Since I've somehow misplaced and not yet scanned the picture Dave took of me standing in front of the Forbidden City Starbucks, I'll post a link to another picture that shows the building it is in. Scroll all the way to the right, and note the squat building in front of the long wall. The Starbucks is at the far left end of that structure, next to the visible gate. It's worth checking out the rest of Sarang’s pictures of Beijing. Also, note Sunbucks Coffee.
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As president of the Central Bank, Zhou Xiaochuan, 周小川, is set to play a central role in directing China's future monetary policy.
Barry Naughton talks about Zhou in his article for the spring issue of the China Leadership Monitor, Financial Reconstruction: Methodical Policymaking Moves into the Spotlight
.
Note that there are two banks with very similar names in China that are easy to confuse at first glance. The People's Bank of China (PBOC, 中国人民银行) is China's central bank, headed by Zhou Xiaochuan and in charge of setting monetary policy. The Bank of China (BOC, 中国银行) is one of the four main state-run banks and is under the central bank in the power hierarchy.
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This is my kind of site: Roddy (of the Chinese Language and Culture forums and helpful Oriental List member) has set up News in Chinese, basically a link weblog of Chinese news stories with one-line summaries in English. (via Brainysmurf)
Zhao Ziyang is back in the news:
Nonetheless, it remains possible that lower-level party officials, or students or intellectuals outside the party, may make Mr. Zhao's death an occasion to press for political liberalization. China's long tradition of paying homage to the dead makes it unseemly for the police to repress mourners, potentially opening a window for people to express grievances along with condolences.
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In 1960, Mao's secretary Tian Jiaying found a book in a museum written by Mao in the 1930s. In this book, Mao had written an essay in which he attacked a school of thought called 教条主义, or dogmatism. Since Mao, didn't know this term at the time, he called it 本本主义, or "bookishness". That's why I found it funny when I came across the 本本主义 website, which looks to be a journalling, or perhaps a blogging, club. Ahh, the ironies of history.
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I know I've said this before, but let me repeat: both Ziboy and 21mm are great photo weblogs because they unabashedly take pictures of people.
I'm pretty busy these days with end-of-semester work, so I'll just post links to some highlights of the weblog world and mainstream media that I bookmarked over the last week or so:
Walter Hutchens, Lay off the Defense Lawyers Already, on legal reform.
Marginal Revolution, China fact of the day, on the liberalization of the publishing industry.
The Independent, The Chinese Iron Lady squares up to America's tough talkers.
The PLA Daily, 境界 责任 水平 ("Realm, responsibility and level", bilingual article).
And for my own future reference, hosting plans inside the PRC that offer ssh access.
One more comment, because this is too pathetic and sad. From an article in The Independent, The 1,200-year-old sunken treasure that revealed an undiscovered China:
Until Mr Walterfang's find, archeologists had assumed that 1,200 years ago, China was a relatively backward country which relied primarily on agriculture to survive. They had little notion that the Tang dynasty of the period, had already started to set up maritime trading routes that were to establish China as the first great sea power, 200 years before the Spanish, Portuguese and British had theirs.
A year ago, I might have said "Really? What a great find, to teach us so much about ancient China." Now, I know better and will say "The Tang dynasty is widely known to have been a high point in Chinese culture, particularly in the fields of poetry, pottery, and painting. This reporter obviously didn't do his research. Shame on him."
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I just heard a Mr "Lehman" interviewed by the BBC in Bejing on DVD piracy. Could it have been Stan Abram's boss, of Lehman, Lee & Xu?
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http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/briefing/women_senators.htm
To date, thirty-three women have served in the United States Senate, with fourteen serving at this time.
http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761567211/House_of_Representatives_United_States.html
Women have also found it difficult to win election to the House, holding fewer than 4 percent of the seats from the early 20th century through the 1980s. However, women have recently broken new ground; in the 107th Congress (2001-2003), 61 women served in the House, giving them 14 percent of the chamber.
http://clerk.house.gov/members/memFAQ.html#women
There are currently 62 women serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and 13 in the U.S. Senate. (March 19, 2004)
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/mnt/html/women/iwd/iwd4.html
Of 198 full members of the party's Central Committee, only five are women, comparing unfavourably with the previous Central Committee, where seven out of 193 seats were held by female party members. (Women's Day 2004 page)
http://www.appf.org.pe/members/005about.htm
NPC Percentage of women: 21 % (late 90's)
http://www.chinatoday.com.cn/English/e20033/woman.htm
By the end of 2000 China had 14.895 million women cadres, accounting for 36.2 percent of the country's total, and the number above county level amounted to 77,300, accounting for 15.1 percent of the total. Of China's 31 provincial-level governments, 30 had at least one woman cadre, and 15 had at least two. The number of women deputies to the National People's Congress has increased year by year, and is expected to reach 25 percent in 2003.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/chinagate/doc/2004-03/08/content_312778.htm
In Beijing, women deputies account for 30.8 per cent of the municipal people's congress.
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Little Weight in China's Gym Craze:
"When I first joined, I felt kind of special for having the card. Now too many people from too many different backgrounds can afford it," he said, before turning back to his computer game. "It doesn't feel as exclusive anymore. This should be a high-class activity."
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The Cui Jian North American 2004 tour has suffered deep cut-backs due to visa trouble. Luckily, the Chicago show has been postponed and not cancelled.
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I found myself tossed one way and then another like a little boat on a stormy sea, as I read the comments to the latest post on Sinosplice, When Culture Lets Go. John's post is about the excitement he feels living in a country that is going through a tremendous cultural evolution, and he agrees with the stance that the United States has stagnated culturally and is losing its heart to commercial interests, calling the United States culturally bankrupt
.
Of course, this is a controversial idea. Margaret, Grace, and Heidi see America as culturally splintered and heterogeneous, that it should not be selectively examined and that the potential for a great life lies in ones self no matter where one lives (Heidi takes a jab at SoCal, which I can appreciate). Da Xiangchang points out the less noble reasons why would enjoy living in China. Then Wilson, Matt and Tuode(?) counter by challenging the heterogeneity of American culture, and asserting that the diversity that does exist is superficial and stagnant. Donald answers by pointing out the social and political institutions that make America great, and noting that these are still absent in China. He also notes that Chinese high culture is largely the territory of scholars and China hands, not ordinary citizens.
Patrick backs this up with the idea that China may be moving more quickly, but it's headed towards the same questions about identity that Americans are asking themselves today. He notes that being a foreigner in China may allow one to ask more critical questions of ones culture, but that a diverse society like the US will be a better place to find the answers. Finally, John tries to explain again the excitement of living in China: that it's a place where the society is advancing by leaps and bounds compared to the United States.
I wouldn't pretend to be able to wrap this discussion up in a neat conclusion, but I could add a few of my own thoughts. I feel that in the rush to defend one country over another, nobody has explained—although Da Xiangchang came close—the very real feeling, I can attest, that John expressed in his original post. Living in China (no pun intended) gave me a feeling of purpose, of accomplishing something with my life. Observing a country undergoing such rapid change—businesses opening and closing, technology modernizing, huge generation gaps, tremendous opportunities to make a difference—is a very exciting thing, especially for young men who are anxious to make something of themselves. I say young men, because I think the feeling may be different for Margaret, Grace and Heidi; do they feel the same exhiliration at being able to penetrate this foreign culture through language, and participate in the rush towards wherever China is headed? It would be helpful, I think, to put this question to the folks at Living Outside China, Chinese expats in the United States. Do they feel like American culture is bankrupt? stagnating?
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As one of his commenters says, Benjamin Seeberger's writing captures something in the unversality of mankind
, something that makes you forget that he's living in China.
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500miles is a computer programmer living in Tianjin who keeps a photo weblog.
Adam, of the Oriental List, on travel in China:
> Is there anyone who
> can afford me with some
> words of wisdom?Sure. When you arrive you'll forget you were even
worried. You'll probabably never even mention the
word.
I would extend this to travel just about anywhere.
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Micah Sittig's Chinese improves and worsens with the phases of the moon. He enjoys non-fiction books, bicycling, foreign languages and ethnic restaurants. He is an inveterate globetrotter, but can always be found at micah@earthling.net