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Video: His Factory Job Gone, a Chinese Migrant Worker Returns Home (January 19, 2016, The New York Times)
Liu Lang, a Chinese migrant worker, left his rural hometown in Sichuan Province two decades ago to work in the factories of the southern province of Guangdong, China’s manufacturing powerhouse. Now, he is moving back. “I worked my way up from a basic worker to a department head. And my career basically ended today,” Mr. Liu said on the train leaving Guangdong.
Joann Pittman
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January 21, 2016
Featured Article
What Is Disappearing from Hong Kong (January 7, 2016, China File)
The recent disappearance of publisher Lee Po—allegedly kidnapped from Hong Kong and rendered to Mainland China—has prompted widespread alarm about the state of Hong Kong’s autonomy, both within the city and internationally.
Joann Pittman
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January 14, 2016
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Video: Drinking the Northwest Wind (December 30, 2016, China File)
Lovell and Wang’s focus is on the direct human costs of the transfer—who has won, and who has lost. On the winning end are residents of Beijing’s ever-sprawling suburbs, hoping for reliable showers and clean water to cook with. On the short end of the stick are the people who live in the areas giving up their water, who, without choosing to have had to leave their homes, find new work, leave behind the comforts of community and family, and fathom how their lives fit into the grand and ambitious plans their leaders have devised to solve a nation’s problems.
Joann Pittman
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January 7, 2016
Featured Article
A Chinese Company in India, Stumbling Over a Culture (December 30, 2015, The New York Times)
Chinese companies have embarked on ambitious overseas expansion efforts, snapping up land in dozens of countries to build factories, industrial parks, power plants and other operations. While the investments provide critical support for many economies, Chinese businesses are struggling to navigate complex cultural, political and competitive dynamics.
Joann Pittman
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December 31, 2015
Featured Article
China’s Reckoning: The Economic Miracle Hits Troubled Times (December 22, 2015, Wall Street Journal)
China's Communist Party promised to transform people's lives after decades of chaos. Higher living standards underpin the party’s rule, making limits on personal freedoms worthwhile for many. As the economy slows, that social compact is fraying.
Joann Pittman
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December 24, 2015
Featured Article
China to ease restrictions on living in cities for millions (December 12, 2015, The Guardian)
Beijing announces loosening of ‘hukou’ system governing access to public services, making it easier for workers from countryside to move to urban areas.
Joann Pittman
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December 17, 2015
In Xinjiang, a Battle Over Bread (December 2015, Ethno Traveler)
When is bread no longer just any old bread? The answer of course, at least in Xinjiang, is when it’s Uyghur Nan. Like many loaves in other cultures, Nan is made with flour, yeast, and water and baked in an oven, but that’s where the similarities end. Nan might look and taste like bread, but for the Uyghurs of far western China, a Muslim minority group at odds with Han Chinese culture, it is a source of ethnic pride — a tasty yet sacred way of asserting independence.
Joann Pittman
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December 10, 2015
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Amid Smog Wave, an Artist Molds a Potent Symbol of Beijing’s Pollution (December 1, 2015, The New York Times)
For 100 days, Brother Nut dragged a roaring, industrial-strength vacuum cleaner around the Chinese capital’s landmarks, sucking up dust from the atmosphere. He has mixed the accumulated gray gunk with red clay to create a small but potent symbol of the city’s air problems.
Joann Pittman
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December 3, 2015
Featured Article
Government Enlists NGOs to Help Homeless (November 18, 2015, China File)
Wang and her colleagues are visiting Chen as social workers from a non-governmental organization called Ruifeng Social Service Center. Every Thursday evening, they take to the streets to find homeless people who need help. Tonight, they’re caring for Chen.
Joann Pittman
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November 19, 2015
Featured Article
NGOs in China: Seeing through a Law, Darkly (November 11, 2015, LinkedIn Pulse)
International NGOs operating in China not only need to understand how the law will regulate their operations in China, but also how the exigencies of their China operation may compel them to alter their behavior abroad. At some point, many NGOs will face a hard choice between sticking to their principles globally on one hand, and continuing to operate in China on the other.
Joann Pittman
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November 12, 2015
Featured Article
Calling China’s New National Spy Hotline (November 2, 2015, China Real Time)
A man answering the hotline Monday afternoon said he didn’t know why the national hotline was not located in a more central city like Beijing or whether the government planned to set up a toll-free version. So far, he said, no one had called to report any suspicious activity.
Joann Pittman
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November 5, 2015
Featured Article
New areas of the Forbidden City open to visitors (October 27, 2015, Jottings from the Granite Studio)
The Palace Museum at the Forbidden City opened four new areas to the public this past month, a move which coincided with the 90th anniversary of the museum’s founding. The opening of new spaces, and the unprecedented care to their renovation and restoration, should be welcome news to travelers and Beijing residents who had previously dismissed the Forbidden City as a vast array of sameness and symmetry.
Joann Pittman
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October 29, 2015