China in the News

[Anonymous]

In the Daily Breeze on April 14, 2007, there is an article about printed signs in China being written with bad English and improper grammar. Thw Beijing Olympic Committee wants to ban these unintelligible signs from storefronts and advertisements. The Chinese Government is asking its citizens to help police their society for the signs with bad English grammar, which is referred to as Chinglish. The government has even set up hotline numbers for people to call and report the mis-translated signs. China is investing over $40 billion into Beijing for the Olympics and wants to limit the international embarrassment from the commonly seen signs throughout Beijing. Correct English is also being implemented upon Chinese taxi drivers. An English test is now part of the exam for taxi driver's annual renewal of their licenses. Even though the Olympic Committee claims 15 million residents of Beijing speak some English, they are considered to be classified as having a very low level of English.

[Anonymous]

Time goes so quickly. Hong Kong celebrates the 10th anniversary of handover from Britain to China on July 1. Since Hong Kong returned to China in 1997, the city has been governed under a "One Country, Two Systems" formula. The arrangement has allowed the territory to keep its capitalist economy, British-style legal system, free press and civil liberties, and Beijing has honored its promise to let Hong Kong enjoy a wide-degree of autonomy. In many ways, Hong Kong has grown closer to the motherland and become tightly linked to the mainland's galloping economy and has positioned itself as a key entry point to the Chinese market. Hong Kong companies are heavily invested in southern China's booming Pearl River Delta region, employing more than 10 million factory workers.

If you are interested in this piece of news, please go to http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/01/content_907051.htm
for further report.

[Anonymous]

Qinghai-Tibet Railway is celebrating the first anniversary of the line's opening. This railway is the world's highest altitude railway that connects Xining, Qinghai Province, to Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, in China. The section of the railway between Golmud and Lhasa was inaugurated on 1 July 2006 by president Hu Jintao.

According to the news on China Daily News website on July 2 (in Chinese time), "in a document issued ahead of the first anniversary of the line's opening, the ministry of Railways said the railway had "effectively conserved water and soil" on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It had caused little to no impact on local vegetation and wildlife. Another group of experts with the environmental assessment center under the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) said the railway's 33 specially-built passages for wild animal migration had "positive, obvious functions" on minimizing the railway's effect on wildlife."

I am glad this railway dosen't cause a nightmare to the natural environment and other endangered wildlife.

If you want to know more about this news, you can go to
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-07/02/content_907194.htm

If you want to know more about this railway, you can go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qinghai-Tibet_Railway

[Anonymous]

In The Daily Breeze on June 28, 2007, there was an article about Hugh Hefner opening a Playboy Mansion themed hotel and casino. Macau is the only place on Chinese soil that gambling is legal. Macau is an island located approximately one hour away from Hong Kong. There have already been other Las Vegas casino brands building hotels and casinos. In 2006, Macau overtook Las Vegas in gaming revenue. The casinos have only been legalized and allowed in China since 2002. The Playboy themed casino is scheduled to open in 2009. Macau is a very popular destination for Chinese, as well as, international vacationers.

[Anonymous]

May was Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and I read about the reception held by the Organization of Chinese Americans.

First, the evening’s activities started with the unveiling of an innovative personal finance and entrepreneurship program.

Second, credit was given to State Farm, the sole corporate sponsor of the entrepreneurship program.

Third, the Association of Women’s Business Centers was credited with being a partner in the implementation of the program.

Fourth, writer and journalist William Wong spoke about his new book, Images of America: Angel Island.

The entire evening’s activities were held at a building OCA owns, the OCA National Center for Asian Pacific American Leadership.

[Anonymous]

Kikkoman celebrated its 50th anniversary in America on June 4.

After beginning to produce soy sauce in Japan more than 300 years ago, Kikkoman entered the U.S. market in 1957 with its first sales and marketing office in San Francisco. Kikkoman products can be found in most Asian restaurants around the nation.

Yuzaburo Mogi, chairman and CEO of Kikkoman Corporation, acknowledged when the company first started doing business in America, soy sauce was an exotic condiment found only in Japanese and Chinese recipes.

Of the two ways to make soy sauce, either by fermenting whole soybeans or hydrolyzed soy protein, Kikkoman stands out by making their product organically.

[Anonymous]

Marking the 25th anniversary of Vincent Chin’s murder this month, a series of town halls on hate crimes are taking place in 14 cities during June and July. The events are organized by Asian Pacific Americans for Progress, in partnership with leading civil rights, advocacy and media groups. The events honor the memory of Vincent Chin, a 27-year-old draftsman who died on June 23, 1982. He was bludgeoned with a baseball bat four days earlier by two Detroit autoworkers, who blamed the Chinese American for competition from Japanese automakers. The case was ripe with American icons, stereotypes and tragedy. Chin was about to be married that coming weekend. Nitz were sentenced by a judge to three years probation and a fine of $3,000 each. No witnesses were called to testify, and the prosecuting attorney was not present at sentencing. Shock and anger at the light sentences reverberated around the country. Asian Americans rallied with unprecedented force and numbers. After extensive demonstrations and advocacy by a grassroots pan-Asian group called American Citizens for Justice, a federal grand jury indicted Ebens and Nitz for violating Chin’s civil rights and for conspiracy to deny him public accommodation. In the trial that followed in Cincinnati, Nitz was cleared and Ebens’ conviction on the civil rights charge was later overturned on a legal technicality.

[Anonymous]

In Shanghai, alll the city stores of fast-food giants KFC and McDonald's have now established trade unions. McDonald's, as we saw on our trip, owns 80 restaurants in Shanghai, while KFC has 200 restaurants throughout the 18 districts and Chongming County of the city.
Shanghai KFC Co Ltd was set up in Shanghai in 1989 and the trade union was established at the same time. It was the first KFC in China to set up trade union. Of the 12,000 employees in local chains of KFC, more than 90 percent have joined their unions so far. All 5,049 employees of McDonald's have now joined unions. McDonald's set up its first restaurant in the city in 1994, and its first trade union in April, 2005. According to a plan focusing on overseas firms issued by the Shanghai Trade Union last month, the percentage of foreign-invested city enterprises with trade unions is expected to exceed 80 percent by the end of this year.

[Anonymous]

Funny article describing how Boston election officials are having a
tough time translating candidates names in to Chinese characters for
ballots. In doing so officials are coming up with translations ranging
from Uncooked Rice (Mitt Romney) to Oh Bus Horse (Barack Obama). While
these names may be comical to us, some may have an inadvertent negative
meaning or connotation, thus putting the candidate at a disadvantage.

[Anonymous]

In an effort to make up for what it recentlly lost in Europe the NFL announced that it will try and tap into China's booming population and fan base. While others ports have flourished in China, football has not been one. The NFL has in recent years stepped up it's own presence in China with weekly games, telecasts, and a yearly showing of the Super Bowl. While the sport is growing, there are some cuultural and basic differences that may be a problem, like the language, inparticular translating the sports vocabulary into Chinese. Perhaps an overly optomistic NFL, they forsee in the not too distannt future a larger more global Asian fan base reaching into Korea, China, Shanghai, Indonesia, and Toykyo. All linked together by the internet. It will be interesting to see what the response of the Chinese will be, will they embrace this bastion of American culture or will the NFL have to punt out of China.

[Anonymous]

Good article discussing the use of chils labor in China. The article uses the production of Olymppic gear as the targeted industry, howwever, repoits have shown that the use of such labor existed before the Beijing was chosen as host of 2008 games. While child labor in Chian has not reached the samenumbers that it has in other countries, it is a growing problem. Which raises the question, at what price does is a nation willing to pay for it's growing economy? Unrfortunately, the Chinese goverment stated that child labor is too sensitive an issue to allow any foreign group access to conduct a survey. However, we have seen an outbreak of "pockets" of child labor through out the countryside, especially in more poor areas where school agedchildren fron 12 years to 16 years old are entering the work force producing a variety of Chinese goods for World consumption

[Anonymous]

Interesting article about a family that vowed to live without any products from China for one year. Of course in the great spirit of capitalism their experiences were chronicled and bound in a book, AYear Without "'Made in China'," (Wiley, $24.95). As we all know from the course China has grown so much abd developed economicaly and comercially that spending a year without using Chinese made goods would nearly be improssible. As the article states, nearly 15 % of all goods imported into the United States came from China. While that is a staggering number, it is a maneageable one. What made this experiment even more challemnging is that many products used in goods made in America actually come from China. Thereby excluding their use for the challenge. Ultimately, the big lesson learned, one that we all have had drilled into our psyche is that China is growing, and becomming more and more important and a part of all of our lives.

[Anonymous]

Interesting article that we all can definitely relate to.I was a little shocked to hear of this program in New Jersey. Hopefully, exchange programs like ours and this one will continue to exist and promote the awareness of China and its' culture. The teacher featured in this article will be blogging three times a week. I am curious to read what she has to say about her experience and compare it to my own. I especially like the quote she gave, stating, how much of a Patriot she is and how she appreciates living in America, however, she won't feel the full impact of that until after this trip. I know that certaintly the case for many of us.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone in the group read this book? I find the idea rather interesting. Having completed our project on western and eastern influence; I am very aware of how much we are influenced / dependent on each other. I think I am going to track down this book and read it this summer.

[Anonymous]

Looks like E.T. will be staying home this summer. Renowned Hollywood director/producer Steven Spielburg's decision to pull out of his commitment to serve as artistic adviser to the opening and closing ceremonies of the Summer Games in Beijing, has the Communist Party's official newspaper up in arms, "A certain Western director was very naive and made an unreasonable move toward the issue of the Beijing Olympics. This is perhaps because of his unique Hollywood characteristics" (People's Daily). The newspapers, the internet blogs and the public seem quite outraged over Spielburg's recent retreat from Olympic involvement due to his disappointment in China's lack of assistance toward making peace in Sudan. Since China buys two-thirds of the this African country's oil exports, Spielburg believes that they have some influence over the Sudanese leaders, "This renowned film director is famous for his science fiction. But now it seems he lives in a world of science fiction and he can't distinguish a dream from reality" reported China Youth Daily, in a scathing printed response.
With over 200,000 casualties due to a conflict between militias backed by the government and rebels in Darfur, Spielburg is perhaps unrealistically reaching for a resolve that is beyond China's grasp, "He is not qualified to blame China because he knows nothing about the great efforts the Chinese government has made on Darfur...he broke his promise to make his contribution to the Beijing Olympics and betrayed the Olympic spirit" according to Guangming Daily. With this type of biting outrage, it does not appear that China is setting out a trail of Reece's Pieces to lure the well known alien back to the East for the big show.
What act will follow this scene? :~

[Author]

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