Theres a void called the countryside visions of dying village life (February 28, 2013, Danwei)
Migrant workers tend to be presented as an anonymous mass, and thought of either as a problem for Chinese cities and infrastructures, or an example of inequalities and discrimination in contemporary China. This weeks post invites us to look at rural-urban migrations from a different angle, by focusing on the relationships and continuity between cities and country towns. Zhang Zejias Theres a void called the countryside and Li Tianqis These old people back home who got old both explore this ongoing attachment to the rural hometown. Through the vision of a dying rural world, they also reveal the complexities of personal attachment to rural memories, the strength of family networks, and the significance of yearly return journeys to the rural hometown for city dwellers.
Taylor Gorman
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February 28, 2013
Is China Persecuting More Christians for their Faith? (February 22, 2013, ChinaSource)
According to the latest statistics from China Aid, 13.8% more Christians in China were persecuted last year as compared with 2011, continuing a trend of increasing persecution that goes back to at least 2007. On their face these numbers appear to be cause for serious alarm, and the China Aid report has in fact spawned headlines decrying the beginning of the end of the house church in China. However, upon closer examination these statistics do not support China Aid's assertion of a nationwide government-sponsored campaign against Christianity in China. Without a doubt, Christians in China face many obstacles as they live out their faith in an often hostile environment. But Christians are not persecuted simply for being Christians, nor are house churches targeted for attack simply for being house churches. If this were the case one would expect to see hundreds of house churches being closed down each week. (Beijing, which had the highest number of persecution cases in 2012, reportedly has more than 3,000 house churches, yet the China Aid report mentions only two cases involving Beijing house churches for the entire year.)
Taylor Gorman
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February 21, 2013
Province by Province, a Portrait of China (February 11, 2013, The New York Times)
The resulting series, China, is a historical document of a country as its villages turn into cities; its cities into megacities. Shot before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the portraits present a diverse nation through its people: yak farmers, gynecologists, television personalities, village chiefs, singing gondoliers, prostitutes, aging revolutionaries, circus stars, bank employees, beggars and trash collectors.
Taylor Gorman
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February 14, 2013
Is Xi Jinping a Reformer? Wrong Question. (February 1, 2013, China Real Times)
Better questions are needed in order to produce more useful analyses and forecasts of Chinas political development. Such analyses should start by recognizing two facts: First, the new leaderships various initiatives and pronouncements after taking office indicate that it fully accepts the need for change. Second to quote the American political scientist Samuel Huntington, the leadership is clearly aiming at some change but not total change, gradual change but not convulsive change. In short, the leadership wants controlled reform, not revolution or regime change.
Taylor Gorman
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February 7, 2013
China's ethnic Manchus rediscovering their roots (January 30, 2013, The Los Angeles Times)
Descended from a horse-riding nomadic people of northeastern China, the Manchus were the last imperial rulers of the country, establishing the Qing Dynasty, which lasted from 1644 until 1912. After the abdication of the last emperor, Pu Yi, his clan changed its name to Jin. The Yehenalas, related to Cixi, the empress dowager who was de facto ruler in the late 19th century, became Ye or Na. A century later, ethnic Manchus are rediscovering their roots.
Taylor Gorman
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January 31, 2013
In China, Widening Discontent Among the Communist Party Faithful (January 19, 2013, The New York Times)
For years, many China observers have asserted that the partys authoritarian system endures because ordinary Chinese buy into a grand bargain: the party guarantees economic growth, and in exchange the people do not question the way the party rules. Now, many whose lives improved under the boom are reneging on their end of the deal, and in ways more vocal than ever before. Their ranks include billionaires and students, movie stars and homemakers.
Taylor Gorman
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January 24, 2013
Next Made-in-China Boom: College Graduates (January 16, 2013, The New York Times)
China is making a $250 billion-a-year investment in what economists call human capital. Just as the United States helped build a white-collar middle class in the late 1940s and early 1950s by using the G.I. Bill to help educate millions of World War II veterans, the Chinese government is using large subsidies to educate tens of millions of young people as they move from farms to cities. The aim is to change the current system, in which a tiny, highly educated elite oversees vast armies of semi-trained factory workers and rural laborers. China wants to move up the development curve by fostering a much more broadly educated public, one that more closely resembles the multifaceted labor forces of the United States and Europe.
Taylor Gorman
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January 17, 2013
Management Issues in the Rural Church (January 8, 2013, Chinese Church Voices)
Compared to the urban churches, Chinese rural churches lack all kinds of resources. In addition to the lack of finances and preachers, we cannot ignore management issues. Recently, the Executive Secretary of the Hong Kong Christian Council, Chen Jianguang, wrote an article in the Chinese Coordination Centre of World Evangelisms Pastoral Sharing periodical in which he pointed out that the most difficult problem that Chinese rural churches currently face is in the area of management, not finances.
Taylor Gorman
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January 10, 2013
Changes and Challenges for China in 2013 (December 26, 2012, Council on Foreign Relations)
This October, China's Eighteenth National Congress ushered in a new generation of leaders that will set the agenda for the second-largest economy in the world, provoking myriad questions about what we'll see out of the country in the coming year. CFR's Adam Segal predicts continued international concern for China's cyber policy, while CFR's Elizabeth C. Economy weighs its challenges of keeping "foreign policy front and center" against a heavy list of domestic concerns. Claremont McKenna's Minxin Pei adds that China will be forced to respond to calls for greater political openness, facing a delicate balancing act. CFR's Yanzhong Huang points out that despite China's highly publicized health-care achievements, reform hasn't fundamentally solved the problem of access and affordability.
Taylor Gorman
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January 3, 2013
For the Holidays, Hong Kong Decks Its Skyscrapers in Lights (December 24, 2012, The New York Times)
But this time of year, the spectacle ratchets up several notches. Out come vast, multicolored, complex designs that span many floors and make the Rockefeller Center in New York and Oxford Street in London pale by comparison. Frolicking reindeer, bobble-hatted snowmen, enormous Christmas trees adorn dozens of buildings, sometimes to startling effect.
Taylor Gorman
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December 27, 2012
China to Speed Up Hukou System Reform (December 18, 2012, China Digital Times)
The National Development and Reform Commission announced Tuesday that the government will speed up reform of Chinas household registration or hukou system, following up on pledges by incoming leaders to emphasize urbanization and improve opportunities for rural citizens.
Taylor Gorman
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December 20, 2012
Beijing targets those who cross the street 'with Chinese characteristics' (December 11, 2012, Christian Science Monitor)
Beijings finest, ever vigilant on the law-and-order front, have set themselves a challenging new task: to eradicate the phenomenon known as crossing the road, Chinese-style. A new strike hard campaign, launched last week, is aimed at bringing order to traffic and security at the citys intersections, according to the Beijing municipal police website. Good luck to them.
Taylor Gorman
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December 13, 2012