Digesting China

2 men blamed for hunting down the last Indochinese Tiger in China

2009-11-27T10:58:00.008+08:00

Two men live down in southwest China's Yunnan province has managed to kill a tiger and selflessly share the meat with local villagers. Cooking method: Stew. The news spread, and police went to investigate and found Tiger paws, skins and bones at one guy's home. The evidence were taken and tested and proven to be Indochinese Tiger (or Panthera tigris corbetti). According to the early findings of the place, this seem to be the last Indochinese Tiger in China, while in 1998, it was estimated that around one thousand of those tigers are still alive in Southeast Asia and southern China but still being hunted.

The two men are taking to court and expected to pay 480000 Yuan (70 thousand USD) to compensate the loss of the country if the court rules they intentionally hunt down the tiger. Mr. Kang, one of the killers, acted very emotional in court, His father was attacked by a bear years ago and lost half of his face while his brother was stamped to death by a wild elephant.

Court was filled with confused villagers who don’t understand how wild animals could worth so much more than human lives.

Amusing piece of news: Imagine you’re having a quiet dinner with your family one day, putting the last bit of meat into your mouth, police kick the door in and inform you that you’re eating the last chicken on earth, how would you feel?

Addiction

2009-11-26T14:14:00.004+08:00

It's a strange feeling when you type someone's name in google and click search. It almost feels like you're asking a total stranger about someone's personal life. It's addictive, taking a peek at someone's online life, feeling the little evil of curiosity being satisfied. I opened my internet history browser by chance and was surprised at how often i google someone's name, here is a list of some of the people i googled recently:

-Evan Osnos

-Peter Foster

-Allan Little

-Anne Boleyn

-Connie Hedegaard

-Stephanie Kleine-Ahlbrandt

...curious, very curious...

Copenhagen hopes

2009-11-25T16:41:00.004+08:00

I attended a so-called "press salon" where China's special representative for climate change, Yu Qingtai spoke and "chat" with reporters today.

It's fascinating to watch how reporters try to squeeze a quotable clip out from Yu, but he somehow managed to stay dull. The whole thing last for an hour and half(maybe longer, but not for me). Yu managed to not answer one simple question for 3 times, and shows no will in shifting its no biding commitment stance. As the expert on the issue, Yu took every chance to scorn the ignorance of journalists. "Yes, i agree but also disagree with what you said...do you drive? do you take planes to fly back to your home?....etc, etc..."

On an issue that's so critical to our existence, people make effort to try to understand what's going on, what can be done and what will be done. The answers from China seem to be:

a) You guys don't know what you are talking about, so stop blaming us.

b) You rich fuckers in developed countries should fulfill your commitment before you ask us to do more.

Copenhagen has to be successful, but there's no leverage in what we can negotiate, how is this going to happen? Someone enlighten me.

Freedom in exile -the autobiography of the Dalai Lama of Tibet

2009-11-22T19:21:00.000+08:00

Yes, I know, he’s a jackal in a monk’s robe and that you can’t just listen to what he says, you also have to see what he does.

I decided to listen to what he says first. Words, thoughts, dialogues, I find, is the best way to get to know someone. Of course, people lie, but human nature always reveals itself in bits and pieces. Unless you’re communist officials…or Dalai lama.

I started this book ages ago, two months, it took me to finish. Like a lot of the China books I own, smuggled into the country, and unable to carry around. I read them only in my bedroom. It might be just way too careful, but I never have much faith in Chinese censurers, and their judgment of “pornography”. And the expression on my friend’s face when she sees the big smily face of dalai lama lying around in my living room certainly didn’t encourage me to carry it around.

It’s an easy book to read. The main reason, I think, is that Dalai lama learnt English later in his life, so that it’s narrated in a simple way. The book is logic, fact based and insightful. I have learnt a few things about Tibet as a country. He also talked about his meeting with Mao, Chou, and his impressions of them, which I find very interesting. Most informative things in it are the explanation about CIA link, how reincarnations are chosen and his position of what he wants for Tibet now.

Dalai Lama is, afterall, a human being. The way he thinks, the Buddhist theories he holds, explains the faith he has in human race. He fundamentally believes that human nature is good. Chinese puzzles him, the lies we tell, the pains we inflicted on their people, he doesn’t understand why.

Tibet issue, after I read the book, I think is an issue trace back again to political freedom. Much of the killings, the inhumane things took place when China has least of the political freedom. Things were bad in China, let alone Tibet. Things still is bad in China, there’s no way that Tibet can be talked about now.

The book is written and updated more than 10 years ago, I wonder whether he’s changed his mind on a lot of things. He thought that the June 4 incident has shortened by half to two-thirds the life of Communism in China. I wonder whether he still think that now.

I’m glad that he has received apologies from people in my country, I would do the same, if I have the honor to meet him someday. I want to tell him how ashamed I am and how sorry I feel for the terrible pain we inflicted upon their people. What’s more, I want to tell him to be less optimistic about us, the richer we get, the less we think.

2012, I got the joke.

2009-11-22T19:19:00.000+08:00

I’ve read a lot of reviews about this movie before I saw it. To sum up, they are all illustrated version of: It’s the worst movie ever.

Now that I have seen it with my own eyes, and the comment I have for all the critics is this: you’re wrong. This is the best movie ever, you just didn’t get the joke.

I nearly laughed my head off during a few scenes. The way the story was told is so blunt and straightforward that you can picture a brilliantly smart director saying: yes, u dumb ass people want this, here you go. Cheap dramas, high tech effects, a black and white perfect story about a perfect end of the world. To support my theory, examples.

The director seems to have had a painful experience to convince someone when something is too late. Hence the movie scene where the father calls son in Japan, but Japan is gone. Lesson learnt: sometimes, when I say too late, I mean too late. It reminded me this movie I saw about PLA soldiers saving people in a flood. It was compulsory so see those kind of movies when I was in middle school. It’s essential to educate the young the brilliance of the communist leadership and the bravery of the people’s liberation army. It made me cry. A lot of things make teenage girls cry, in that movie, the key words are: selfless soldiers, diligent officials, saving innocent people, have no time for their own family. Therefore, the story of communist ideology was told in a communist style, and subtlety has never been a virtue here. But when it’s done in Hollywood, I’m stunned with joy.

Any China scene starts in this movie, you wonder what the Chinese movie censurers are doing. Then you realize the brilliance of the director again. When he means literally what he means in the rest of the movie, the hidden sarcasm will make blunt Chinese censurers think he meant what he meant and let the movie into China. PLA soldiers help Tibetans to retreat, DL lama being the spiritual leader and die when world ends, China being the only country capable of making alien size ships…people, don’t you get the joke???

I was thrilled with joy though when I see that communication networks always work during any natural disaster. If I were to be trapped alone when world ends, I’ll call my family to send love, call the guy I love but didn’t love me back to say that I still hate him, I’ll call some friends, and hopefully to receive some phone calls expressing their hidden emotions for me. Afterall, China mobile is very reliable.

Beijing Bus

2009-11-19T13:38:00.005+08:00

Beijing bus has its own flavor.

Literally...it smells bad, especially in winter. Shut windows and heating usually do well in magnify all the detailed smell of an unwashed pair of feet, unchanged clothes, body odor of freshly ate garlic, and if you have a nose for wines, you might smell out even more flavor than me.

I take bus no.639 everyday to work. Not being a morning person, i grumpily get out of my warm flat, work 5 minutes in freezing cold and wait for sometimes over 15 minutes for my bus. But i manage to stay in okay mood. Usually, it's when i step into the bus, i sense a surge of anger in me, and i start my daily rant.

Most of the Beijing buses kept the old style of a driver and a ticket seller while in other cities in China, you usually through 1RMB into a box and get on. Bus no.639 has a collection of the world's rudest ticket sellers. Rank the top, a lady in her 20s but judging from her temper, well into the worst period of menopause. The minute you step onto the bus, you're under her surveillance: walk to the back of the car, you're blocking driver's view...did you pay? yea, right, i didn't see that...you have to pay extra because you bring that big bag, no,no, 2 RMB, 1 is not enough...

China has made an effort to change the attitude of its public service. Back in the nineties, people beg to get any service. In restaurants, in banks, everywhere you go, people show you a stone face. It's a gradual change, you still go into banks and get cold reception, but walking onto bus 639 always make me think of the horrible old days when people were treat like shit, and being a ticket seller on a bus means immense power that you just have to show off that you can make people do things they don't want to.

The psychology to the ticket seller is intriguing. They have got to be the people who are least suitable to hold any power. A simply task of selling 1RMB worth of ticket have given them the ego of controlling the whole bus load of people, you wonder what they would do if given the task of selling 1 million Yuan worth of national debt. Unfortunately, i think they represent people who run this country.

It's a common thing when people get carried away when they've climbed from poor to rich. They show off their power and expect people to admire. China is like that, showing off the money and cannot accept any criticism. It's worrying if and when it's given too much power on the world stage.

Book: A long way Down

2009-08-20T11:51:00.001+08:00

No, it's not okay.

you may keep telling yourself this if you're a pessimist. But this book shows you the real dark humour of not being okay.
　　
don't read this book if you have never stopped in your life for one second to appreciate the sophistication of your day to day life, and every decision-making process.
　　
be light-hearted when reading, be ready to see the absurdity of your own life, be ready to feel depressed, and be ready to accept that this is life.

Book: High fidelity

2008-10-20T11:57:00.000+08:00

Okay, girls, do you make list? I don't mean shopping list, but list for everything, top 5 songs, top 5 books, top 5 breakups, top 5 sex?
　　
　　No? Then u need to read this book to understand a nerdy man, which pretty much covers most men.
　　
　　It's shocking enough to know they exist let along the fact that they do have a brain. They don't function well in real life, but the way they try to logic is surreal.
　　
　　If you're depressed about ur relationship, this helps you to reason: 1) Men won't make the move, they struggle too much with themselves to realize they actually have a life. 2)Men don't really know what they want, so they confuse when there are too much offer on the table. 3)Men like to keep their options open, just in case something better come s up. 4) U have to respect their nerdyness.
　　
　　Anyway, a wonderful book about a nice guy trapped in his own mind. Good laugh and educational...

Book: The Kite runner

2008-06-18T11:57:00.000+08:00

'm still reading this fabulous novel, well paced with the best clichés, the regrets, the love, the payback. Everything is perfect. It gives a glimpse of what Afghanistan is, which is so rare and precious for a Chinese to see.
　　
　　The story itself, it makes me wonder about this theory I had for awhile. There are only two kinds of people in the world, one live happily, the other live meaningfully. Most people in between, trying to balance one another. But there are some, who seeks happiness, but ended up with only a meaningful life filled with pain and good stories. Amir is one of those people, who never meant to have a difficult life, who wants to live comfortably with his intimidation, but things happen, he always takes the wrong turn, and ended up with a meaningful life. Hassan, on the other hand, chose to live a meaningful life, and ended up with a meaningful life, pain is always there.
　　
　　Me, I've made up my mind to be happy, to achieve the ultimate happiness, I have to have the episodes with pain, with meaningful turns that I never meant to have.

Film: Groundhog Day

2008-05-23T11:54:00.000+08:00

This is your life, and yours, and yours as well.

A man lives a day over and over and over again. This is the story.
　　People view it as a comedy, coz it ends well.
　　Yet it's the darkest story ever that it made me depressed for days.
　　Unconsciously, we DO live our lives in a routine, same day over and over and over again.
　　Mentally, some of us do wake up and realize we've been living the same day. We go through the same mental process like the film.
　　But the reality is: So few of us gets the happy ending.

Book: Chinese Lessons

2008-05-12T11:56:00.000+08:00

　I have to admit that I haven't read a whole load of so called anti-China English books about China, nor have I read a whole load of books written by foreign journalists speaking Chinese and think they KNOW China better than anyone else.
　　
　　But this one, by far, is the best.
　　
　　John Pomfret didn't bore me with all the facts he knows about China, it's just about people he shared a part of his life with. In his words, it's a story of him becoming a man bit by bit.
　　Stories about his classmates are so vividly described, that it totally destroyed my sleep. I couldn't stop. All the human stories about Cultural Revolution, the absurdity of that society made me angry.
　　Maybe it's like every other book about China in the sense that it talks about the same suffering, same breakthrough, same difference of China.
　　But the reason it's so different is that John Pomfret put him in the stories, snogging a girl in alleyways in the 1980s, living in a 8man dorm where people spits all over the floor, marrying a Chinese in the end...he, unlike other China experts who stands afar or comes close physically yet despises everything Chinese, is a part of China.
　　
　　In a way, he is Chinese, only without the shadows of communism.

Book: No time for goodbye

2008-04-23T11:52:00.000+08:00

Airport novel

...best to read it when flying long hours. This book is better than spending time day dreaming. So don't waste your time if you have better things to do, better books to read.
　　
　　The plot is simple, regular crime novel. The only good bit is that the author tried very hard for you to unable to guess what will happen next, and that keeps you reading. But at the same time, you know it's a waste of time because he tries too hard to confuse you.
　　

Book: Wild Swans

2008-02-03T11:47:00.000+08:00

　this is the longest China book i've ever read.
　　
　　if you're brought up in China, a thorough Chinese like me, grew up in the peaceful 80s, then this book opens your eyes to the China you didn't know from your rigid history lessons.
　　
　　it's not about dates, it's someone's personal history, which makes it easy to read. it showed me so much about the mad times of the "natural disaster" years, the cultural revolution, and the fanatic cult of Mao. it reminds me the novel "hundred years of solitude", a world of surrealism.
　　
　　Read the book, and then you will realize that those things really happened, not just something you vaguely read in a book.
　　
　　Only downside of the book is that it annoyed me when the writer tries too hard to impress people with her experiences and her early developed self-consciousness and independent thinking. and I'm sure the writing is a somehow exaggerated, that to a point you suddenly think, there's no way all these things happen to one family. It also annoyed me how popular it was among the left wing Brits in the 90s. i can imagine how this book affected their opinion about China till even now.

China's American Idol plus Big Brother

2007-05-21T17:53:00.000+08:00

I'm never a fan of entertainment shows, yet every brainless show I watched, I enjoyed. I suppose I can’t say liked, as I enjoyed the ruthlessly criticizing process while watching with my friends.

Months ago, I went to this press conference of Good boy competition held by Shanghai TV with my colleague, last years top 3 showed up, I explained to my colleague they won by singing as I never watched it before. Top 1 said something, top 2 came up and gestured- HE COULD’T TALK, how could he win a singing competition? Then I watched bits of the show, it’s soft gay porn style, cute boys singing, dancing, tear their clothes off, they hug each other when lost and cry, and…you know, just gives you the goose bumps.

Then I switched to this famous Hunan provincial channel, where the famous Happy boy singing competition (names are all so gay) is taking place. It’s the end of phase one, and the competition was fierce. Contestants are good, have nice voices, but no personality. People vote for the good looking ones, while they keep saying I love you…Boys with strong personalities are not well received, boys gay and brainless often win more votes.

13 boys are picked enter the final, where the Chinese big brother will take place. 13 boys living in a house—well, another gay porn to look forward to.

Bullet trains on the way

2007-05-18T17:52:00.000+08:00

China recently speeded up its trains, and started to run better, fancier bullet trains between some big cities. One month after the glorious trip, the bullet train runs between Beijing and Zhengzhou took its first monthly check-up early this week.

Perhaps this is no surprise to anyone, but the fancy train has been wounded by its passengers in the most bizarre ways.

-Emergency hammer has been stolen a couple times only because it looks useful.
-Automatic water tabs are taken because some passengers think it's really cool that water runs when you put your hands under.
-The toilets are worse. The turning buttons are all taken, toilet roles, even the gadget that holding the roles was taken.

Apart from these, curious passengers tested every emergency buttons, tried every emergency facility, and experimented on everything a regular train doesn’t have. Turn the 360 degree chairs till they’re broken, sit on attached small table till they crash, put gum and waste papers in air-con ventilators.

Don’t know what conclusion they will come up in the end, perhaps, fancy trains are unusable under extreme conditions? But the conclusion we can come up with is: development should come step by step, one step too big, chimps would get fanatic.

The noblest cause

2007-02-06T19:23:00.000+08:00

It's always tedious to join in a conversation when all the points have been discussed, and I’m trying to bring in something new. Pollution, global warming, there really isn't much to discuss, except for the fact that China does care more about the serious pollution issues than you think.

Someone forwarded me an email, a well-known program wanted to do something about China's pollution, and government's attitude, at the end of email, he asked, do they give a toss?

You think that some prestigious TV producer would know better.

The Chinese government, for the past few years, have been nothing but cooperative. Travelling to a bio mass plant in central China, you could see how much effort China has been putting in it. Of course, there is huge financial incentive, but you can see how local farmers have been benefiting from the program.

Locals have never been able to save a lot of money, they use to eat what they grow, but now with the new biomass plant, they can collect straws, tree leaves, wood, soot, peanut shells... then sell it to the factory.

70-year-old Mr.Yang and his son brought over 20 bags of straws, they were really happy with the plant, before, they didn't save any money, but now he can afford to send his grandson to school in the capital city.

China is big, like the idiom says, the mountain is high and emperor far, even if there are policies in place, it will take forever to carry the message over all the mountains. With the international society and foreign media shouting loud at China, it's just not helping. Should China restrain the right to develop for the noblest cause of human being? It does smell suspicious when the argument came from those who think human rights is the noblest cause of human being.

For once, I'm tired of the criticisms on China, for once, the nobles should shut the fuck up.

Freedom of speech, or not

2006-12-04T17:55:00.000+08:00

China is opening up from January 1st, 2007 to foreign journalists. Shocking news!!! Now, every journalist come to China needs to go through a tedious bureaucratic process, apply to foreign affairs office, propaganda departments, but from next year, these exist no more. There's been a wide discussion among foreign correspondents here. Not because it's too good to be true, but, the new regulation will only be effective till the end of Olympics. I could see a huge mess of managing the new rule and changing back to the old one, feeling crazy even to think about it.

Shenzhen Impression

2006-09-09T22:11:00.000+08:00

Shenzhen, the city of thieves, or is it Guangzhou? In the Chinese old saying, they are the difference of 500 grams and half a kilo. I was warned, I don’t know how many times, beware of the thieves, thugs, robbers slash your hand as a easy way to steal a purse… I’ve never had so much fear for a city before I even come to the place.

The place I lived in is the only 4 star hotel around the Bao An district, I assume, since there aren’t any other proper buildings as far as I can see. The district is not in the central areas of Shenzhen, and it certainly doesn’t look like the Shenzhen I see in pictures. It looks like an average small county in China, styleless buildings, old and extremely dirty, streets are jammed with traffic, with loud horns and no obvious rules…

“Don’t go out after 6.” With the zillion times of warning from a cab driver who just cheated me into paying him twice the price, rejected my request of using the meter, and kicked me out before my destination because he is late for the shift, I started my trip.

As my work is to find the poor, the migrants, I had to ask for the dangerous areas where everyone looks at you like a piece of meat. With the help of a friend and guide, I squeezed myself into, I believe, the poorest neighbourhood of the district, or possibly in Shenzhen. Just like Harry Potter walked through the magical gate to the diagon ally, I walked through a small door behind a vendor selling smelly fish, and the sight is also awfully magical. The city has obvious forgot about this world, garbage, filth, noisy malnutritious kids, half naked men, and a row of disfigured buildings.

I started to talk to people: this is a group of people that the outside world may never understand. They are curious, when I start to talk to one, all came and watch and join in; they are angry, when I say I’m here to report, they started to tell me about all sorts of things, last year when someone next door died, no one cared, last week, my boss refuse to pay; they are fragile, when I told them we will bring in a camera and shoot them, they were so frightened and walked away, afraid that they may get into trouble. The difficulty in communicating with them is unimaginable, like we are speaking a different language, they are uneducated and self conscious, they are not sure how to protect themselves from the wealthy and powerful, so they try to shut down the whole world.

Rare people keep an open mind in the neighbourhood, they just say no, they don’t want you to explain; smarter ones listen to you, but never trust you. When I told them the shooting could make the government put more money to make your lives better, they smirked, guess I wasn’t the first one to give a very unpromising hope, or simply just a lie. They don’t believe in the government, they don’t have concept of their rights, when I tried too hard to convince them, they just say that it’s a life style they chose, no one else could help them.

Surely, I got through some less iron-like shells, and talked to those jobless, bored people. One guy was taking care of his two children, one 6, the other 1 and half. His wife is still working in the factory as Saturday is working day around the area, and he has been out of job for over half a year to take care of his kids. He was extremely shy when I said I want to take a look at their home, saying that it was untidy, I forced him anyway, prepared for any untidiness possible. The staircase was narrow and dark, the smell was horrible…his home, not enough stuff to be untidy of. The place is less than 10 square metres, 2 beds, lower one for him and a kid, upper one for wife and the other kid. The only luxury they have is an old fan, which he switched on when I walked in, like some kind of welcome. We chatted for a while, the information was difficult to get through, I don’t know if he understands, but the child was crying like hell and we couldn’t talk, he felt sorry and explained that the baby doesn’t like up here, and there’s no toy for him so he wants to go out. Oh, his wife works at a toy factory.

There are better families than them, and there are worse. I don’t know who build these buildings, but they were all separated in less than 10 square metres’ room, I talked to many others, honest ones, and bad ones, some invite you in, some shut the door to your face, some look at your handbag and ready to grab.

Mid morning, the rain storm started to pour, I haven’t seen such heavy rain in years or is it because I was in these poor neighbourhood, even when I was inside, the leaking rain from everywhere wets my shirt completely, without a proper draining system, when I walked out, garbage mixed water is half way up my ankle.

I tried to get into other neighbourhoods later, they are all better compare to this, one honest guy refused to do the interview because he thinks his place is better than others, and he was afraid that others would gossip.

Looking out my window at night, darkness covered for the filth, crowdedness, lights make the city beautiful, more beautiful than other cities. I couldn’t believe that I have walked through some most dangerous areas in Shenzhen, or maybe in their world, I’m the dangerous one.

Rain is still pouring, and according to the weather forecast, will continue for another day. The dreadful weather, the dreadful city, all is so familiar, 12 years ago, I travelled here with my parents, we were robbed 10000 Yuan, I had a narrow escape of car accident, my father was flirted by a dozen prostitutes, and strangers came on to ask whether we need forged notes… has the city changed? I really need to get down on my knee and pray.

Animal rights in China

2006-08-05T06:33:00.000+08:00

The latest news is that there’s been a breakout of rabies in China and tens of thousands of dogs are being killed in the most brutal ways. This piece of news will certainly be handled differently by Chinese media and foreign media. Most likely, Chinese media would emphasize on the breaking out and people affected while foreign media would certainly mention how the dogs are being killed.

I’ve worked on a radio story about UK’s animal rights, even with the oldest animal rights laws in UK, there are many problems and activists are doing all sorts of things to stop human using animals in any ways.

In China, this is the least worrying of all. There is no proper system set up to protect animals and people rarely think about the issue.

When there’s a breakout of animal related diseases, human selfishness expresses itself in an extreme way. Bird flu, burry birds alive; rabies, poison, electrocute, and hit dogs with bats until they die.

When there’s economical interests involve, poor Chinese farmers express their brutal human instinct to the limit, where they hunt tigers, elephants, and skin any animals with valuable furs alive.

In more peaceful, wealthier cities, Chinese still express their scorn of animal lives, they sell pets at a very low price in horrible conditions, many abandon their pets just because they are sick, the number of abandoned cats in Beijing has reached more than half a million and still souring. When the local government realize that the number is too big for them to cope with, the only solution they come up is to kill all the abandoned cats.

Though people now start to treat animals with love and respect, there are still tens of thousands of perverts maltreating animals. A few month back, a woman gained her fame by wearing high-heels and stepping onto live cats till she kills these little animals, which was suppose to be showing some kind of sexual domination thing. It was condemned by the public, but who knows how many other people are “cureing their mental disease” by killing animals.

Fake Drugs

2006-06-25T00:23:00.000+08:00

Watching House.M.D. is very enjoyable, though I don't understand much about all the medical terms. It's a soothing thing to know that doctors are responsible even just in TV dramas. In this one episode, House found out that the medicine the new boss developed is just the fancy version of the old type with much higher price and thought it was cheating. But in the case of China, if the worst cheating pharmaceutical companies do is this, people would thank god for the blessing.

"Armillarisini A injection" produced by Qiqihar No.2 Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province had caused the deaths and kidney failure in more than 10 people. The company is now closed down and under investigation. A series reports are coming out, with detailed analysis of who should be responsible for the issue. Even without knowing the details of the managerial structures, one could easily conclude that none of the procedure was taken with great care. None of these people realize that the negligence of their responsibility means death of innocent lives.

The triggering cause of the fake drugs was that while Qiqihar No. 2 Pharmaceutical Co. should have imported the pharmaceutical excipient of propylene glycol at RMB 17,000 (US$2,125) per ton, they bought the raw material from Jiangsu company at only RMB 6000 (US$750) per ton without asking for a quality certificate from the Taixing Chemical Factory or visit chemical factory for a check, before buying the raw material for his company. And each procedure of inspection later on failed to discover the problem and let the drugs out on the market.

While the making of fake drugs is a horrifying procedure, the distribution is even more shocking with the fact that bribing doctors is a must in order to make them to use the medicine. However, in this case, the abnormally low price of the drugs made by the company won the bid in Guangdong province and became the sole producer of the drugs of same class and then used without doubt.

In the end, only deaths of people could bring the industry to question the drugs. The issue will eventually be settled, some guilty people will be caught, while others- the big fish, will be able to find their scapegoats and claimed to be innocent. There will be more triggering causes for more medical accidents, the media will always debate whose fault it is this time, but since there are so many leaking holes in the manufacturing and distribution system, inspecting the feasibility of the whole regulation system should be the ultimate settlement to the issue, or else all the drugs will inevitably fall into one or two of these holes.

slap god in the face

2006-05-04T00:27:00.000+08:00

If one doesn't believe in god, how can you expect them to respect god? If religion is the other side of politics, why bother to explain innocence of pure faith?

I really couldn't see through the situation between Vatican and Beijing. I don't know what Vatican is trying to make Beijing do, and what Beijing is trying to say. Antitheists install bishops, Catholics concede in order to establish relationships with Beijing, the logic is beyond me. The installation of Cardinal Zen seemed to be a friendly gesture towards Beijing, but what are they expecting? Imagine, there are over 12 million Catholics in China, how could Beijing loose its grip and let them be loyalty to the Pope? For Beijing, the situation is even weirder, churches have to be state-sanctioned, imagine the situation, an antitheist go into churches, evaluate all the clergies, and see who believed less in god, and more in economic development and 3 representatives. Finally, imagine those Catholics in China, they read same bible, believe in same principles, but they aren’t recognized by the Pope (unless you have to join an underground church to reinforce your beliefs). How strange it is for them to accept that they are different from other Catholics.

I wonder, if god really is the guy who would let you slap his left face after you slapped his right one. If he is, Beijing wouldn’t play it softly.

Restart

2006-05-04T00:19:00.000+08:00

One month long holiday recovered me from the side-effect of writting essays finally. But world doesn't stop turning, China doesn't stop being in the headlines. So here I go again~

伦敦，再多给我一点时间

2006-03-28T08:21:00.000+08:00

My Chinese article published at BBC China.
You can also find this article on the index page with an ugly picture of me.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/china/

"Pacifist" Japan goes to war

2006-03-25T09:10:00.000+08:00

Read my article about:

With Japan sending troops to Iraq and prolonging their stay there, China worries that Japan is attempting to revise its constitution and start building armies.

My flu

2006-03-23T02:33:00.000+08:00

Painful days for me. I went to the doctor's this morning, not helpful at all. I wish to end this sooner and ask him whether I could use dripping instead of pills, he acted like I'm from Mars. I told him I'm taking antibiotics, he interrogated me where I got them and sounded like I smuggled in Heroin, he saw my black tongue with wield Chinese medicine, and "Oh"ed, like I'm from some ancient tribe, use strange method to cure my illness. However, he took 15 minutes to ask me my symptoms(correcting my English at the same time and enjoy it),use 2 fingers to type , 1 letter per minute, and told me that I'll be fine with the medicine I'm taking. This country is too regulated that it freaks me out.

However, this makes me to appreciate my culture even more. I’ve been taught a lot by my mother to diagnose simple illnesses as she is a doctor. I know the cause of my fever- eating “hot” food. A non-exist concept in western hemisphere. It’s not chili hot, but hot as in Yin and Yang. Some food has Yin qualities like pears, grapefruit, apples and most vegetables. Yang foods are meat, all sorts of cooking sources like chili, curry, and fruits like pineapple.

So cold can be categorized into two causes (well, strictly speaking more than 8 with combined causes and different seasons): 1. you really caught cold. It’s mostly weather related, thus, you could drink some ginger tea with brown sugar (brown is Yang and drink water with brown sugar also works for cramp during period). 2. Too much “Yang” food. It could be diagnosed when you feel a sour throat after eating too much hot food. Thus, you need to eat Yin food to cool it down. Pears are most effective, and grapefruit. Anyhow, avoid eating meat, especially chicken, as chicken will “lock the Yang inside”, and make it more difficult to cure.

There is always something good about China that makes me miss home. This is one of the things you don’t have to believe it all, but it’s beneficial to learn the essential. After all, this is more helpful than the Indian doctor’s long lecture on how I have never seen bad weathers like this in China. Me? I walk around during sandstorms and pretend nothing has happened.

Tibetan nuns

2006-03-19T09:18:00.000+08:00

Bad boy alert: Mommy will know

2006-03-14T08:29:00.000+08:00

The question is this: “when you have been caught with a prostitute, who is the last person you want to be informed of your ungraceful behavior?” It may take awhile for you to answer, but the omnipotent Chinese government has figured it out: Your family.

So here goes the new punishment. Once you were caught in prostitution from March 1st, your family will be notified immediately. For married ones, your wife or husband will be the notified, while parents will be notified for the unmarried ones.

Applauses to this new law, though I am not a strong dissenter of prostitution. With the huge burden of moral condemnation by your most loved ones, the new rule will be, to a certain extend, effective.

However, I personally accept the theory of legalization of prostitution. As sex is a innate human nature, and as it’s something between two people, well, most naturally and originally, there will always be someone who is incapable or unable at the time of finding someone else for the physical act of love. Prostitution emerges as time requires. I see it as an unstoppable social behavior.

I glanced through this book about the situation of prostitution in China. It was dreadful. It’s obvious that sex workers in China are receiving a minimum education on how to protect them, as they would always do want the clients want them to do.

Anyway, back to the new rule. As a self-deemed virtuous human being, moral torture is something I couldn’t bare, and thus presume the rule would be useful. But for a person who already goes for prostitution, you can’t really expect them to dig out the worm of conscience.

Message from Home

2006-03-06T06:56:00.000+08:00

The first news I heard about my hometown. A very bizarre car accident took place in the middle of the city center killed 4 people and injured 22. According to the description from Sina.com, the driver seem to be driving with an average speed, and god knows why he started to drive towards the sidewalks beside a huge square with hundreds of people, and a bus stop with over 20 people, finally hit on a sculpture at a crossroad. Some witnesses say that the driver was conscious after he hurt 2 people, but didn’t react and was transfixed, a woman sit besides him was crying because of the scene. The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but it reminds me 2 things that I want to say.

First, the average poor driving skill. With the ridiculously overpriced teaching fee, the only way to secure you pass the driving test is to bribe the teacher. The result is that 11 people are killed by car accidents everyday in the province. I don’t know what will be this driver’s excuse, but surely, if he was conscious then, he should have the skill to do some damage control.

Accidents aside, I kept hearing numerous jokes about unskilled drivers: My friend’s mom, bought a new car, got her license and stuck her car in the middle of a slope. It caused a major traffic jam in the city center, and traffic police came and threatened her to move ASAP, she got out of the car and asked the police to start the car for her and drive her back home because she was too scared. Strangely enough, she still got to keep her license in the end.

Second, Kunming is a small city with only one major commercial center, with around 5 million populations; the road is way too narrow. Since the heavenly weather of eternal spring, bike is always the best choice. Kunming is one of the cities in China with most bikes, and every road has a bike route nearly as wide as the driveway. And also because the city is not so big, many people even prefer to walk or take buses. The bus fare is less than 10p, it is fixed fare and will take you anywhere around the city, even to the airport let along train stations. However, as cars become a symbol of advanced lifestyle, young people started to buy cars. The city started to jam 24-7, but people are proud because it shows the fast growing economy.

I don't understand, in the UK, people drive because it’s convenient and cheaper than public transport, but in China, not only Kunming, but every other places in the country, people buy cars to show they become rich and make their life harder and more expensive.

bird culture in Yunnan

2006-03-02T08:46:00.000+08:00

Read my article on Postscript website about:

Bird flu swept through Yunnan, the southwest frontier of China, in November last year. Unlike other parts of the world, birds are a part of people's daily lives here. Even with the fear of infection, people still coexist with birds in many different ways.

Lost in celebration

2006-02-26T07:22:00.000+08:00

Losar celebration in London was today, passionate Tibetans got together at a small community center, celebrating the new year of fire dogs, I was nervous at first as I have never seen a Tibetan flag hanging on the wall with Dalai-Lama's picture in front of it. I felt like I was doing some underground activities. On the other hand, I felt at home, consider where I came from and as a minority myself.
I talked to one of the lady who was in charge of organizing the event. She told me that there are less than a hundred Tibetans in London, most people know each other very well, and they get together 5 times a year.

The party started around 7, people started to arrive. It strikes me so hard that there are so many original Tibetan look men and women arrive that when you see them you felt the mystery highland of Tibet. It strikes me even more when I saw most of them are married to British and having children who are playing around and shouting English.

The place was simple and crude just as the food. The Tibetan tea they made was horrible, with the butter bought maybe from Tesco. The food tasted Indian, nice, but surely not how Tibet tasted like. People started to dance after awhile, singing in the tone I'm familiar with, the wildness from grassland only it’s in a community center in north London. However, the traditional part ended very soon and people started to dance to the pop music from India.

I could see there are attractive men dancing around, wearing their traditional costumes, with raw sexual masculinity from the mysterious land, flirting with British girls, drinking beer and shouting in fluent English.

Gypsies from the East, lost their homeland to an evil regime, fighting for freedom with their exiled leader, preserving their culture, proud of their culture and believed in justice will speak in the end. Honestly, I don’t see their future.

Democracy is a good habit, get use to it

2006-02-18T07:49:00.000+08:00

I only realized this on a class I had days ago, democracy is not a habit for Chinese. It's my on-line journalism course; it's about naming our new website. Through conversations, it's clear that all the Chinese in my group think that it's totally not worth it to spend that much time on a name because there's no way we could come up with something all of us liked. The editor should name one, and we shall use it whatsoever.

Anyway, after brainstorm, discuss, fights and final proposal, we voted. We chose one that is not very satisfying, we were not sure whether we'll use it, but it felt good. The public make foolish decisions, but it's the public's responsibility now to make it right. It takes time, it's tiring, but when it's the voice of the majority, I would shut up and listen.

Ma Ying-jeou impression

2006-02-15T09:02:00.000+08:00

Before knowing him, my stereotype of Chinese politician is greasy hair, horrible suit, and dishonesty. Ma is different. I went to see his lecture on cross-strait relationship on 13th at LSE, and was very impressed. He speaks good English, not perfect, with a bit accent, but it sounded natural and calm. And most important, he answers to questions. When you grow up in an environment where politicians speak in puzzles, it's a relief to know that the problem is not you.

How would you define country? A geographical entity? Taiwan used to be a part of China, historically. But it depends on how long you want to date back. A cultural entity? We share similar culture, we speak same language, we eat same food, and we’re fans of same singers. A political entity? This is where problem really lies in. In Ma's lecture, I understood that we once were one country, we might become one country in the future, but right now, it's impossible. Taiwan's political system is 100 times more advanced than Chinese. With such a system, democracy is the natural trend. But in China, millions of farmers don't even have a clue what democracy means. Drag Taiwan back to the Chinese map is going to destroy their current system, and shake their economy. But for those who shout for Taiwan's independence, it's a different story. Taiwan and China is bond together by strong economic ties, with the communist party’s pressure, Taiwan will not be recognized by most countries and without China's economic tie, and there will also be huge social turbulence, let along security threats.

One question though. Without one country two systems, if Taiwan comes back as a part of China on the basis of implementing political democracy and change the rule of communist party, what would happen? Mad? Because keep itself safe is already difficult, why bother to negotiate for impossible things. Naive idealist, am I? It's just I always believe that one small stone would bring some tidal waves to this dead lake. Hong Kong tried, only for its own sake, and is still trying. Will Taiwan try? Not for its own people, but for those drowning in the dead lake.

Hate spring festival because...

2006-02-12T06:28:00.000+08:00

This is my first Spring Festival without parents and grandparents. With the lantern festival coming tomorrow, the season will be officially over. I wonder what I have missed other than family.

The routine CCTV gala for a start, I used to watch it every year, and so do other hundreds of millions of Chinese. I used to hate it for its hopeless jokes that I never get, songs and dances that says Communist Party is great, China is magnificent. I don’t blame the patriotic atmosphere, it’s just frightening to see theses little children on the stage sing with a routine smile, talk in a routine tone and dance with a routine moves. This year, I finally missed it. And I have to say, life gets a little boring without it. No regular get together and scold all the shows and hosts make me feel a bit uncomfortable and too good to be true.

because...

2006-02-12T06:25:00.000+08:00

The golden week travel season, another thing I’m glad to have missed. I really have no idea how the train system works in China, but it looks like that during the golden week, it’s impossible to buy tickets from places where they sell tickets, such as train stations and agencies. All you have to do is to call your friend who has a friend who has a friend who has another friend who has connection with a friend that could get you one ticket that is 2 or 3 times higher than normal prices, and you will thank him forever and invite everyone involved to dinner. If I decide to buy 100g of heroin, I doubt it will be half as difficult as this.
However, regular people do try to buy tickets from ticket booth. These people often are migrant workers who go back home once a year or in two years. Most of them queue for over 48 hours to get a ticket. They buy the cheapest ticket which will still be more expansive than usual season because this is the best time for Rail service to earn money. Some of them have to stand on the train for more than one day, and the recent news is that the toilets on the train are too crowded that they have to use diapers just in case. （image from BBC Chinese)

And because...

2006-02-12T06:20:00.000+08:00

“Watch out, it’s the year barrier.” My mom always shouts when I go out late months before the new year. Year barrier, the end of the year is something from the old days. It’s when landlords go to farmers’ homes and ask them to pay back debts before the new year, and if they don’t pay back, they have to sell their daughter (or something else, but the old plays are always the landlord wants the beautiful young daughter). So farmers run away and hide in mountains for weeks to escape the debts. It’s difficult times and so they call it the Year Barrier. Cross the barrier, there will be a whole new year. Sarcastically, in the socialism new era in China, Year Barrier is still the case for some people. They have debts, they have family to rise, and they are desperate and hope to bring back something for their family to spend a happy new year. So the peak time for thieves and robbers began. They are desperate, they hate the society, they don’t have anything to lose and they miss their family.

Last but not the least, the New Year money, another wield tradition I don’t get and my parents don’t get. They must be relieved that they don’t have to discuss how much money they should give to my little sisters because they’re afraid that they may give less than my aunts and uncles give me. And more importantly, there will be no excuses for those who give me unreasonably huge sum of money in order to make my parent to do something for them.

Despite these annoy “little” facts, it’s still very sad to miss the big festival season with family. We get together on New Year’s Eve, making dumplings and quarrel about little things, have a little drink, watch the CCTV gala and make fun of it. And then mid-night approaches, there will be beautiful fireworks; people wish their beloved ones have a happy new year… Only this time, there are still people out there, someone trying to buy a train ticket with 300 Yuan he robbed from a woman earlier today, regretted, excited, and unwillingly crossed his barrier into the New Year.

Compulsory cremation, right or wrong

2006-02-08T05:39:00.000+08:00

Read my article on Postscript website about Chinese Compulsory cremation policy.

Reunion? I don't think so

2006-02-02T04:38:00.000+08:00

I got goose bumps when I heard the names of these two pandas they will give Taiwan, Tuan tuan & Yuan yuan, which means reunion when put together. Before I go on about political agenda, I wonder is it just me or is it really that the aesthetic standard is falling to a new bottom low. Sure it means well, but it just feels like someone named happiness in English, so obviously tacky. And this name seems to be unanimously expressed the deep desire buried in the mind of the whole population.

Of course, I shouldn’t' believe it since the news is from Xinhua News Agency. The piece was written in a fanatically patriotic way that it just made me really sick. It says:" Regrettably, there is a delay in sending the pandas, because some people in Taiwan are fabricating things saying that sending these pandas are a part of the mainland's political agenda..." Oh, really, you don't say??? I thought it's just a name, you know, reunion, it means nothing at all.

I don't really want to go into the whole argument of whether Taiwan is a part of China, it's impossible for me to look at this objectively since I've been brainwashed throughout my education, and I don't appreciate the political agenda in the western hemisphere either since it's too obviously trying to create trouble for their own good. But, I'd say that if I'm a Taiwanese, I would definitely refuse to accept the pandas, because accepting those means accepting reunion. And I can't believe I'm trying to explain such an easy logic that the Chinese just pretend that they don't know about it.

I'm really ashamed, as a Chinese, having an ancestor named Sunzi, the greatest strategist of all times. Do we have to do this in such an obvious way?

Censorship? Not again!

2006-01-27T02:59:00.000+08:00

It looks like that I wouldn't be able to see freedom of speech in China in my whole life, since the government is resolved to stitch up people's mouths. Yesterday, another paper was censored, and I'm just got use to it that I didn't even bother to ask why. Same excuses, same angers, same debates, same analysis and same conclusion. I just wondered why they pick this time. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I'd say it's because of Google. (The Google story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm) Google's step back encouraged China to move forward. The government felt omnipotent since it controls the huge population that means countless money for companies, and they know that Google or any other company would go for it.

I've been looking at all kinds of opinions online today, interestingly, most people are just like me, not surprised at the censorship at all, it happens so often that we just don't care, and some say that it's ok as we still have proxy server.

It was then it hit me. We are living in a horrible condition, but we have adjusted ourselves to it because we have no choice, and when we got use to the condition, we don't feel the horror anymore. We have proxy server, but people rarely use it, we have blog, but people use it to mumble their daily lives. The truth is, we could have any information if we really want to, but since we are fine without these pieces of information, we gave up our right to have them.

I begin to understand why the government is so devoted to block information. It’s not because they want to stop people from getting the information but because they want to make it clear that they don’t want you to know. Psychologically, I guess it worked. We don’t bother to become know-it-all.

And I begin to realize why the government is acting so cordially to solve social problems and reduce the gap of the rich and the poor. It’s not because they really care for people, it’s just because they want to keep people busy making money and living a happy physical life that they don’t bother with higher mental pursuit. Thus, communism will be able to keep their dictatorship.

Anyway, another one down, more to go. I wonder what I would do if blogger.com turns for Chinese market, maybe I’ll make my self disappear, as an outsider, observe that some people are numb while some remain sober, wait for this long and dreary fight to end.

Joke 3

2006-01-26T00:58:00.000+08:00

Medicine cannot be sold as bread. The medicine price is not high, I don't agree with the idea that we should lower the price. The president of a major pharmacy company in China said this, and I wonder if he has been regretting since?

I guess that most people will find the statement above makes a lot of sense, of course, medicines should more expensive than bread, why should anyone make any fuss about it? Well, Chinese might, if you spend 100 times more than buying bread.

There is an essential concept in this problem, brokerage. Since the medicine industry is severely over-capacitated, companies have to raise the medicine price, and use this extra money to publicize their medicine. How do they do that? Yes, making advertisements as usual, but more importantly, they have to sell their medicine to hospitals. But since there are so many similar kind of medicines with same quality same effect and same prices, which brand the hospital should choose? The one offers more brokerage to the hospital. And from here, vicious circle begins.

Well, yes, I call it a beginning, because price is not the only problem in this system. It was a month ago, I heard about this story; a patient from a northern city of Haebin paid 69 thousand dollars during his 67 days in hospital and died after all. There are 4500ml of blood in a human body, and in the final bills, this old man has received 94 times of blood transfusion. The minimum unit of blood transfusion is 100ml, 100 by 94 is 9400ml. 67 days, and they have transfused all the blood in this man’s body twice. How is it possible? The only possible explanation is that the doctors know they got a rich man in hospital and they decide to unit, squeeze all the money out before he die.

Another example, my grandpa had a heart attack 1 week before I left home, it was his second time and it was serious, but luckily, he survived. The whole family took turns to look after him, but because my mother used to be a doctor, she stayed there all the time and obviously extremely worried about something. She wanted to know all the medicines the doctors has been using, but we don’t have the right to know, and each time we ask, the doctor became more inpatient. In the end, we were so afraid that the doctors maybe so unhappy about us that he would use some medicine that may make grandpa worse. On the third day, a nurse came in with some medicine, and my mother decided to try again and asked what they were. Shocked, she found out that they were using the wrong medicine at the wrong time. We hid the medicines, and next day my grandpa was out of the hospital as we have decided that anywhere is safer than the hospital.

It’s just really hard to say what the worst problem is in this medical system. I was trying to write about all the problems in the beginning, but failed to do so as I’m so confused and incapable of understand how the system works. In fact, I believe most people in China are like me, confused and horrified, that most people are just trying their best to keep themselves healthy in order to avoid hospitals. Oh, maybe this is the advantage of this system, making people afraid so that they will take better care of themselves. So genius and evil.

Feed back

2006-01-22T23:43:00.000+08:00

None Chinese are a bit more supportive than Chinese, though there were only a few read my posts. My father suggested that I might be a bit too extreme while PD worried that what I wrote makes me look bad. (Especially the education part giving that I'm a production of this system)

I wonder, am I too negative about my country? Am I exaggerating things a little? Or am I really telling the truth? I really don't know. I tell what I felt, what I saw and what I heard. This is actually the intriguing part when everything I tried to do in all these years is to learn to be a journalist, to make no judgment, to write objective, balanced and fair stories. But the basic principle of this blog is: Fuck journalism, be sensitive, passionate and biased.

However, a part of me felt guilty. Guilty of making biased judgment on a group while I know there are great individuals in this group who believe in a better world and is fighting for this world. More importantly, I felt guilty of judge the Communist party when I was raised by a communist family. Even today, when I argue with my parents, they insist that we're living a better life because of the Communist party. My father, a devotional communist, has never changed his point of view even when people condemning all the killings and dictatorship, he would say: "I am sorry that happened, but we are trying to make improvements, everyone makes mistakes, and speak on behalf of the Communist party, please give us some time and we will do better." I believe him, everyone believed him, because you can see him really trying to make a change. My mother, a Communist who believed in God whole-heartedly, my grandfather, an old colonel from the red army, they have all benefited from the Communist party and now being abandoned and felt sorry for what the communist party have been doing for years.

I guess my family is as confused as I am. Communism, they have benefited from it, they educated me to always feel indebted to it because it gave us a better life. And when I’m writing about the truth, about what has been happening in China, they don’t know what to say to convince me not to do so.

I love my country, but I doubt my government. I'm grateful for what the Communist party did years ago to liberate the poor, but sit idle and eat, everything will be used up. The Party should be grateful to have extremists and freedom fighters, because it's these mad people who are urging the government: To achieve democracy, to give people a better life, don’t just sit there and do nothing, it’s time to move on.

Joke 2

2006-01-21T23:01:00.000+08:00

The spokesman from the Department of Education said that the education reform in China is very successful. 85% of the population received compulsory education while 25% received higher education.

What a remarkable improvement. China is always good at making remarkable achievements in terms of quantity, but not quality.

Huh, let's see. I should know more about this topic, since I'm personally involved in this system from 1989 to 2005. I am a living eyewitness of the great education reform. And what did I remember?

Second year in primary school, my homework everyday was to copy 10 Chinese characters 40 times each, my mother helped me as she believed then and I believe now that it's a total ruin of a child's creativity. The teacher found out and invited my mother to have a chat, mother gave her a present, she totally agreed with mother's idea.

First year in middle school, I had a debate with a teacher in class, it's relevant to the class, and apparently I was right (it doesn't matter anyway), she talked to me after class and said I let her lose face and was very irreverent to her. She said that I should remember that a teacher is always right and threatened me that if I do it again, she will never let me join in the communist youth league（you can't imagine how frightened I was since every student believed that only the worst students were left out, and it was something show all the quality of a good person)

Second year in high school, since I've always been a good student and did well in the exam, I went to the best high school in my province. And my English teacher sucks. Once, I asked her why one multiple-choice question chose A not B, she told me that apparently B is not right. I argued, and she didn't happy. The next thing I know, she hid my test paper, and told me my score wasn't good enough to enter a competition I wanted to go very much.

Last year in university, my roommate copied a dissertation from the internet and submitted 2 days after the deadline 1 day before the dissertation defence. The next day, the tutor (Dean of our school) came in 1 hour late, asked her three questions:" what's your dissertation about? How many words are there? What do you plan to do after graduation?" She got A in the end.

Maybe I'm just not lucky, but they somehow show a profile of my education. Or, let's just assume that there are much better schools and educations in China, and look at the reform on another perspective.

One aim of education reform is to educate more people. Thus, universities take in more students every year. To do this, they have to lower the criterion, so they take in some bad students, and some bad teachers. In most of the cases, this is not enough, so more universities with the worst students and teachers were built. In this process, quality worth of nothing and other issues occur. For example, two equally bad students want to get in this university, but there is only one vacancy. Who should get in? Bribes and corruptions emerge as the times require.

Another aim is to industrialize education. It means that university has to make money for itself instead of living on government money. I understand that in UK, this policy has earned so much money. But in China, this decision was catastrophic. There are 9 million farmers, most of them are hoping to be educated, to go to university and change their social status. But the fact is: In 2001, the average income among farmers is 300 dollars per year, the proportion of tuition takes up 170% of this figure, over 500 dollars a year. My tuition fee was 1250 dollars a year. ( All the caculation are based on a rough exchange rate of 1 dollar= 1 RMB)

There were 50 students in my class in the university, less than half of the people found job, about 20 chose to have further education, in order to improve themselves or to escape from the fact of being jobless.But the employment rate was still 100%, because you have to say you found a job in order to get your degree. I guess that's why in 2005, the rate of employment among graduates was over 70% while hundreds of thousands of students are out there on the streets moaning and struggling.

Joke 1

2006-01-21T07:21:00.000+08:00

10 biggest jokes in China in the year 2005, this post has been on the web for a while. I just have to bend down my knees and adore whoever wrote this, and share his or her satire with you all.

Today, the first joke.

December 22, the Director of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission for the State Council (What a meaningless but blustering name) said in a press conference: There are absolutely no monopolization in the industry of oil, telecommunication and electricity in China, they belong to the nation, they belong to all the people, thus, all the profits come out of these industries will be used for the public good.

Now, put the monopoly thing aside, I wonder what's the logic behind this belong to nation, belong to people concept. Working class is the ruling class in this Communist country, working class means no capital, everything belongs to the people. So when there is a company set up, there will be money and assets, and they have to belong to someone, but working class couldn't have anything, so they say the company belongs to the people, everyone in this country. Imagine, everyone, and I never get paid!!! Where did this money go? To the representatives of the people-- the communist party government. And what did they do with the money? I can't go on and I don't want to think about it.

And then the monopoly part, strangely enough, I tried to find these industries' market share figures all day, but couldn't find any. Though I know that in oil, there are only 2 major companies，Sinopec and China national petroleum company takes up over 90% of the market. In telecommunication, 99% of the market was taken up by China mobile and China Unicom...and then I realize something in the university Marxism politics and economy theory-- There is no monopoly in communist country, and I'm confused. I went to find what this director said exactly: the ownership of these industries is socialized and pluralistic so monopoly today has a different concept than ever before...

God, I have to learn prevarication as my third language.

farmers,protests

2006-01-19T08:19:00.000+08:00

What's the big deal in killing a few people? I mean for the Chinese government. They could always get away with it. They never worried, in 1989 nor Falungong. But now, it seems they do get a bit fidget after killing these farmers who tried to protect their rights.

Violent protests among farmers are very new phenomenon in China, new but deadly contagious. According some statistics, only in 2004, over 3 million farmers took place in some demonstrations or protest. Each protest follows with more deaths, more media black out, and more ridiculous excuses. It's amazing how the government said that there were accidental injuries in the December Shan Wei incident when police and army men opened fire and killed over 10 farmers.

But why the government is panic? Why there are scapegoats resigning from their position? I was still working in the BBC at that time when news came in that there's been a massive attack on farmers in a small place near Beijing, everyone tried to get materials first handed, and then we heard that one of these farmers has filmed the whole process and sent the tape straight to the Washington Post.

Farmers are too knowledgeable and intelligent to cheat on. Yes, they still grow crops day by day and wish their daughter marry a young man who is strong and could grow crops day by day. They have never expected anything else but their lands, and so they will do anything they could to get them back.

This might be one reason why the government worry, but more important, let's not forget about how the communist party came into power-- they were all farmers once, their lands were taken by landowners, capitalists and Japanese, and so they protested, setting up so called red basis here and there and finally made a big area. Not only the communist party, but also most of the dynasties in China are formed and overthrown by farmer protests. Same thing is happening today, and I guess the communist party wouldn't stupid enough to forget about their past and let media to report all the protests freely and gave the farmers a chance to get together and make a final turn over.

According to a BBC report, in the past 10 years, over 66 million farmers lost their lands. There are about 9 hundred million farmers in China out of the 12 hundred million populations. It's a funny thing how people are trying to learn from the history, and a funny thing to know that history is doomed to repeat itself.

Fair trade with China

2006-01-18T21:10:00.000+08:00

Soon after the "bra war" took place last year, the European market of textile seems to be a huge mess, no one is happy about the UK government's decisions, and Chinese is making fun of stupid British who in a Chinese saying, lifting up a stone and hit one's own feet. For Chinese, it's amazing how the Europeans believed in fair trade, and took advantage of their naive belief. I still remember when the Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai being asked by the BBC reporter what he thinks of the quota set for China, he said that it is so unfair that when Chinese joined in the game, and became good at it, the Europeans are trying to change the rules. Now, I don't know what the Europeans are thinking when they let the Chinese textiles flood in their market in the first place.

How much money can a textile factory worker earn in China? a common factory in the south coastal area of Dong Guan offers 33 cents per hour, and after deduct the money for some welfare system that one would rarely benefit from, the actual amount is 24.4 cents. Workers usually work over 10 hours a day without a rest and all they got from the day is less than 3 dollars. These workers work under extremely inhumane way, there are monitors everywhere, 12 to 15 workers sleep in a space of less than 25 square meters, and sometimes there are serious pollutions in these factories. A pair of Nike that may worth more than 120 dollars in the US market is only worth less than 1.5 dollars for a Chinese worker, and apparently the company took advantage without slightest hesitation.

Imagine, how on earth the Europeans could compete with a country has no human right, doesn't mind pollution and take no responsibility for their citizens. Despite the wonderful wish of having a fair trade with China, the EU should really think about setting more limits for China to make it care for its people if it wants to be a player in the international market. After all, we live on a same planet.

A new start

2006-01-18T03:45:00.000+08:00

Knowing that people couldn't access blogger.com in China is actually a relief, at least now I'm safe here to make comments about communism, and this motherland that I loved and hated.

In a way I'm a coward, seeing all these freedom fighters in China being caught and put into prison makes me want to hide and leave. I wanted to fight, but not with this evil like government. Changing the rules of the game whenever they want, they could put anyone into prison with an excuse of treason.

So here I am, fighting in a subtle and effectless way, only to convince myself that I'm still a fighter.