I just finished reading a not-real-informative NY Times article about the security measures revolving around keeping the new Harry Potter book under wraps until July 16th, and I couldn't help thinking "it's a good thing it's harder to translate a book than to subtitle a movie, or I'm sure it'd be all over Asia by now."
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Better that I announce this late than never, the newest issue of the China Leadership Monitor quarterly has been released. I'll be sure to read:
SASAC Rising by Barry Naughton. For economists, an informed analysis of recent economic corrective measures taken by the State Asset Supervision and Administration Commission. One example is the new taxes imposed on speculatory real estate transactions in Beijing, Shanghai and elsewhere.
The Rise of China's Yuppie Corps: Top CEOs to Watch by Li Cheng. From what I can tell, this author has a plum job: he does demographic work on political and economic figures by finding data about them on the Web. The results are often revealing.
Power, Money, and Sex: The PLA and the Educational Campaign to Maintain the Advanced Nature of the Party by James Mulvenon. From what I've seen, the Campaign's main thrust seems to be mounting exhibitions to highlight the Party's accomplishments... in the past. Effective? I'll let you know after I read this article!
Speaking of the PLA, I'm currently doing a stint in Hangzhou and the hotel I'm staying at is located on the grounds of a small army garrison. On the outer side of the lobby window somebody taped the answer key to a quiz about the atrocities commited by the Japanese during their occupation of China before and during World War 2.
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It's fun to read old news about Shanghai:
Commuters who need to take both of the city's subway lines will require more time to transfer between the two starting tomorrow, due to new government measures taken to control commuter flow during rush hour.
Shanghai Metro Operation Co Ltd, which manages the underground railways as well as one of the two existing elevated metro lines, said it will design new routes for passengers who transfer between the subways, which meet at People's Square.Commuters who get off the trains of Rail Transportation No.1 - the subway stretching in the south-north direction - should walk south to get to the RT No.2 station, the other underground railway spanning across the Huangpu River in a west-east direction.Those transferring from the RT No.2 to RT No.1 should walk along the northern passage.Commuters only need to do so during rush hour on weekdays, from 7:30am to 9:30am and in the evening from 4:30pm to 6:30pm.
The move is to help ensure safe underground traffic at People's Square as crowds of passengers usually jam the area.—2/18/2004
The People's Square interchange is shaped like a right triangle: the short sides being platforms, and the hypotenuse and right angle bit being passageways between them. From the news item quoted above, I deduce that before February of 2004, commuters changing trains at the People's Square station were allowed to take either passageway to the other station platform, and would naturally—as I have gone over in my head many, many times—head towards the much shorter "right angle" passageway. This just goes to show the lack of planning in the design of the station's layout. Thank goodness plans are being made to fix it.
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Todd is working for an NGO somewhere near Qinghai. Check out the picture of a Chinese classroom somewhere near Golmud in his post on a typical week in his life.
It reminds me of a picture I saw taken in a schoolhouse during the Nixon visit to China in 1972.
The other day Jodi and I were looking at images I've saved on my computer, and one prompted her to say that if she has a lot of money someday, she'd like to go out to a rural area to teach for a year. It about made me burst.
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Through My Google News Alert, I find out that:
Ten volunteer workshops will open at 10 local parks, starting tomorrow, to provide various free services for visitors, the Shanghai Greenery Administrative Bureau said yesterday.
The workshop at Changfeng Park, a ten minute walk from my house, will give free legal advice to participants. Why can't we have the painting or household gardening workshops?
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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
