allegations about his having a mistress and a second child in violation of China's one-child policy. // Zhanjiang's Party discipline inspection committee confirmed the online allegations against Deng Wengao and also opened a graft investigation in his case, Yangcheng Evening News reported yesterday. The discipline watchdog released no other details. // Deng's only response, the paper reported, was to say, 'You can go around and know the real me.'" (Shanghai Daily) Another Mo Yan piece from Perry Link. "The awarding of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Literature to the Chinese novelist Mo Yan has given rise to energetic debate, both within China's borders and beyond. Earlier this month, ChinaFile ran an essay by Chinese literature scholar Charles Laughlin called "What Mo Yan's Detractors Get Wrong." That essay was, in large part, a critical response to an earlier piece in The New York Review of Books by Perry Link. We invited Link to respond." (Perry Link, China File) 355 suspected child abductors arrested, 89 children rescued. "A national operation in China has busted nine child abduction gangs, arresting 355 suspects and rescuing 89 children. // China's Ministry of Public Security said Monday that it conducted the nine-province operation in December after receiving reports of child abductions from southern China's Fujian and Yunnan provinces." (AP) "Why are Chinese versions of Santa Claus almost always playing a saxophone?" (Max Fisher, Washington Post) Corollary: "When the article was translated into Mandarin for Chinese Web portal Sina.com, it attracted thousands of comments trying to puzzle it out. The most popular theory seems to be that Santa is perceived as Western, cool, and a bit romantic, so the saxophone fits. Christmas in China is more about having fun with friends or a romantic date than it is about reverence and family as in the Western world. // I would like to add the theory that President Bill Clinton may be partly to blame for this trend." (Washington Post) Mao Zedong's 119th birthday is today. "In Shaoshan, countless people sang "The East is Red" together to mark Comrade Mao Zedong's 119th birthday, notes People's Daily online. Another activity on December 25 was a fitness marathon, in reply to Mao's call to 'develop sports to strengthen the people's physical shape.' Nearly ten-thousand people from provincial departments colleges and universities, and from all over the province (i. e. Hunan Province) reportedly participated." (Just Recently) Baseball in China is good, though it doesn't stand much chance for development now that it's no longer an Olympic sport. "The Chinese mainland welcomes the proposal to establish a cross-Strait professional baseball league with Taiwan, a mainland spokeswoman said Wednesday. // Fan Liqing, spokeswoman for the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office, said the mainland is willing to increase cooperation and exchanges on athletics with Taiwan, where baseball has a longer development history." (Xinhua) More vehicle recalls. "Jaguar Land Rover China will recall 337 cars due to substandard fixings in their rear calipers and steering boxes, the country's consumer quality watchdog said on Tuesday." (Xinhua) Mao Zedong's birthday interlude: Finally… Party guide to New Year's Eve in Beijing. (the Beijinger) "China is building a motorway across the Tibetan plateau. For some, reaching Lhasa by road is the ultimate dream." (The Economist) Bike ride from Hong Kong to Paris. (SCMP) More Mao festivities. (Global Times) Finally, finally… Shanghai skyline, by Harvey (@JapanNewbie): |
| Holy Crap, Road Collapse! This Time In Taiyuan, Shanxi Posted: 26 Dec 2012 03:51 AM PST
Today in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, a big hole appeared on the intersection of Bingzhou Road and Bingzhou East Road, leaving an impression of two gigantic buttcheeks. Assphalt, if you will. The potholes are seven to eight meters in diameter. Folks from the highway, fire, transportation, and gas departments were all called to the scene. Gas and water pipes both run beneath the road, and they've been turned off — too bad for the buildings nearby that, you know, need gas and water. Still, I feel like the standard by which we should judge these road collapses remains whether someone was boiled alive. If not, it's really could have been worse.
(via China News)
|
| How A Letter From China Decrying Slave Labor Ended Up In Portland, Oregon Posted: 26 Dec 2012 02:56 AM PST
The Oregonian has this tale of a letter from China — written in English — folded into eighths and planted inside the box of a Kmart "graveyard kit." This "message in a bottle" traveled more than 5,000 miles to the home of Julie Keith in Portland, who purchased the Halloween kit but left it unopened for a year. When she finally opened the contents, she found this chilling letter:
The article found its way to Reddit, where it inspired a second post about a "Chinese slave labor plea" — found on the cover of a toilet seat, apparently.
According to mequals1m1w:
There's a spirited debate on both Reddit threads (more so on the latter) about whether these letters are real. Worthwhile questions are being asked. If either one of these was a hoax though, whoever's behind it has done one hell of a job, because apparently ICE's Homeland Security Investigations is currently on the case:
And while we take exception to passages like this from the Oregonian –
– which completely skew the reality of global supply chains, the story is nonetheless interesting. Real or hoax? You decide. Halloween decorations carry haunting message of forced labor (The Oregonian via Reddit; h/t Gabe Clermont) |
| If children lose contact with nature they won't fight for it Posted: 26 Dec 2012 01:00 AM PST With half of their time spent at screens, the next generation will be poorly equipped to defend the natural world from harm. "One woe doth tread upon another's heel, So fast they follow". That radical green pressure group PriceWaterhouseCoopers warns that even if the present rate of global decarbonisation were to double, we would still be on course for six degrees Celsius of warming by the end of the century. Confining the rise to two degrees requires a six-fold reduction in carbon intensity: far beyond the scope of current policies. A new report shows that the UK has lost 20% of its breeding birds since 1966: once common species such as willow tits, lesser spotted woodpeckers and turtle doves have all but collapsed; even house sparrows have fallen by two thirds. Ash dieback is just one of many terrifying plant diseases, mostly spread by trade. They now threaten our oaks, pines and chestnuts. So where are the marches, the occupations, the urgent demands for change? While the surveys show that the great majority would like to see the living planet protected, few are prepared to take action. This, I think, reflects a second environmental crisis: the removal of children from the natural world. The young people we might have expected to lead the defence of nature have less and less to do with it. Also see: Get China's kids back to nature We don't have to disparage the indoor world, which has its own rich ecosystem, to lament children's disconnection from the outdoor world. But the experiences the two spheres offer are entirely different. There is no substitute for what takes place outdoors; not least because the greatest joys of nature are unscripted. The thought that most of our children will never swim among phosphorescent plankton at night, will never be startled by a salmon leaping, a dolphin breaching, the stoop of a peregrine, or the rustle of a grass snake is almost as sad as the thought that their children might not have the opportunity. The remarkable collapse of children's engagement with nature – which is even faster than the collapse of the natural world – is recorded in Richard Louv's book Last Child in the Woods, and in a report published recently by the UK's National Trust. Since the 1970s the area in which children may roam without supervision has decreased by almost 90%. In one generation, the proportion of children regularly playing in wild places in the UK has fallen from more than half to fewer than one in 10. In the US, in just six years (1997-2003) children with particular outdoor hobbies fell by half. Eleven to 15-year-olds in Britain now spend, on average, half their waking day in front of a screen. There are several reasons for this collapse: parents' irrational fear of strangers and rational fear of traffic, the destruction of the fortifying commons where previous generations played, the quality of indoor entertainment, the structuring of children's time, the criminalisation of natural play. The great indoors, as a result, has become a far more dangerous place than the diminished world beyond. The rise of obesity, rickets and asthma and the decline in cardio-respiratory fitness are well documented. Louv also links the indoor life to an increase in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other mental ill health. Research conducted at the University of Illinois suggests that playing among trees and grass is associated with a marked reduction in indications of ADHD, while playing indoors or on tarmac appears to increase them. The disorder, Louv suggests, "may be a set of symptoms aggravated by lack of exposure to nature". Perhaps it's the environment, not the child, that has gone wrong. In her famous essay the Ecology of Imagination in Childhood, Edith Cobb proposed that contact with nature stimulates creativity. Reviewing the biographies of 300 "geniuses", she exposed a common theme: intense experiences of the natural world in the middle age of childhood (between five and 12). Animals and plants, she contended, are among "the figures of speech in the rhetoric of play … which the genius in particular of later life seems to recall". Studies in several nations show that children's games are more creative in green places than in concrete playgrounds. Natural spaces encourage fantasy and role-play, reasoning and observation. The social standing of children there depends less on physical dominance, more on inventiveness and language skills. Perhaps forcing children to study so much, rather than running wild in the woods and fields, is counter-productive. And here we meet the other great loss. Most of those I know who fight for nature are people who spent their childhoods immersed in it. Without a feel for the texture and function of the natural world, without an intensity of engagement almost impossible in the absence of early experience, people will not devote their lives to its protection. Forest Schools, Outward Bound, Woodcraft Folk, the John Muir Award, the Campaign for Adventure, Natural Connections, family nature clubs and many others are trying to bring children and the natural world back together. But all of them are fighting forces which, if they cannot be turned, will strip the living planet of the wonder and delight, of the ecstasy – in the true sense of that word – that for millennia have drawn children into the wilds. http://www.guardian.co.uk/ |
| Shanghaiist Year in Review: Top 10 dishes of 2012 Posted: 26 Dec 2012 01:00 AM PST           |
| Party of the Week: JZ Lounge Gets 2013 Started Right Posted: 26 Dec 2012 12:16 AM PST |
In the latest from BJC's An Expat Christmas 
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