It's been 30 years, how has it been and how has it changed China?

30 years ago, 1977, China resumed the National College Entrance Exam. After a 12 year long suspension due to Cultural Revolution, the university doors were to be opened again. 570,000 Chinese took the exam that year and 1 out of 29 made it through and showed up on college campuses in March the next year. Long deserted but urgently restored classrooms were filled up again, with 18 year olds who just left their hometown and also 40 year olds who've been through all the "revolutions" and "leaps" and now simply wanted to make up for the lost time and be able to read again, probably the most diverse student generation in China's modern history in terms of age range, life experience, and background.

I always wonder how my parents' generation managed that change having just got out of Cultural Revolution, knowing what's available to them again when they had almost given up hopes for education. Knowledge, information, teachers, future job opportunities, classrooms, libraries, reading material other than the Selective Works of Mao Zedong, books written by authors other than Mao Zedong, books written by foreign authors, music, self-produced movies on campus, student-run campus newspapers,student-run campus radio stations, forums, discussions, being around with youth of the same age sharing the same dreams and goals, being around with youth of the same age offering different views perspectives and arguments, girls wearing makeup and red dresses, dancing, student clubs, student bands, campus communities, being allowed, accepted and even encouraged to ask questions and challenge, being tested but not judged... It's obviously impossible to finish listing and of course one don't believe that all these were offered to them in the beginning, but it's the options, future and hope they saw that's overwhelming to think about.

A motion was proposed not long ago in this year's National Congress to cancel this exam, not passed, but reform plan was put into the national agenda regardless. Despite the defects and deficiencies the exam system has, I personally agree with a valid comment raised by a professor pointing out that this exam is actually so far one of the most just systems with the most public trust among all systems in China. Not that I'd want to go through it again myself... you know something is wrong when an exam itself can shut down a whole city for 3 days, can impact the economy significantly and can make young students kill themselves.

This notion in the Congress definitely marked 2007 a milestone in the NCEE reform. It'll be interesting to see what (more) changes are going to be made… I only wish in the next 30 years universities can become more affordable and accessible.

Henan building the "world's largest dragon"

Investors in a central China city are building a giant $300 million sculpture of a dragon that they say will be the largest in the world.

The investor group based in the nearby provincial capital of Zhengzhou said the 13-mile metal structure is intended as a tourist destination that will wind its way along a circular group of hills north of the city. (more)

Henan is almost the poorest province in China, having the largest population and the highest HIV/AIDS infection rate in the country. I can't really think of a more stupid and sad thing happening to the people there than a $300 million sculpture which will even try to convince people that it can block the sandstorm.



More: With all the controversy this dragon sculpture has sparked recently, investors apparently has another project on hands in Henan, Yan Huang Plaza, to be completed and launched on Apr. 18th as part of the annual Memorial Ceremony to Ancestor in Huang Di's Native Place.

Beijing Olympics State-of-the-Art Medal Design Unveiled

Beijing Olympics Committee revealed the designs for the medals yesterday, the front of the medal is the standard Olympics medal picture, and the back will be embedded with jade, the most precious stone in Chinese culture, with Chinese traditional dragon shaped picture carved in. The gold, silver, and copper medals will be embedded with white, green-and-white, and green jade respectively.

Wow, fancy and pretty!


Young Uygur singer Arfa from Xinjiang presented the three medal samples in the press conference.

Property Law, Citizen Journalism and China’s Most Incredible Holdout

This is currently most dramatic news on Chinese Internet. Sina.com, China's largest Internet portal, offered money award for digital images and videos that catches the development of the event. Mop.com, one of the most popular online forum runs real time monitoring page. What is is about? (China Digital Times)

One week after the first Property Law that protects private property was passed in China's National People's Congress, a family in Chongqing climbed up to the roof of their house waving the Chinese national flag and refusing to move out due to a housing dispute with the developer. This is the only house left in that district and the developer has dug out a moat around the house. Literally living on an "island" now, the owners of the house still refuse to move out before the deadline, which is midnight today, March 22nd.

China's Most Incredible Holdout, as it's called now, is a test, for the citizens, media, court, housing developers, and the new law. It takes patience to see who will pass and who will fail, doesn't it?



[On the banner: Citizen's legal private property is sacred and inviolable!]

CHINESE cemeteries are selling paper replicas of Viagra pills to be burned for dead relatives as a wish to satisfy sex in the afterlife, state media reported today. (more)

Yeah like we are having a big population growth problem...

Happy holiday!

According to the folk tradition, it would bring luck when one gets a haircut during the second day of the second Chinese lunar month, which falls on March 20 this year. Therefore, the hairdressing salons had more business on Tuesday.

Get a hair cut, get good luck!

The unshockable/insensitive/slow me is finally noticing cultural differences...

Well interesting although not news, another email I've received from "friend's friends" passing through where I live. Out of the about 1234 emails of this connection/contact/"I need a place to crash" kind in my inbox, Chinese senders and senders from the rest of the world take up half-half. I've gradually noticed a difference of the connecting styles:

(Roles –
Visitor: A;
Our mutual friend: B;
Yours truly: C)

"The rest of the world (read Western)" style –

From: B (Non-Chinese)
To: C
CC: A

Dear C,
My friend A is visiting your city and needs some help with accommodation. It'll be great if you could help out or at least meet up. Thanks.

B.

Chinese style –

From: A (Chinese)
To: C

Dear C,
My name is A and I got your contact from B (Chinese). I'm visiting your city next month and I'm looking for suggestions of accommodation. I would really appreciate it if you could provide some information. Looking forward to meeting you.

A.

Seriously, no exception for me (yet).

Chinese would just pass your email address or phone number to a third person without asking you and that third person (also Chinese) won't hesitate to contact you right away and tell you "yeah thought I shouldn't trouble our mutual friend too much so let me figure it out myself. I've been taught not to be aggressive and never to ask for things straight away so I'm only inquiring information about accommodation, but you know what I really mean."

On the other side of the world, people (read Westerners) would have the mutual friend to establish the contact and vouch for their trustworthy personality and fun-loving quality. And then 3 months later, B to A "hey getting along well with C?" A: "we haven’t met yet." B:"WTF? You have all his/her contacts!" A: "well you never officially introduced us. How rude!"

Controversial as the given context is, the question is, which way are you more comfortable with?

No Chinese expats to the Moon... just yet

A Chinese company has been banned from selling plots of land on the moon, state media reported on Saturday.

The company, Lunar Embassy to China, had sold a total of 49 acres (20 hectares) to 34 customers before authorities acted, Xinhua news agency said. (Yahoo! News)

Too bad, I was just about to start working on my relocation plan...

You know it's the Year of the Pig when...

...Sow adopts tiger cubs

Haha!

Will Japan and China work things out?

Sino-Japanese Studies Journal Archive went online.

What can bring us together, the past or the future?

Understanding the history,
Memorizing the heros,
Learning from the past,
Building a better tomorrow.

Viva Kangzhan!
- Kangzhan.org (China) (Kangzhan: Anti-Japanese War)

What Imperial Japan did in WWII is over, they paid for it, and that fascist militant government hasn't existed since 1945.
However a new fascist militant government in China has arisen to take it's place as today's military threat to Asia.
- Forum, Japan Today (Japan)

Order and Disorder, War and Peace

Let’s take a look at the peace under the reigns of Romans, or what people call “Pax Americana” today, or even the “China Power” having overlooked Asia’s stability for hundreds of years in the ancient time. All these so-called peace times, are actually the results of continuous military tension and wars. It’s to reduce the conflicts and maintain the order in the core area using many small-scale periphery battles. All this peace is won thanks to the military power.

“Peace” always benefits those who live in the centre of the empire, but the people at the edge have to suffer the endless wars. If we had had peace at all, that peace was always ours, never theirs. At least during the past few thousand years, no type of peace in the world can escape that formula. If anti-globalization could be justified in any respect, that would be to tell people that the benefits of globalizing peace are at the painful cost that people in the outskirt of the system have to bear.

…

On this planet, humans are own devouring wolves. Global peace seems to be hopeless.

…

Our mission of reducing regional conflicts may give us confidence – one day we can solve the global issue. Maybe this is just a faithful fantasy we have, but sometimes humans need to lie to ourselves by an existing fact. You can use a fact to convince people, that one particular case can be rebuilt to become a common law.

But only that particular case of non-stop effort for regional peace can keep up our vision of a more peaceful world. Commitment to regional peace, is our only hope.

-Umberto Eco
Keynote speech "Classical War and Postmodern War", "Order and Disorder" Conference, Beijing, March 5-7, 2007
Transcultura Institute International and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Speech excerpt translated in Chinese

Irony?

Beijing, March 13 (Xinhua) - Political advisor proposes gov't blog to promote e-democracy

Beijing, March 13 (Xinhua) - New regulations to be drafted to supervise blogs

We hit back

America always condemns on China's human rights. Recently, China published the 2006 American Human Rights Report as a response and criticize America, via the Washington Post.

The Iraq War: The war caused 655, 000 Iraqi people's death.

Poverty: There are 600, 000 homeless people in the USA.

Discrimination: The jobless rate for the blacks are twice higher than the whites in the USA, etc.

Corruption: During the past two years more than 1,000 government officials found guilty of corruption.

Ohhhhh, harsh. Ouch.


Source: China Digital Times