Aug 24, 2010

Henan to Add One to Huge Population

Tuesday, August 24, 2010
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Henan Province (河南) is the biggest of China’s 22 provinces, with its population exceeding 100 million in July, 2010. For comparison, this means that Henan has a bigger population than many countries including Germany, France and Great Britain.
One downside to this is that its huge population creates a substantial strain on Henan's economy which is 20% less in per-capita GDP than China overall. While China's one-child policy (计划生育政策; jìhuà shēngyù zhèngcè; literally "policy of birth planning") is controversial and has been often denounced in Western media, it has limited population growth which poses increasing burdens on the Chinese economy, especially in Henan. Consider that without the one-child policy, Henan would have reached a 100 million population about 13 years ago and would have a considerably higher population today. 

In a few weeks, Henan will be adding one more person to its population when I move to Henan's capital city of Zhengzhou (郑州). Being a foreigner, I won't count for census purposes, but I guess I'll just have to get used to being one of 100 million +.

Aug 19, 2010

Thursday, August 19, 2010
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A CNN news article today reports on a bombing in Xinjiang, China by member of the Uighur ethnic group who drove a bicycle loaded with explosives into a crowd on Thursday killing seven people. 

"The explosion took place around 10:30 a.m. on the outskirts of Aksu city in southern Xinjiang," said Hou Hanmin, deputy director of Xinjiang's information department. "Police have determined it was an intentional act." 

The Uighurs are one of China's Muslim minorities, living primarily in the in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in China's far west. Uighurs desiring independence from China have protested violently at times, including some serious riots in 2009 in which 200 people were killed and over 1800 injured.

Aug 17, 2010

China's Vulgar Culture

Tuesday, August 17, 2010
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A recent article from BBC News, reports about criticism of Chinese media by Minister of Culture Cai Wu, who spoke out against "vulgar productions" advocating money-worship and consumerism. Minister Cai blamed this trend toward vulgarity in Chinese culture on market-oriented economic development, where a profit- oriented system passes off cheap entertainment as culture. Cai stated that:
"In today's world, a country's culture and economy are inseparable. A government must pay more attention to culture and originality if it wants to improve the quality of economic development."
China's President Hu Jintao (胡锦涛) has also recently criticized Chinese media for relying on "vanity, vulgarity, and kitsch."

Its likely that Minister Cai's notion that the increasingly consumeristic market-oriented economy in China is largely responsible for the change. Over the past 3 decades, China has transitioned from a command economy where the Chinese government strictly controlled virtually all media to more of a market-based economy. As a result, China has experienced huge economic growth and rapid changes in many aspects of society. While many of the changes have been positive, there have certainly been some negative results as well. In a market economy, the media content (films, TV shows, etc.) that is produced and sold is essentially determined by the market (i.e., consumers). Consumers in China, as elsewhere, often tend to prefer always going to get high-quality entertainment or culture. The general public often tends to prefer low-brow culture. This is why music by artists such as Lady Gaga and so-called reality TV shows (which generally have nothing to do with reality) are extremely popular.

In Cai Wu's opinion (and probably that of many other Chinese government officials), the government should exercise a degree of control over culture and media in order to ensure that its citizens are exposed to higher quality content.Whether and to what extent, government should control (regulate or support) culture is certainly debatable. With no control, the likely result would be generally low-brow culture, but too much control might overly constrain creators. I don't have any answer to this dilemma, but I'll leave this post with some quotes about culture from some much more famous people than I:

A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.  Mohandas Gandhi   
 
If art is to nourish the roots of our culture, society must set the artist free to follow his vision wherever it takes him.  John F. Kennedy

Without culture, and the relative freedom it implies, society, even when perfect, is but a jungle. This is why any authentic creation is a gift to the future.  Albert Camus

Like every other good thing in this world, leisure and culture have to be paid for. Fortunately, however, it is not the leisured and the cultured who have to pay.  Aldous Huxley

Aug 12, 2010

Abigail Washburn Brings Bluegrass to China

Thursday, August 12, 2010
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I came acoss an interesting article, Hard Pickin’ Into China’s Growing Music Industry, about 
folk singer/banjo player Abigail Washburn who recently performed at the Shanghai Expo. While I don't know Abigail personally and am not too familiar with her music, I am a fan of her husband, banjo-playing jazz, folk vituoso Bela Fleck.Abigail is quite unique in melding elements of traditional Chinese folk music with American bluegrass. She's also fluent in Mandarin Chinese and can therefore sing songs in Chinese as well as English which is bound to endear her to Chinese music lovers. Abigail Washburn first went to China in 1996, on a college summer trip. After spending some time studying Chinese in Shanghai, China grew on her and she thought she might live there before she embarked on her music career.

Despite her Chinese language ability which is exceptionally rare for American performers, Abigail still acknowledges that the music industry in China, although growing, is still very challenging. Not surprisingly, Chinese people generally tend to prefer Chinese pop music, known as Mandopop (华语流行音乐) or Cantopop (粵語流行音樂) when sung in Cantonese dialect) although major stars from the United States and other countries can also be very popular.
Abigail, Bela Fleck and the Sparrow Quartet with some Chinese bluegrass musicians
In her interview with Forbes, Washburn commented on the chaos of the Chinese music industry: 
"[W]hen you talk about the music industry, it can be frustrating. It is in the States now, too. In some ways, it feels like Beijing and Shanghai are ahead of the States, because they’ve actually skipped over CDs and record labels. They just do direct to consumer sales, which is where it needs to go in the U.S.But (China’s) such a small market (with) so little investment. And of course, in the music scene everywhere (in China), nobody has permits and (yet) everybody does everything."

Abigail singing with some Chinese children

You can check out Abigail's upcoming tour dates (in China and America) here and you can check out some of her music at Last FM and MySpace.

Aug 11, 2010

Starbucks in China

Wednesday, August 11, 2010
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Starbucks, which in recent years has scaled down its operations in the United States, is looking toward future expansion in Asia and mostly in China. Starbucks' chief executive Howard Schultzovertake Japan as its biggest market outside North America. Starbucks currently has 376 stores in mainland China (and about 700 if Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan are included), but plans to open thousands mainland locations more over time. However, Schultz apparently understands that rushing into the China market can be a fatal mistake, stating that China is "a complicated market that requires significant discipline and thoughtfulness." believes that China will 


As it has done in Japan, Starbucks will have to modify its offerings to suit Chinese customers, both generally and within different regions of China where tastes can be quite divergent. I'd expect to see more tea-oriented drinks similar to the Roasted Green Tea Latte which has proved popular in Japan. And of course there's the Green Tea Frappuccino which originated in Taiwan, but is now also offered in the U.S.


In my opinion, Starbucks shouldn't bother trying to compete as far as plain old hot tea is concerned (unless they partner with local brands) since most Chinese tea is much better than what Starbucks serves.

If Starbucks is smart, in terms of its product offerings and marketing, I think it can be very succesful in China since young, relatively affluent Chinese are extremely brand conscious. By targeting this audience effectively (largely through Internet and mobile phone marketing) and cultivating the type of "cool" image Starbucks has in the U.S., China might ultimately overtake not only Japan, but maybe even the U.S. as well.

Aug 10, 2010

Asian Trade Triumverate

Tuesday, August 10, 2010
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A recent New York Times article reports that China and South Korea are planning on opening free-trade negotiations in 2011 which may ultimately lead to a three-nation trade zone with Japan which would rival the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement. However, some South Korean industries (e.g. farming, fishing, etc.) are likely to object due to fear that China will underprice them.

The United States is also eager to enter into a free trade agreement with South Korea although Congress has so far refused to ratify it due to pressure from the beef and auto industries which may not be confident they can effectively compete with South Korea. 

Whether a 3-way trade pact between China, South Korea and Japan will become reality is by no means certain, but if it does, the result of furthering trade with the 3 of the 4 biggest Asian economies and could be dramatic. China has the largest GDP in Asia, followed by Japan, India and South Korea. The lessening of trade restrictions between these Asian nations and the resulting increase in trade will even further increase Asia's growing economic power in the 21st century.

Aug 9, 2010

Faye Wong: Cantonese Cranberries Cover to Confucius Theme Song

Monday, August 09, 2010
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A year or so ago, a Chinese exchange student from Lingnan University who was spending a semester at Belmont University turned me on to Chinese singer Faye Wong. I've since become a fan of her music and her uniquely pop-oriented, but also somewhat alternative influenced style.

In addition to being one of China's most popular singers, Faye Wong has had some memorable acting roles in Chinese films, one of the most notable being Chungking Express (重庆森林), produced by Wong Kar-wai (王家衛). The film consists of two separate stories, both about a  Hong Kong cop's relationship with a odd, mysterious woman. The second story features Faye with male co-star Tony Leung. As with most of Wong Kar-wai's films, the story is vague, but the visual imagery and characters are often fascinating. The film also has a very unique soundtrack, including repeated snippets of the song California Dreamin' by The Mamas and the Papas and Faye Wong's Cantonese cover version of the song Dreams (originally by The Cranberries) which is played during the ending credits.
 
Music video of Faye Wong's version of Dreams
Faye has been mostly out of the limelight since around 2003, but recently recorded the theme song for the Chinese film Confucius, about the famous Chinese philosopher. The song entitled You Lan Cao is based on an ancient Tang Dynasty poem about orchids which Confucius was apparently quite fond of.
I found the following translation of the lyrics:

Alone stands the orchid, aroma shimmering around;
Rejoiced by all else, above and beyond;
Of sorrow shall it be, unnoticed all along?
Days and years, wondering around like a vagabond,
Wisdom the Old King seeks, hence wise and strong
May the Lord see mine as the one
Blossom my wisdom for my lord, like the orchid under the cold,
Long last my lawful words, till generation of prosperity unfold.

Aug 8, 2010

China's Indie Music Explosion

Sunday, August 08, 2010
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The BBC World Service recently produced a series on creativity in China and one episode involved interviews with two musicians about China's growing alternative music scene.

Shanghai-based electronic DJ and producer B6 talked about the lack of Western music when he was growing up which resulted in music fans relying primarily on black market CDs ("compact discs that were imported from the West to be recycled, then sold on the black market"). During the Chairman Mao era, music was controlled by the government and used primarily for propaganda purposes.

"We grew up so fast, there are now a million bands and a million rock 'n' roll kids in China."  Abe

Another musician interviewed, Abe, is a guitar player for Beijing-based Bigger Bang! (大棒!) and also talked about how he was influenced by Western rock and punk music, which was also hard to come by. However, both Abe and B6 believe things are much different now, largely due to accessibility of all kinds of music online as well as relaxed somewhat government regulation of entertainment and media. The Internet has also made it much easier for Chinese musicians to make their music available to others, although not necessarily easier to make money doing so. Both agree that it is still very difficult to make a living as a musician although B6 is one of the rare exceptions that is able to make a living as a full-time musician.

While B6, Abe and many other Chinese musicians have been heavily influenced by Western music and tend to mimic Western styles, they also add Chinese influences to their music. elements. As B6 puts it: 

"I do Western music but I'm Chinese, so it's Chinese music."

Aug 6, 2010

Lindsay Lohan Taiwanese Video

Friday, August 06, 2010
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Poor Lindsey Lohan just can't seem to stay out of trouble. She recently got out of jail after 13 days to go to rehab. If you haven't followed Lindsay's recent travails, here's a clever Taiwanese video which sums it all up. Even if you can't understand Chinese, its funny just to watch.






Aug 5, 2010

Chinese Children

Thursday, August 05, 2010
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I've been a hobbyist photographer on and off for years and nowadays most of the photographs I take are from my travels. I don't focus too much on any single subject - basically, I shoot whatever interests me - scenery, people, sports, flowers, etc. One of my favorite photographic subjects in China is children. They make great subjects since they're cute and often eager to strike a pose for a foreigner with a camera. Here's a few samples from some recent trips.
Some of these Chinese models start posing at a pretty young age

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  • Author: David Moser

Aug 4, 2010

iPhones From Zhengzhou

Wednesday, August 04, 2010
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Foxconn Technology Group has opened a new factory in the city of Zhèngzhōu (郑州), my soon-to-be new home, located in Henan Province. 
 
Foxconn is a multinational, Taiwan-based company which basically acts a a subcontractor, manufacturing electronics and computer products for other companies. The new $100 million factory in Zhengzhou will mainly produce Apple iPhones and is expected to crank out about 200,000 iPhones a day. The plant is starting out with about 900 workers, but is anticipated to grow to as much as 150,000 eventually.

Foxconn has been shifting some of its manufacturing from the southern, coastal city of Shenzhen inland, having already opened a plant in Chongqing and investing in Chengdu.

Foxconn has been the subject of criticism in China after 10 workers committed suicide in its Shenzhen facilities from July 2009 to May 2010, allegedly due to harsh working condition. Foxconn responded by increasing pay twice since then.

Henan Province is the most populous province in China with over 100 million people so it has a substantial workforce.Additionally, the cost of living in Henan is generally lower than coastal cities such as Shenzhen where rapid industrialization has resulted in increasing wages. Foxconn will reportedly pay workers in Zhengzhou the same wage rates as it pays in Shenzhen, so the lower cost of living will benefit Zhengzhou workers. 
 

Aug 3, 2010

Peking Duck in Beijing

Tuesday, August 03, 2010
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China is a country full of culinary adventures and delights. One of the many famous dishes in China is Peking roast duck (北京烤鸭; Beijing Kaoya). Virtually any tourist group to Beijing will experience a dinner at a restaurant that features roast duck and my recent Belmont University study abroad group was no exception.

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Aug 1, 2010

Aftershock Rocks China

Sunday, August 01, 2010
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No, thankfully not another earthquake in China - just a movie about one. While Hollywood blockbusters have been dominating most of Asia recently (Leonardo DiCaprio's Inception in Japan and Angelina Jolie's Salt in India), a Chinese blockbuster is setting box office records in mainland China since its release this past Thursday.  
Aftershocks (唐山大地震; Tángshān Dàdìzhèn) broke the record for opening day theater revenues by a Chinese film, earning about U.S. $5 million according to China's State Administration for Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). The previous opening day record was by Red Cliff’s (赤壁). Aftershock may have even broken the record for all films (Chinese and foreign) since its producer, Huayi Brothers (華誼兄弟), said it earned $5.32 million (which would have beaten Avatar's opening day earlier this year) and went on to earn $23.5 million in its opening weekend.
Aftershocks revolves around the devastating Tangshan earthquake of 1976 which resulted in over 240,000 deaths. The film's director, Feng Xiaogang, is no stranger to bringing in big bucks (or big yuan more accurately).  Feng's romantic comedy, If You Are The One, starring Ge You and Shu Qi, earned $46 million at the Chinese box office to top the market in 2008.

Aftershocks also holds the distinction of being the first non-English feature film converted to the IMAX format and China has rushed to open addition IMAX screens in anticipation.

Aftershocks is a prime illustration of the potential for continued growth of China's film industry which has been experiencing substantial recent growth. During the first 6 months of 2010, mainland China's gross box office revenue was $714 million and is expected to reach up to $1.5 billion by the end of the year. With a growing percentage of the Chinese population having discretionary income and wanting entertainment and a corresponding increase in the number of theaters in China (including mobile, digital projection facilities for rural areas), massive growth for the Chinese movie industry is likely to continue.

I haven't seen Aftershocks yet since it isn't available in any form in the U.S. so far, but I hope to see it in the near future and will try to post a review.

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