Sorry for the lack of posts recently. My son will be 16 months this week and while I usually am chasing him all over creation, he has been sick for the past few days. During a break from the crying and Motrin dispensing, I was able to read the Cultural Revolution cookbook.
Despite having lived in China, I never learned how to cook any authentic Chinese food. I like to cook, but for some reason I have always been intimidated to cook Chinese food, even though it's authentic dishes are usually simple to prepare. Maybe it was the time consuming Jiaozi assembly process that put me off a bit...anyway, I was very excited to see this book available. Not only is it a cookbook full of delicious recipes, author Sasha Gong includes her personal account about what it was like to grow up in China during the Cultural Revolution. The book is also full of other interesting bits about what was happening in China during the time, it's like a culinary history lesson.
Here's an excerpt from her NPR interview about the book:

Gong has lived in the U.S. since 1987, and she earned a Ph.D. from Harvard. But her childhood in China was a hard one. Ten years old at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Gong was sent to the countryside as punishment because her grandfather was accused of being a counter-revolutionary.

One thing I quickly learned, while living in China, was the importance of sitting down and enjoying a meal. Chinese people gather over food and meals can last long into the night.

Recipe: Braised Pork in Soy Sauce 

Ingredients 

The Chairman's Brain Food

Chairman Mao believed that the fat in Braised Pork in Soy Sauce had the capa­bility to boost his brainpower. The dish is traditionally regarded as brain food in his native Hunan Province, and it was well-known as the Chairman's favorite. In fact, he insisted that his Hunanese chef cook it for him often, even during his years in Beijing and over the strenuous objection of his personal physicians.

Mao was especially fond of eating this dish before he went into combat — either physical or political — and believed he nev­er lost a battle when well-fed on braised pork.

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When Jin passed through the long passage, he noticed that he could not see light from the village behind him when he turned his head back to look. A current seemed to propel his boat quickly through the tunnel, and he shot out the other side with a splash, finding himself in the ocean, with a rocky shore on one side and the wide, wide ocean to the other.

According to Wikipedia:

...The Super Bowl has frequently been the most watched American television broadcast of the year. Super Bowl XLV played in 2011 became the most watched American television program in history, drawing an average audience of 111 million viewers and taking over the spot held by the previous year's Super Bowl, which itself had taken over the #1 spot held for twenty-eight years by the final episode of M*A*S*H. The Super Bowl is also among the most watched sporting events in the world, mostly due to North American audiences ... 2011's Super Bowl XLV holds the record for total number of U.S. viewers, attracting an average audience of 111 million viewers, making the game the most viewed television broadcast of any kind in U.S. history.

From The Nielson Company:

Prime-time television viewership numbers compiled by The Nielsen Co. for Dec. 26-Jan. 1. Listings include the week's ranking and viewership for the week. The Top 5 programs were:

1. "Sunday Night Football," NBC, 27.62 million viewers
2. "Sunday Night Football Kickoff Show," NBC, 21.23 million viewers
3. "Monday Night Football," ESPN, 15.64 million viewers
4. "60 Minutes," CBS, 14.45 million viewers
5. "Football Night in America", NBC, 14.44 million viewers

 From Orange County News:

Prime-time NFL football draws its biggest audience in 15 years ... "Sunday Night Football" drew the largest audience in its six seasons on NBC.

From NFL Communications:

49ers-Ravens on Thursday Night Football most-watched game ever on NFL Network ... Ranks as Thanksgiving’s all-time No. 1 show on cable & tops 2010 NFLN Thanksgiving game by 50 percent.

Clearly not a game in decline, no matter what some Soccer elitists would like to claim (And I love soccer too!)

I love it! The best of the AFC vs. the best of the NFC. A forced 4-3 Defense (which I prefer to the 3-4 even though Green Bay runs it exclusively).

In professional American football, the Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the National Football League (NFL). Since the merger with the rival American Football League (AFL) in 1970, it has been officially called the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, matching the top players in the American Football Conference (AFC) against those in the National Football Conference (NFC).

Unlike most other sports leagues, which hold their all-star games during (roughly) the halfway point of their respective regular seasons, the Pro Bowl is played at the end of the NFL season. The NFL's all-star game has a tattered image. It is the only major all-star game that draws lower ratings than its regular-season games. However, the biggest concern of teams is to avoid injuries to the star players.

The first "Pro All-Star Game," featuring the all-stars of the 1938 season (as well as three players from the Hollywood Stars and Los Angeles Bulldogs, who were not members of the league), was played on January 15, 1939 at Los Angeles's Wrigley Field. The NFL All-Star Game was played again in Los Angeles in 1940 and then in New York and Philadelphia in 1941 and 1942 respectively, after which the game was suspended due to World War II. The concept of an all-star game would not be revived until 1951, when the newly rechristened Pro Bowl played at various venues before being held at Aloha Stadium in Honolulu, Hawaii for 30 consecutive seasons from 1980 to 2009. The 2010 Pro Bowl was played at Sun Life Stadium, the home stadium of the Miami Dolphins and host site of Super Bowl XLIV, on January 31, the first time ever that the Pro Bowl was held before the championship game, with the conference teams not including players from the teams that will be playing in the Super Bowl. The 2011 Pro Bowl was played again in Hawaii, but again held during the week before the Super Bowl. The 2012 game is also scheduled for Hawaii.

Currently, players are voted into the Pro Bowl by the coaches, the players themselves, and the fans. Each group's ballots count for one third of the votes. The fans vote online at the NFL's official website. There are also replacements that go to the game should any selected player be unable to play due to injuries. Prior to 1995, only the coaches and the players made Pro Bowl selections.

In order to be considered a Pro Bowler for a given year, a player must either have been one of the initial players selected to the team, or a player who accepts an invitation to the Pro Bowl as an alternate; invited alternates who decline to attend are not considered Pro Bowlers. Being a Pro Bowler is considered to be a mark of honor, and players who are accepted into the Pro Bowl are considered to be elite.

The Pro Bowl head coaches are traditionally the head coaches of the teams that lost in the AFC and NFC championship games for the same season of the Pro Bowl in question (not the case for the 1980 and 81 seasons played in 1981 and 1982). However, for the 2010 and 2011 Pro Bowls, a new rule was presented: The teams that lose in the divisional playoff game with the best regular-season record will have their coaching staffs lead their respective conference Pro Bowl team. If the losing teams of each conference had the same regular season record the coaches from the higher-seeded team will get the Pro Bowl honor. This was, presumably, to allow the coaches more time with the players while the Pro Bowl is held during the week before the Super Bowl, since the conference championship losers would only have one week to prepare as opposed to three weeks when the Pro Bowl was held the week after the Super Bowl.

The Pro Bowl has different rules from other NFL games to make the game safer.

• No motion or shifting by the offense
• Offense must have a tight end in all formations
• Offense can’t have 3 receivers on a side
• Intentional grounding is legal
• Defense must run a 4-3 at all times
• No press-type coverage except inside the 5 yard line
• No blitz
• Not allowed to rush a Punt, PAT or FG attempt
• No calls can be challenged
• Players can tweet to Twitter on the sidelines and locker room

The teams are made of players from different NFL teams, so using their own uniforms would be too confusing. The players each wear the helmet of their team, but the home jerseys and pants are either a solid blue for the NFC or solid red for the AFC, while white jerseys with blue or red accents, respectively, for the away team. While it has been speculated that the color of Pro Bowl jerseys is determined by the winner of the Super Bowl, this is untrue. The design of Pro Bowl uniforms is changed every two years, and the color and white jerseys are rotated along with the design change. This has been Pro Bowl tradition since the switch to team specific helmets, which started with the January 1979 game. The two-year switch was originally created as a marketing ploy by Nike, and has been continued by Reebok, who won the merchandising contract in 2002.

The early Pro Bowl, contested by the National Football League's Eastern and Western Division stars and played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, featured the same uniforms from the 1950s to mid-1960s; the Eastern team wore scarlet jerseys with white numerals and a white crescent shoulder stripe, white pants with red stripe, red socks, and a plain red helmet. The Western team wore white jerseys with royal-blue numerals and a Northwestern University-style triple stripe on the sleeves, white pants with blue stripe and socks and a plain blue helmet. Perhaps oddly, the Eastern team, wore home dark jerseys, although the host-city team, the Los Angeles Rams, were members of the Western Conference. From January 1967 to January 1970 both teams wore gold helmets with the NFL logo on the sides; the Eastern helmets featured a red-white-red tri-stripe and the Western a similar blue-white-blue tri-stripe. In fact the players brought their own game helmets to Los Angeles, which were then spray-painted and decorated for the contest. (For the 1970 game the helmets featured the 50 NFL logo, commemorating the league's half-century anniversary.)

In the earliest years of the AFC–NFC Pro Bowl, the players did not wear their unique helmets, as they do now. The AFC All-Stars wore a solid red helmet with a white A on it, while the NFC players wore a solid white helmet with a blue N on it. The AFC's red helmets were paired with white jerseys and red pants, while the NFC's white helmets were paired with blue jerseys and white pants.

Two players with the same number who are elected to the Pro Bowl can now wear the same number for that game. This was not always the case in the past.

The 2008 Pro Bowl included a unique example of several players from the same team wearing the same number in a Pro Bowl. For the game, Washington Redskins players T Chris Samuels, TE Chris Cooley, and LS Ethan Albright all wore the number 21 (a number normally inappropriate for their positions) in memory of their teammate Sean Taylor who had been murdered during the 2007 season.

The Pro Bowl even has the best of the best cheerleaders cheering on the sides of the fields!

I love the placement of the uniform stripe on the Miami Dolphins' uniforms. I think the future of the uniform stripe is right there at the end of the sleeve with the trend of sleeves getting shorter and shorter every year.

The Miami Dolphins just took the Green Bay Packers' Offensive Coordinator and made him their head coach. Matt Flynn will either be franchised by the NFC's Green Bay Packers and traded or become the hottest free agent in the NFL. Either way, logic says he goes to the AFC's Miami Dolphins.

The Dolphins already have a number 10, so the question is, will Matt Flynn take over #10 as a 'Fin, or will he change numbers?

Either way, Matt Flynn will join the ranks of my favorite non-Packers players in the NFL: Troy Polamalu and Rob Gronkowski. I just will have more love for the Miami Dolphins than either the Pittsburgh Steelers or the New England Patriots! Hey, we could maybe even have a Green Bay Packer vs. Miami Dolphins Super Bowl next year! I'd love it!

A few days ago, a friend in Beijing sent me the following article that was written up in The Beijinger. I found it really helpful and maybe you will too.
It's expensive to raise kids anywhere, but it takes extra money and consideration when thinking about school options in China.
My husband is a teacher and we would most likely choose the home school option after our son was able to experience kindergarten and get better socialized, not to mention better his Chinese skills.
If you're raising kids in Beijing or elsewhere in China, please feel free to give your opinion on the article!

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Just read your blog and wanted to thank you for all the useful tips!
 We are Americans who have been living in India for the last 5 years.  I have a daughter, 11 and a son, 6, and we will be taking a family trip to China in April.
 I did have a few questions for you, if you don't mind,
 First of all, I am concerned about food.  My children are fairly picky eaters.  My son will eat chicken in any form.  My daughter will want to eat mostly vegetarian.  Both can be kept full at least with peanut butter and nutella!  (I probably sound like a terrible mother...but it is what it is!)  So first question -  are PB and Nutella available in China?  What about other basics like bread, crackers, etc?  
 Also, we plan to do so train trips (Beijing to Xian and Xian to Guilin).  What do you think?  How comfortable/clean are the trains?  Our standards are pretty low (remember..we are in India!)
 Any other tips you might pass on would be greatfully accepted!!
 
- Cammie, via email


Thanks for your email! Glad you like my blog and find it useful and I love getting questions. 
First I must say, if you and your family are happy in India, then you'll have no problems in China!
I always got a kick out of the label pictures on Chinese Skippy.
One of the uses shown is eating it with noodles, but no sandwich.

Yes, crackers, bread and other basics are available. The big brand for American style sandwich bread is Bimbo. It's no Oroweat , but it's sufficient. I have tried all the varieties except for the white bread and found the whole wheat kind to taste the most similar to home. Peanut butter and jelly is widely available and Nutella can be found at the foreign grocery stores around town. Skippy brand peanut butter is cheap and comes in small and regular size jars. If you can bring Nutella with you from India, that may be a good idea, especially if you will be going to smaller cities within China and may not have time to track it down while in Beijing or Shanghai. But if you want to do a snack run with the kids, go to any BHG (also known as Hualian) in Beijing, especially in the Wudaokou, Dongzhimen, Xizhimen, Wangjing or CBD areas and you will find many Western brand options. Carrefour also has a foreign brands section in their stores. Jenny Wang's (also known as Jenny Lou's) in Beijing is a foreign grocery store that also carries Nutella, popular American cereal brands and other kid's stuff, like Pop-Tarts. 
Your kids will love the food in China, if you can get them to have a taste of some simple dishes. There are so many chicken dishes that will be sure to please your son and your daughter will love all the veggie choices available. If all else fails, there's KFCs on almost every corner in China for your son. Being a vegetarian in China isn't a problem, just be extra clear when ordering that you do not want meat in a dish or ask to substitute tofu instead. If you have time and haven't done so already, look up some of my other posts about food in China for more detailed info. 
On trains in China: they can be as comfortable or uncomfortable as you want them to be. I really like this site because it gives very detailed info about train travel for beginners in China. Check it out. :) Seeing as you have lived in India, I don't think you'll be in for any rude surprises when it comes to travel in China. 
Have a wonderful trip and happy travels!

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US and EU medical technology companies need to start making plans to take their products to China before the country is able to develop its own medical device national champions. Once the country has the capacity to develop everything themselves, the West should expect their products to be largely shutout of what will be the world's largest market one day.

Han Han, the influential writer, race-car driver, and now social commentator, tells Southern Metropolis Weekly (English | 中文) that some of his recent commentary was designed to deflect the immediate deletions that come with controversial statements on Chinese web platforms:

Q: You once said that the first two essays were padding, while the last essay was the end goal?
A: If you only write the last essay (including ), it will surely be deleted.  When something gets deleted, it has no value.  You can boast on the heroes’ honor roll that you wrote another censored essay and that you were victimized once again.  Many rightists rank themselves on the basis of the degree of persecution.  This is a somewhat pathetic ranking.  The ultimate height in sexual intercourse is the climax.  You cannot let someone climax as soon as they read it.   You need your padding.

南都周刊：你曾说前面两篇文章是铺垫，后面一篇才是目的？

韩寒：你光写后面一篇文章，包括现在的《我的2011》，肯定会被删掉的。当一个东西被删掉了，就没有什么价值了，也只能在英雄谱上把自己说得更牛一点— 老子又写了一篇被删掉的文章，老子是受害者。很多右派是按照被迫害的程度来排资历高低的，他们已经形成了一种比较病态的排序。性爱的最高境界就是高潮，你不能让人家直接看完就到高潮了，你得有你的铺垫。

The interview is a good read, as Han Han takes on the rightists, the leftists, and the intellectuals.

The three essays in question: “On Revolution,” “On Democracy,” and “On Freedom“—followed by “My 2011.” Each of these was translated and posted on Roland Soong’s indispensable East South West North.

Well, this doesn’t look good. American University Professor Deborah Brautigam has written a detailed criticism of a think tank commentary about Chinese agricultural investment in Mozambique, and if her conclusions are correct, the Center for Strategic and International Studies and its author have some explaining to do.

First a caveat: I am not a specialist in Chinese–African relations, and I have only a passing familiarity with the issues and personalities involved here. Nonetheless, there are a few things I can say based on Brautigam’s report.

The original commentary speculated (in the headline) that the Zambezi Valley in Mozambique might be “China’s first agricultural colony,” and Brautigam notes that the report became influential in China–Africa discussions. “The problem,” she writes: “very little of what was written in this sensational commentary appears to be real” (emphasis original). Indeed, she argues that many of the most prominent claims in the commentary either conflict with data or seem to be based on rumors. In some cases, interviews in Mozambique even failed to turn up people familiar with the rumors.

The full post is worth a read, but two things jump out at me.

The role of peer review. Brautigam notes that the CSIS piece was not subject to peer review, but what caught my attention was the sense that peer review is not necessarily effective in this situation. Indeed, a reviewer told Brautigam to better account for the “research” by Loro Horta that she finds so lacking. This is a reminder that peer review can sustain misguided ideas as well as quash them.

Now just who are we talking about? The assumptions of agency built in to the Horta piece, as excerpted by Brautigam, could potentially be their own red flag. “China” is framed as an actor, often a unitary one, in discussing the supposed involvement of Chinese interests in Mozambique:

China has been requesting large land leases to establish Chinese-run mega-farms and cattle ranches. … China is committed to transforming Mozambique into one of its main food suppliers …An analysis of China’s activities in the valley in the past two years provides some strong indication of China’s long term intentions.

When commentary lacks precision regarding who’s doing what among the roughly one-fifth of the world that lives in China, and instead frames the country as a unitary actor with “intentions” or “activities,” it’s unclear to me how much actual information can be communicated. At best, the reader is supposed to trust the writer to simplify with understanding and integrity. Explaining the specific mechanics is a far more persuasive way to go, and if the specifics are unclear, the honest move is to explain what is left uncertain.

Creative Commons photo by saucy_pan

Noted, from ChinaSolved (emphasis mine):

When Huntsman says, “America First” he means “and not China”.

His message is that he’s seen what can happen if the global status quo doesn’t shift – and that this is scary to the US.  Moreover, he’s in a position to do something about it.  He has seen the enemy – or at least the rival – and it’s China.

This is the new expat message.  In the 2000s,  China pros said “I can open that China opportunity”.  In the coming decade, their  line will be, “I can help you keep the Chinese at bay.”

I don’t have time to evaluate this, but such a shift would be interesting, if unsettling. My initial sense is that there have always been “China experts” who said they would defend the United States and others “against” China. The difference now may be that those people are being drawn from the ranks of individuals who actually speak Chinese and have actually been there.

This kind of stance is only possible if you have a very dark strategic view or if you never spent enough time speaking with people to lose the fear narrative. Expat enclaves can only encourage this us–them viewpoint.

China Law Blog has published a post about foreign companies that try to buy out their Chinese suppliers. Dan Harris makes very enjoyable reading out of a very serious topic. You can read his post entitled here: “Buying A Chinese Company. Why China Deals Don´t Get Done”

This is what you will learn from his article:
Very common practises for Chinese companies are:
-to under report employee wages to the government
-to underpay taxes
-to pay the rent under the table.
Which may be easy to get away with as a Chinese company but not as a WFOE.

So, if you are considering buying out your Chinese supplier, life will be a bit different for you. As a WFOE, your company will probably be wanting to play by the rules (and you better do it because as a foreign company you will be closely scrutinised) and the profits your supplier was making will be imposible to replicate as you will:
-end up paying double the amount your supplier was paying in wages and benefits
-pay all your income taxes
-have to increase booked rental costs

This is the short version. Read the original post here to get really interesting details and some cost estimates.

I will only add that it is indeed widely known that these practises are common. Some of these issues I will also mention in the second part of “A China Joint Venture Survival Guide” that is coming soon (Check my first post on the topic here)

Do you have any stories about buying out a Chinese company?

I open the 2012 annals of this website with the exciting news that our rock doc has been accepted into the Thin Line Film Festival in Texas.  The screening of the film will take place on Friday evening Feb 11 at 8 pm.  For more details on this film festival, visit the Thin Line Film Festival website.

After a long delay, we have completed issue #9. Seeing as it is a lucky number, we probably should have gone with a nine dragon theme for the cover, but we elected to use an image of the pagodas of Guilin. Perhaps we’ll save the dragons for the new year and our 10th issue.

This issue features prose from Andrea Bangert and Travis Lee; poetry from Rob Schanckne, William Wright Harris, and R. Joseph Capet; and Lucas Klein’s translations of poetry from Xi Chuan 西川.

Download your PDF copy today.

Related posts:

1. Issue 6 Has Arrived
2. Happy New Issue!
3. First Issue

I often get asked by my clients: “at what point should we have an inspection of the goods in the factory?”.  This is a good question.  In this post I am referring only to what we call a “Final Inspection”.  This generally indicates that the majority of goods have been produced in the factory (in [...]

InTouch CEO, Andrew Reich, has been busy this month, participating in several events in the Shanghai area. On November 2nd, Andrew spoke at the 3rd annual CHaINA conference at the Intercontinental Hotel in Shanghai. Andrew led the workshop entitled Quality Control in the Supply Chain – The Long-term Play through 2020 which was attended by [...]

Being involved in a wide range of production monitoring projects in China, it’s important that we’re efficient and use the right tools, in order to manage the projects effectively.  One tool that we use, especially in the fabrication of industrial projects (but with applications for commercial and consumer products as well) is called a Gantt [...]

Joint-Ventures (J-V) in China can go well, and can also go very wrong. When the latter is the case, problems come up from where you less expect them. “Mike Smith” (not his real name) spent two years in rural China supervising his employer’s interest in a Chinese joint venture where they were the majority partner (deal signed before he landed there). His case falls within the second category I’ve mentioned (I would in fact say that all that could go wrong went wrong) but that has given him invaluable lessons on how to ensure things are done right. He has also met on the way a number of joint-ventures facing quite similar challenges to the ones he experienced.

We met to talk about his time representing the foreign partner and I’ve drafted a series entitled “A Joint-Venture Survival Guide” composed of three posts based on his experiences, opinions, tips and comments .

A Joint-Venture Survival Guide (I).(First 8 Facts and 5 Tips)

Some introductory thoughts
1. China is a noble and good society… but when it comes to doing business, the value system changes. Ripping off a foreigner may be seen as a clever thing rather than a bad one.

2. Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are in a universe of their own. Drive just 100 km away into central China and reality changes. It is a hardship environment and corruption is readily encountered.

3. You may have successfully set up joint-ventures and businesses in other countries. Do not assume China is going to be the same. You are lost without an expert if you are going to deal with a local partner.
“My company had successfully set up J-Vs across the world, and nowhere did they face the situations they faced here. They assumed they knew it all, and that was a big mistake”.

“The Essentials”
4. The foundations for your success will be laid before you sign the deal.
Preliminary work is essential, and I cannot stress this enough. Once you have signed you are helpless. And later on, once your million dollars are in China, you will not be able to get them out unless you exit the J-V. There is plenty of room for disaster so make sure you dig into every single hole to figure out where the problems may be.
! Tip: This is the time to get as much information as you need. You need to be able to access all books, information about operational manual, … You may hear the somewhat overused sentence “What is the problem? Don´t you trust me?”. Well it is not about trust, it is about business, and companies that have nothing to hide will share the information with you.

5.Confidentiality and know-how protection will be difficult in a small cities. All the legal issues about this will be judged in the city in which it happens, which means that if you have a company in Shanghai and someone “copies” your product in Ningxia, the legal procedure will be carried out in Ningxia so you will be dealing with all the difficulties of operating in a place that is not a business hub.
! Tip: We are a European SME. If that is also your case you canhave free brief advice from the European Chambers of Commerce. Also a free advice for intellectual property, copy right, etc in China IPR SME Helpdesk.

6. A GOOD consultant/advisor: Priceless.
You need real in-depth expertise to pull this one off successfully:
! Tip: “J-V conflict resolution and dissolution in China is really complicated compared to other countries. Consultant/Advisor companies have an instinct for knowing the real situation”

7.[On consultants] … But find the one suited to your size
“The reality on the ground for SMEs is quite different to that of MNCs. We don’t have their leverage and muscle power and we deal with different issues/situations. It is essential to get on board a very good consultant but I wouldn’t recommend one of the big ones. I think they are better suited for big companies.”
! Tip: MNCs are often interested in high tech, setting up R + D centres, the pharmaceutical industry, medical issues and they will find some decent protection from the Local Government. In the case of SMEs that do business outside big business hubs, protection will be very difficult to guarantee and there will be unimaginable issues unless they hire the right consultant/advisor. And believe me, consultant/advisor big names will not help you to find the back door of your J-V.

8. Sign the right “pre-nup”
You obviously don’t want your relationship to go wrong, but if things happen you need to have put in place the right “break-up” conditions.
! Tip: Always use the Chinese or Hong Kong Arbitration Court. Most companies feel more comfortable with international arbitration, but what do you do when your Chinese partner doesn’t show up or doesn’t comply with the resolution? It needs to be done in China or Hong Kong where the resolution will be mandatory and enforceable.

Coming soon “A Joint-Venture Survival Guide (II)” with more interesting and useful tips to help you navigate a J-V negotiation.

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Just came back from 28 Celsius temp to now 5 C in Shanghai. I often get cough and cold this way and again no voice. These two are recommended by my friends here. They have instructions at the back in English.

This month will mark the start of the Year of the Dragon, and the renewal of a traditional rite of the Chinese family New Year celebration. Hundreds of millions of television viewers will watch the state-run TV network's annual variety show.

The CCTV Chinese New Year's Eve gala is an entertainment marathon, produced live at the China Central Television main studio in Beijing. It is a broadcast that has, over the years, been designed to unite the country in much the same way that old American TV shows like "Sabado Gigante" and "The Ed Sullivan Show" did in the 1960s and 1970s. While the American TV universe has exploded to include a thousand channels of entertainment, Chinese viewers still basically receive around 3 dozen channels, virtually all government-controlled. In the end, people in China watch what their government wants them to watch. On the night before the Chinese New Year, the people are supposed to watch 4 consecutive hours of state-sanctioned music, dancing, comedy, and speechmaking.

For Americans and other foreigners who wax nostalgic for such programs of their youth, the CCTV show isn't so bad. The content recalls Sunday evenings watching mop-topped British pop singers, wise-cracking puppet mice, and acrobats spinning plates on sticks. I happen to spend a lot of time at CCTV and get to see the Chinese performers rehearsing for this mega-colossal supershow, and can't help but admire their hard work and dedication.

Yet each year, the Gala exposes a generational split in modern Chinese society that's impossible to ignore. Young Chinese cannot bear to watch this show. They feel that it's old-fashioned and out-of-sync with their lives, not to mention the expectation that it is required viewing in the family living room next to their parents, grandparents, and cousins. Yuk!

Kids who express their preference to play video games or surf the internet until the midnight fireworks start are harshly reprimanded. The youngsters would rather lock themselves in their rooms in silence rather than watch ethnic dances and lame magicians, or hear patriotic songs. It's roughly like forcing a skater punk in the USA to sit down and listen to Pat Boone and Lee Greenwood, amid the occasional sketch comedy of Red Skelton (if he was still alive) and rip-roaring, down-home bluegrass from Dixie.

Of course, the truth is that when these kids in China grow up to become adults, it's expected that they sit down in the living room with their children, and watch this very same show 20 years from now. And they probably will.

On the other hand, nothing like MTV has ever reached the vast majority of Chinese youth, but music videos on the internet have. One gets the feeling the fireworks have yet to begin.

Upon receiving the news of North Korean strongman Kim Jong-Il's death, China's leading internet video site, Youku.com, carried a black banner at the top of its home page. It's a mark usually reserved for disasters in China. It showed up during the recovery from the devastating Sichuan earthquake in 2008, and again earlier this year after the Wenzhou high-speed train crash. But Kim Jong-Il? His departure from the world stage was hardly a disaster. I could not believe that China actually wanted its people to join in the mourning for this knucklehead.

China shares a weird kinship with North Korea, or the DPRK, as we're told to call it. There's a common political and social ideology, but really, that's about it. Yet, a lot of Chinese are envious of the impoverished Hermit Kingdom. Either secretly or overtly, they wish China was more like North Korea, closed to public scrutiny, locked-down from foreign influence, belligerent to its neighbors. When the North Koreans told the foreigners in Pyongyang to take a hike during the mourning period for Kim Jong-Il, you could almost hear Chinese hands applauding the move.

The whole big-brother / little-brother relationship between China and the DPRK would probably be OK, except for the fact that Kim Jong-Il had a few flaws. He starved his people, closed-off all international access, rejected technology that would have helped economic development, backed the kidnapping of foreign nationals, shelled and killed islanders in rival South Korea, exploded nuclear weapons, and launched short-range missiles over Japan. This guy was a wrongheaded deadbeat from start to finish, and the Chinese should have been happy to see him go.

If China wants to be all buddy-buddy with the region's most destabilizing nation, fine. But it's hardly the mark of world leadership, even third world leadership.

I spent the holidays in the Philippines which meant I got two weeks free of cold windy temperature. And as I have a few hours left before my flight, I thought of doing some articles on my Hubpages. I wrote an article on how to buy stuff from Taobao. It's not really detailed but more of a summary. Don't worry you'll get it easily. My friend taught me how to do them on Yahoo Messenger, and I didn't

Obtaining a work visa in China has become considerably more difficult during the past few years. It is no longer possible in most places in China to have a tourist visa (L-visa) converted into a working permit. And while it used to be possible to have this processed in Hong Kong, the Chinese government is [...]

The china-business-tweeps Daily is out! http://t.co/xkyWjQ4I ▸ Top stories today via @chinacontact @managingdragon @zhongnanhai # The china-business-tweeps Daily is out! http://t.co/xkyWjQ4I ▸ Top stories today via @chinahush @chinasmack @maxhenry # Merry Christmas everyone! # Stats RT @ChinaDailyEU: Drive…for transparent data: The National Bureau of Statistics will collect data directly… http://t.co/bBMCZACz # ODI power RT @BullishChina: [...]

It has been reported that as a result of a "kidnapping" by an Uyghur "terror gang" Chinese police in Pishan, Xinjiang have been involved in a rescue operation that resulted in the death of seven Uyghurs, one policeman and injuries to four others.The incident in Pishan, which is a rural cotton farming town in the Hotan Prefecture and near the major city of Hotan, occurred on Wednesday night

By Jim Boyce China Wines & Spirits (CWS) acquired fellow distributor DT Asia last month and while the news is a bit dated I thought I would post it anyway. From the press release: “[The move] reinforces CWS position on the market, with a larger and stronger portfolio of Icon brands such as Champagne Deutz, [...]

Beijing issued its "12th Five Year Plan Human Resource Development Plan" on Wednesday, marking 17 industries most in need of qualified personnel over the next five years. The plan identified more than 280 specific categories of professionals needed across fields including new generation information technology, new energy vehicles, and aeronautics ...

Well, I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb so I no longer have any opinions about politics. However, I am working on a web comic. If you’re interested, here it is: http://fasttallgrowup.blogspot.com/

The BBC produced a 3 part series on Racism a few years back.It was part of the season of programmes broadcasted on the BBC marking the 200th anniversary of the Slave Trade Act 1807, a landmark piece of legislation which abolished the slave trade in the British Empire. The series explores the impact of racism ...

A young lady wearing tight clothes, a black silk cloak and a blue mask appeared on Christmas Eve in Beijing to distribute food and clothing to homeless people on the streets. Read more

Today I accomplished a lot. I got married and became a werewolf. Then I got a phone called which forced me to stop playing video games. My friends had gone to a restaurant which had run out of tables and … Continue reading →

I love going out on Christmas Eve and doing a last minute shop. We went to Brent Cross, which is a big shopping centre near my sister. Although we had already bought all the presents, I like going out to buy some small impulse stocking fillers. Despite the news report warning of travel chaos the roads were empty and the shops weren’t full. I think most people are waiting for the big Christmas sales, which start on Boxing day. We arrived at my parents in the afternoon and then I wrapped the last of the presents including Canthy’s in a Chanel inspired black and silver paper. Tanya was excited by all the presents, but is still too young to understand what Christmas is all about. She enjoyed just playing with all the boxes, making stacks of presents and then messing all the things up. Christmas is always a stressful time, so it always feels good to have everything done and all the presents under the tree. Now I can finally relax, have a glass of wine and wish all my readers – seasons greetings and a happy Christmas wherever you are.

We went into central London as Canthy wanted to do some last minute Christmas shopping and to go around all the designer stores. It was quite busy out and despite the so-called recession in the UK, people seemed to be spending money. We went to all her favourite places including Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Chanel. I also took her to Selfridges where she fell in love with a pair of Jimmy Choo shoes. Canthy always complains that our wedding anniversary (31^st December) is too close to Christmas and New Year so it doesn’t feel like it’s so special. So this year I promised her I would buy her a few big presents to make up for this. Also since having Tanya she hasn’t bought anything for herself in almost a year and a half. She had already given me a wish list so I knew what she wanted so it made things easier. Designer presents are not for everyone but they would be double the price in China. And as I can claim back the VAT it makes them very reasonable, according to Canthy When we got home the TV news reported that today had broken all records for shopping and that customers had spent a million pounds a minute!

NLGX, the much-loved hipster store that flanking Nanluoguxiang, has been selling its original-design fashion items to thick-rimmed glasses-wearing fashionistas since 2008. Now they will be opening two new stores in the Beijing Capital International Airport, as the brand breaks into a more international crowd and takes its place as one that can represent an aspect of China’s growing fashion culture. Read more

~ By Jim Boyce When Randy Lee Svendsen recently asked me to join a group of 12 at the Great Hall of The People to talk about the wine brand 1421, I figured I would be at one of dozens of tables. I wasn’t. There was only that one table in that huge hall — [...]

Canthy loves shopping in the UK especially for food. The supermarkets here have so much fresh produce and things you cant get in China. She especially likes the organic vegetables and all the meats, hams and other food she can buy at the delicatessen counter. We took Leila with us this afternoon as she knows where all the food is and she wnted to make sure we got what she wanted too. Everytime we go Canthy sweeps the shelves so we end up with a trolley full of stuff. Her only regret is that we cant take it back to China with us.

The following item below had been originally posted on Yahoo news, a couple of years back.Yes, our blog has a page on Facebook, but we hadn’t really promoted it. We’re not sure of how and what to make of our “friends” on Facebook. Here’s the link to our “banana Asian” Facebook site: https://www.facebook.com/banana.asianAnd here is ...

Five and a half years ago, the Government banned director Lou Ye (Suzhou River, Spring Fever) from making films after he submitted Summer Palace to the 2006 Cannes Film Festival without the approval of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. The ban ended in September, and now Ye has set to work on his next film, which stars Hao Lei (the female lead from Summer Palace) as a troubled wife who has to deal with her husband and his three mistresses. Read more

~ By Jim Boyce Beijing restaurant Modo has taken the bull by the horns and stuck an all-Spanish lineup into its two enomatic machines. Modo will rotate about 50 wines through the 16 slots over the next few months. To the best of my knowledge, this Sanlitun-based restaurant was the first to use cash card-based [...]

Having grown up in Vancouver, many of my contemporaries saw our ethnicity as a liability.During the 60’s and 70’s, it just wasn’t cool being labelled as a “new Canadian”, or a “FOB (Fresh of the Boat)”. The stigma of being associated with being from what was then considered a third world country – China, Hong ...

About ten years ago Min Le (民乐) was a checkpoint. Anyone entering or leaving Shenzhen would have to have their ID checked by the army. My friend told me stories of how sometimes he would forget to bring his ID … Continue reading →

"I still have to insist on this viewpoint, whether or not you're willing to listen: Anybody who tells you that electric vehicles are going to pull suddenly ahead in China is lying," said Yin Chengliang, deputy director of Shanghai Jiaotong University's Automotive Engineering Institute, speaking at the 2011 ...

Meagan is the AMAZING Community Manager for Tomb Raider at Crystal Dynamics, and it appears she’s also a great cosplayer. She’s a lot of fun to read, and loves what she’s doing, definitely worth the following.

She’s the one who told me to start reading the Gears novels, as they help you better understand the inner motivations for each characters ; and I bought a copy of Madame Mirage right after seeing her costume (and the comics is sooooo cool). If anyone is like me, she’s helping the comic books and novels market facing the crisis :)

meagan-marie:

If you have a moment check out this very interesting article on the portrayal and treatment of females in nerd culture. I agree with the general sentiment, and understand the practice of placing nerd girls on a pedestal firsthand. The author even mentions “sexy cosplay girls” as the top targets for such behavior. 

While I don’t have time to properly jot down all my thoughts on such a complex topic (especially since I enjoy both sexy and realistic interpretations of women in mass media), I am keenly aware that I could be perceived as an offender to the interest of gaining equal gender portrayal in comics and games. The preferential treatment of nerdy females is a particular point I’d like to address, using a familiar subject (myself) as an example. 

My hope is that the larger picture redeems my occasional desire to take on a sexy cosplay project. The truth is that while I enjoy garnering attention for my hard work on a costume (be it sexy or badass) I much prefer accolades for my professional work or other artistic endeavors. At Game Informer I was routinely disappointed when my long-lead editorial pieces flew under the radar, but a single snap of myself in costume circulated the Internet. Nowadays I’m ecstatic to spy a magazine feature for one of my SDCC ensembles, but thrive off feedback from the Tomb Raider community stating they appreciate my efforts.

I know much of the above has to do with the Internet culture being visually driven and its reductive nature. It seems I can be an attractive cosplayer or competent industry professional, but not both. This reality is one reason I’ve worked hard to showcase that I am multifaceted. I love games, comics, and cosplay, but also indulge in photography, sculpture, creative writing, graphic design, toy customization, and so on.

The attention attracted from my most recent bout of costumes has placed me firmly on a pedestal with a number of followers. This is a tricky subject to tackle, as I absolutely appreciate those who enjoy my work. I get the enthusiasm. I’ve fangirled out over artists I personally admire. I even started crying when I met Michael Turner back in 2007. I understand the mentality of perceiving someone as larger-than-life. However to some degree this treatment makes me uncomfortable, and even insecure. Especially when I feel like it’s lavished on me because of my gender or my looks rather than my achievements.  

This is especially true when terms like “goddess,” “dream girl,” and “perfection” are thrown around, which seem absolutely ludicrous from my point of view. Sometimes I don’t know how to respond to such comments. Take my Facebook wall for example. Do I “Like” such a comment so to at minimum acknowledge the misguided (but good-intentioned) compliment? Do I ignore it in order to avoid seeming conceded? The tradeoff is then coming across as aloof and inaccessible, which as a Community Manager is a perception I can’t afford to foster. In this capacity it’s always a breath of fresh air when someone compliments my craftsmanship rather than my cleavage, because it’s easy to respond with genuine appreciation.

Funny enough, this pedestal placement has increased my insecurities rather than bolstered my confidence. I honestly fear meeting fans in person and being greeted with disappointment when they realize I’m not perfect. I’m not a fabled and rare creature – a unicorn. I’m just me. This is why I’ve recently made a point to post photos of myself without makeup, or working on a giant sword in comfortable clothing and dorky looking socks.

I’m not perfect, and I don’t want to misrepresent myself as so. Just ask my boyfriend, who was previously one of my only male friends to treat me as me. He didn’t sugarcoat advice or fall over himself with the grand gestures others thought I required. He treated me like an equal and a person rather than a caricature created by the Internet.

Bottom line: If you do find me sexy, thank you. I won’t be necessarily be offended or uncomfortable if you tell me so. I genuinely hope some of the less superficial aspects of my personality contribute to that attraction, however, and that perhaps you call attention to them as well. What I’m getting at is that not all nerd girls want to be treated special for simply sharing common interests. Perhaps we’d rather be given accolades for the sum of our parts, rather than what you can gather at a glace.

Thanks for reading! :)

A recent article “The Xinjiang Procedure” revisits a perennial topic of organ harvesting from executed prisoners in China. In this lengthy look at organ harvesting the author Ethan Gutmann in The Weekly Standard  focuses on organs being harvested from executed  prisoners in China particularly Uyghur prisoners in Xinjiang. It undoubtedly is written to paint an invocative and horrendous

In 2008 there was a catastrophic earthquake in Sichuan. The death toll was in the thousands. This tragedy was my first taste of the unity of a people . I was in Shenzhen at the time and when the government … Continue reading →

Tang Jun, former president of Microsoft China, said at an annual CEO conference held by IT Time Weekly on December 6 that "cloud computing" is a form of commercial hype. Tang elaborated that as cloud computing is still in an early standards-setting stage, Chinese enterprises had best avoid the concept ...

Life's being a bit hectic on this side of the internet, so this is a post I wrote a while ago but never put up here. It pretty much still stands, though :) While you guys read this, I'll be working on the round 2 edits for WHAT'S LEFT OF ME I just got from my editor! Yay! Also, recovering from the Jacksonville trip with the other LTWF girls. Harry Potter World was very cool, though the butterbeer

Some people do it daily (some people wish they did it daily!), and others only do it infrequently, or even never.

For me, spending time on flashcards has become an (almost) daily routine. I have recently already written that you should just do it, about how effective it has been for me, and to tell you how to test whether you should be using flashcards - so take a look if you haven't seen those articles.

In this next in the series, I wanted to go personal (yes, even more personal than writing about my love affair - In fact, I'm going to let you look into my actual set of flashcards, through sample sentences, numbers & dates.

Deck Statistics
Anki has a feature which gives you a whole bunch of facts about your specific deck. Here are some of mine, covering the deck itself, as well as how I've used it.

total numbers

• deck created 2.1 years ago
• total number of 'facts' is 1530 (a fact contains english, pinyin, simplified hanzi and (sometimes) traditional hanzi too)
• total number of cards is 3680 (in the early days, a fact only generated two cards: english-to-pinyin & pinyin-to-english; but after a while I extended it to three: english-to-pinyin/simplified/traditional, simplified-to-english/pinyin/traditional, pinyin-to-english/simplified/traditional)
• according to Anki, 76% of my cards are 'mature' (I've basically seen these often enough that they're 'known', 6% are 'young' (I'm currently actively working through them), and 18% are unseen.

activity

• In the last week I did 500 cards, averaging about 70 a day. According to Anki, I missed one day in the last week.
• My average over the last 3 months is 45 cards a day, and over the last year is 52 cards a day. 
• Since the deck was created, I have averaged 53 cards a day, and used Anki just under 5 days a week.
• Since the beginning, I have added less than 5 cards a day, but this has only been around 2 a day in the last year. (Remember that by entering a single 'fact' Anki automatically generates a number of 'cards' - so I would say this averages about 2 new physical entries a day, that's all.)

sample entries

From humble beginnings ...

• The first six entries in my deck are:  (know / zhīdào / 知道), (formal / zhèngshì / 正式), (about / guānyú / 关于), (accept,approve / tóngyì / 同意), (after / zhīhòu / 之后), (agree / shuōhǎo / 说好).

To a long way down the line ...

• The six latest entries are:

1. profit commission adjustment request / 盈佣调整询问函
2. There were a lot of groupies at the Michael Jackson concert in Japan / 迈克尔·杰克逊在日本的演唱会招来了许多追星族
3. to accumulate over a long period of time / 日积月累
4. Unless you say it so that your word becomes another, then it's no problem / 除非你说的词变成另外一个词，否则没问题
5. tomorrow;daybreak / 明天;天明
6. You have to tighten up the handle, it has become loose / 柄松动了，你得把螺丝拧紧

I think you'll agree that I've improved my skill level over the last two years!  And don't let this mislead you ... I don't know all the latest ones. For example, I recently needed to know the word 'loose' while talking to someone and realised I didn't know how to say that. So I looked it up in the dictionary, found a good sentence, and entered it into my deck. A few weeks will pass before this sentence comes up to the top of the pack, and then I will 'learn' it through spaced-repetition.

So that's me

If you'd like to share some of your desk statistics, I'd love to see them - whether you're a beginner or really advanced.

Most interestingly, I would love it if you could leave a comment below to say what your first few words were, what your most recent entries are, and what the time period is in between.

And if you've just started a deck of your own, perhaps since reading this series on flashcards, let us know what your first few entries have been.

Decades ago, IBM sales people used to sell mainframe computers (I am talking back in the days when computers filled entire rooms), based on the FUD factor.   “Of course, you could choose not to buy IBM…” they would say with raised eyebrow.

The FUD factor is Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt, and if you were a buyer of mainframe computers, that’s exactly what you had to face in the buying decision. Were you brave enough to step away from the safety of IBM?

Today, the FUD factor is at work again in China’s aluminium market.   Shanghai spot aluminium prices have risen 5% in the last week, largely due to the market fearing that shortages of the light metal were imminent.   Power shortages, delays to start-ups of new smelting capacity, government actions to eliminate old inefficient capacity, and an expectation that the economy was still on track in all the key consumption sectors, all combined to create fear in the market.

In fact, the fear has been rising progressively in the last few weeks.   The market has been in backwardation since June, a reflection that longer term, the sector is likely to be in balance.

The question is, has the market really got something to worry about?   We think there is a certain amount of over-reaction in the price.   There have been some delays to new smelters, thanks to a shortage of building materials in Xinjiang.   But the electricity shortage has so far not seriously affected supply to the market, and with the price so high, smelters across China are gearing up to extract every tonne of metal they can, and maximise their profitability.

AZ China will be examining the situation in more detail in our next monthly report, due out the week after next.

I knew that China is re-enslaving Africans, but didn’t know they had done it in the past as well.
excerpt from here:
“Yes, it seems Chinese indeed used black slaves probably from 7th century. See below.

“Beginning in the Tang dynasty, Arab traders brought a number of East African slaves to China. Although historians have studied the African slave trade extensively, particularly the export of West African slaves to the Americas after 1500, a much smaller body of research focuses on the premodern East African slave trade, and fewer sources still mention black slaves in China.

From the eighth to the fourteenth centuries; the Arabs controlled this vast slave trade, which stretched not only along the entire coast of East Africa and throughout the Arab world but as far east as China. Black slaves were just one of many commodities in the Arabs’ large-scale maritime trade with China, which peaked during the Tang and Song dynasty (960-1275).

The Jiu Tang shu 舊唐書 (Former Tang history) mentions that the Arabs sent delegates to the Chinese court in 651, marking the first recorded official contact between the Chinese government and the Arab caliphate. By the ninth century, a sizable community of Arabs lived in Guangzhou, and the local residents could have seen African slaves on trading ships and in Arab homes. Some wealthy Chinese people even owned African slaves, whom they used as doorkeepers.”quote via this link The Magical Kunlun and “Devil Slaves”: Chinese Perceptions of Dark-skinned People and Africa before 1500

We played a show at Raying Temple in Beijing and Yang Haisong came along and saw us, then he said he produces records for Modern Sky and Maybe Mars and if we wanted to go that route, we could work it out. We said we'd rather do it with you freelance stlyle. So that's how it came about.

We booked two days in the studio, but did everything in 4.5 hours. Everything from setting up mics, testing levels, doing 14 songs an taking some breaks to creep around.F and I are doing it all ourselves. Each CD has been hand folded, hand numbered, hand stickered, hand stamped and there is a DVD. No labels. Maybe Noise offered but we didn't think it would work out for a few different reasons.

But anyway, Pairs and Duck Fight Goose full albums on the way. Duh, winning!

China likes to win medals in the Olympics, it makes people forget how badly this place sucks. In order to win medals, however, there must be rules. Strict rules, and who cares if the toddlers to not understand them, after all, its all about the glory of the motherland.
photos from mop.com here

New Japanese restaurants are a trending topic in Gulou lately. Suzuki is cool and cheap, but the food is hit-and-miss. Kiko needs customers like a whale needs Greenpeace. And as for Yoshi Izakaya, that was an insult to sticky rice grains everywhere.

This place is the first Gulou Japanese that feels right as soon as you walk in.

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These photos from this site show the Chinese doing what they do best. Killing something so they can earn a pennie. This body of water is a tributary of the Yangtze in Wuhan and the Chinese are helping to suck out all that nasty 02 and fill it with essential nutrients like human waste, tin and old computers. This is all part of the peaceful rise of China.
Damn I miss Mao….

One month ago Beijingers, China, and the global media were held captive by the long-awaited start of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed train. Since then, the news has shifted from high expectations to underwhelming reality as trains broke down, stations crumbled and smiles turned to tears.

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