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clay dube
SpectatorHi Folks,
Without question, the elementary teachers win the prize for being first to jump in. Well done! We're delighted that you are all with us. I'll be the lead instructor, but we have many excellent specialists lined up for the course. And we're bringing in a special guest speaker to discuss environmental issues on 4/13.I taught at the secondary level for three years, but have spent the bulk of my career in college classrooms and as an administrator. I love history, perhaps a bit too much, and to illustrate my confusion, I think we could all benefit from knowing more of it and from approaching more issues from a historical perspective. I enjoy photography and travel and it's been my great honor to have taken eleven groups of teachers to East Asia over the years. Catherine and I last did this in summer 2018.
SpectatorMargaret's question is a great one. We'll look at some of the ways China's seeking to cope. Some are highlighted in the Made in China 2025 plan put forward by China's government. Those include greater reliance on robotics and artificial intelligence. Here are a few places to look for more on this ambitious agenda:
https://multimedia.scmp.com/news/china/article/made-in-China-2025/index.html
https://multimedia.scmp.com/news/china/article/2164290/china-2025-robotics/index.html
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/22/chinas-developing-an-army-of-robots-to-reboot-its-economy.html
Later in the course, we'll look at how the government is also relying on grandchildren to take on responsibility for their grandparents.
SpectatorIsabella -- great suggestion. This film is based on a prize winning book by Liu Cixin. Our US-China Today writers interviewed Ken Liu, the fellow who has been Liu Cixin's translator. The film has gotten great reviews, so please do check it out if you can. And, yes, you can use it to meet the seminar requirement.
https://uschinatoday.org/features/2015/09/11/qa-with-ken-liu-translator-of-the-three-body-problem/
The trailer (with English subtitles): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lsOwtKNsAA
SpectatorHi Everyone,
Catherine and I were delighted that each of you is participating in the seminar. We know that we'll have to move fast over the course of our time together, but invite everyone to use the forum here to raise questions, share materials and ideas, and to interact with us and with each other. Please also feel free to write to us with any specific issues that you want us to be aware of or to consider.My email address is [email protected]. Catherine can be reached at [email protected].
As we discovered, it's sometimes tricky to get the right volume settings and so on. As Isabella showed, it's often best to use headphones.
A word about me - I didn't set out to be a China specialist, but my interest in China took hold and wouldn't let go. I first lived in China 1982-85, early in the reform period that we'll be talking about. Unlike most of us at USC, I taught for three years at the secondary level in San Diego. I came to USC, from UCLA of all places, to help launch the US-China Institute in 2006. Catherine joined the institute as an undergrad in 2007 and has managed our program for teachers for several years. I love working with and learning from teachers and look forward to getting to know each of you over the course of the next five weeks.
The institute website has a wealth of resources that you may find interesting and useful. Please don't hesitate to explore our documentaries, lectures, document and review collections, but especially our forums for teachers. There are many great ideas and resources introduced in these discussion threads.
SpectatorWelcome everyone to our discussion forum.
SpectatorWriting in the LA Times, Robyn Dixon discusses the importance of preparing pandas for the wild. The panda preserve in Chengdu does not know if its latest attempt has succeeded. Earlier attempts with males have not fared well. As one scientist explains, it took 50 years to learn how to too get pandas to reproduce in captivity. It may be another 50 years before they learn how to facilitate it in the wild. Fascinating report.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-pandas-20181105-story.html
SpectatorThis new report from the BBC on African debt to Chinese banks is interesting: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45916060
Lending has increased rapidly:
Zambia seems to be one of the countries at greatest risk of default.
SpectatorNatalie's correct that China's image is better in the developing world. Please do check out the chart I made using Pew data on nervousness about China in Asia (it's in lecture 9). In addition, you may find these poll results interesting:
2018: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/10/19/5-charts-on-global-views-of-china/
You may find Pew director Richard Wiike's presentation at USC in 2013 of interest to compare how views have changed: https://china.usc.edu/richard-wike-chinas-image-us-and-around-world
SpectatorSome referred to the Pence speech in our discussion last night and in an earlier discussion. You and your students may appreciate having the text of the address. It might make for an interesting debate or discussion to take the claims one by one. Small groups might be assigned 2-4 of them.
On Pence's claim of Chinese election meddling, I am not aware of any action beyond placing advertorials in newspapers, something other countries do as well.
Here's a couple of pieces (articles and opinons) published by the Des Moines Register about the advertising supplement they published.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/agriculture/2018/09/24/china-daily-watch-advertisement-tries-sway-iowa-farm-support-trump-trade-war-tariffs/1412954002/And here's a FactCheck.org article on the issue: https://www.factcheck.org/2018/09/trumps-claim-of-chinese-election-interference/
Perhaps students might be sent to hunt for other advertorials. Of course, the big point here is that advertising that is clear about its source is different from social media bots set up to hammer away at ideas for the purpose of division and diversion.
(It's not China-focused, but here's an article attempting to evaluate the impact of the 2016 Russian efforts. Spoiler alert - conclusions are impossible. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-much-did-russian-interference-affect-the-2016-election/ )
SpectatorGreat discussion last night. Here are some of the links to the news reports and the Black Mirror program that I mentioned. It was interesting to see that once I mentioned it several posted to the live chat about the program.
Nosedive tease from Netflix (on YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R32qWdOWrTo
Article about the episode: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/10/black-mirror-nosedive-review-season-three-netflix/504668/
NPR's Planet Money on the social credit system: https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2018/10/26/661163105/episode-871-blacklisted-in-china
Canadian Broadcasting System report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqqZEf4LJuw
Merics is a European think tank and had an interesting post about the system's popularity in China: https://www.merics.org/en/blog/chinas-social-credit-systems-are-highly-popular-now
I'm glad that Stephen asked about it last night. I'll be interested in how students respond to ongoing questions about it. Many are increasingly conscious of some risks associated with social media use (Snapchat's early success was attributed to its disappearing posts). They know future friends and employers may look at one's social media history. As an exercise, they might download from Facebook, Google and others, their data files. It could astonish them how much they leave behind. Of course, a discussion about the cost of "free" is always worthwhile.
SpectatorChristine found CFR - a great resource. Here's a link to the official Chinese government policies on religion:
https://china.usc.edu/chinas-policies-and-practices-protecting-freedom-religious-beliefHere is the most recent US government report on religion in China:
2015: https://china.usc.edu/us-department-state-international-religious-freedom-report-2015-%E2%80%93-china2017: https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/religiousfreedom/index.htm#wrapper
Spectator
This picture that I took in September shows the device that school security 特勤 use to protect students. They would thrust the U towards a knife weilding attacker and the snap loaded arms would close around the person. I've never seen it used and in some rural schools I've not seen the guards equipped in this way.
Below is another picture. This picture also shows a big screen -- this was on Saturday, but kids attended anyway so they would have a full week off starting on Sunday to celebrate China's National Day on 10/1.
SpectatorI mentioned the remarkable filmmaker Carma Hinton. Together with her husband, she's made several amazing documentaries. Her father was William Hinton (he's passed away), author of important books about China (Fanshen- is the most famous, about land reform). The village that she focused on for four films is called Long Bow in English.
Small Happiness (outstanding film): http://www.tsquare.tv/longbow/sh.html
At the bottom of that page are links to the other films in the series. She's also made long films about the Cultural Revolution (Morning Sun) and Tiananmen (The Gate of Heavenly Peace). She taught for many years at George Mason University.A low resolution version of Small Happiness is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeUclPA42Vk
The film ends with a tragic twist.
SpectatorJust to pound home a point on early Chinese thought, here's the passage that Nira quotes:
不孝有三，無後為大。 (The punctuation is added. Literary Chinese didn't have it.) It's both simple, direct and vague at the same time. It doesn't expressly say you have to have sons, but since China was a patrilineal society (name, property passed down through the male line), it can be implied. But it might also be understood as simply saying you have to have children. Since women traditionally married out of the village, it meant that families thought of girls as being someone you raised for another family's eventual benefit. From a big picture standpoint, of course, a community needs both, but from a selfish, what's best for me and my family standpoint, it's easy to see why families would prefer boys. Multiplied across the country, you see those individual family decisions having a gigantic effect.
SpectatorI doubt the 8 m people in Beijing without Beijing hukou will be impressed by this measure. At this rate, it will take 1,333 years for all to get Beijing hukou, but perhaps it is just a pilot program and next year will bring a big ramping up of the effort.
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1123283.shtml
Beijing's hukou reform brings 1st group beneficiaries
Source:Xinhua Published: 2018/10/17 9:56:06
Around 6,000 non-natives of Beijing will be able to get the city's hukou, or household registration status, through a new point-based household registration reform.
The Beijing municipal bureau of human resources and social security on Monday announced a name list of 6,019 people who had the most points among over 124,000 applicants for a Beijing hukou.
If no questions are raised about their points, these people, aged between 31 and 58 and from sectors including technology, manufacturing, finance, media, education and public health, can receive their hukou starting Oct. 23 this year until the end of 2020, said the bureau.
The status, much coveted by many non-natives, is a crucial document entitling residents to social welfare in Beijing. The highly-anticipated application for the household registration status in China's capital started April 16 and ended June 14.
For Wang Yong, chairman of Brand Union (Beijing) Consulting Co., Ltd., Monday is a memorable day as his name was on the list.
"This is a positive trial as it opens a new door for non-natives working in the city," said the doctorate holder who has been working in Beijing for 22 years.
"The point-based household registration system is a win-win," said a woman surnamed Hu who was also on the list. "The city can hardly develop without the contribution of non-natives and meanwhile, non-natives working in the city also need social welfare provided by the city government in all aspects," said Hu, who has been working in a think-tank in Beijing for 19 years.
Under the new policy, non-natives under the legal retirement age who have held a Beijing temporary residence permit with the city's social insurance records for seven consecutive years and are without a criminal record, are eligible to accumulate points for the hukou.
Those with good employment, higher payment of tax, stable homes in Beijing, strong educational background, and achievements in innovation and establishing start-ups in Beijing can get higher scores in the point-based competition for the city's hukou.
The point-based household registration policy is a practical choice for mega-cities like Beijing which have population control targets but still need to attract talent for quality growth.
In the pilot period, Beijing's quota for new hukou holders is set at 6,000 each year based on the city's development planning and population capacity, according to the Beijing municipal bureau of human resources and social security. By the end of 2017, the number of people holding a Beijing hukou reached 13.59 million, while the city's permanent population totaled 21.7 million.
Beijing plans to cap its population at 23 million by 2020 and also in the long term, as it seeks to address "big city diseases" such as traffic congestion and pollution.
Point-based household registration has also been piloted in cities like Shanghai. It has proved to be effective in satisfying the demand for personnel flow while limiting rapid growth of urban population.
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