Sweet Nights and State Power

The Mosuo people, in their villages on the border with Tibet, are a culture in the midst of fading away.

Ethnic Han from the cities, hearing about the alleged "free love" attitudes of the Mosuo, are making their holidays there in droves, bringing money and "big city" thinking with them.

The Han ignorance of how Mosuo society functions has created no small amount of friction with the locals, and some young Mosuo are being drawn out of the villages to seek their fortunes in the cities.

What we're seeing is societal evolution in action. The Mosuo seem to be doing a good job of holding onto their cultural identity, so I doubt they'll be completely assimilated.

"Don't Rock the Boat, Baby..."

How should the US view China’s developing relations with her neighbors? Should the US modify its foreign policy toward these same nations in light of their changing relations with China?

China's relations with its neighbors are going a long way to promote stability in a region that has been known to be rather volatile.

Stability is a Good Thing™. Don't screw it up (I'm lookin' at you, America!)

Throwing a bone to minorities...

Another blast from the the past: the English edition of the People's Daily Online, from October 2007.

http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/6291719.html

It looks like the central government has finally determined that there is a shortage of minorities in government positions. From the article:

'"The number of leading cadres from minorities has been increasing in recent years, but many of them are in politics with few in professional posts from hi-technology, economy and enterprise management," said Zhang Xiangji, director of the personnel department of the commission.'

The government proposes to provide high-level education to promising minority cadres.

Well, it's about time, folks! If you had been doing this sort of thing all along you wouldn't have this shortage in the first place!

:: facepalm ::

Working conditions in China...

This week's blog assignment asks:

"How has the material covered thus far in the course changed or reshaped your viewpoint on an issue that previously received frequent coverage in the media?"

Truth be known, my viewpoint on working conditions in China hasn't changed particularly from what it has been for the bulk of my adult life (that's 24 years for those keeping count...): those conditions are still profoundly crappy, if slightly less crappy than they used to be.

Musing on Chinese Youth...

The subject of this week's lesson paints a fascinating picture of Chinese youth: in many ways they are practically indistinguishable from American youth. From the May Fourth movement in 1919, the youth have seen themselves as a force for change and revolution, a conscience for China.

Then came the ugliness of Tiananmen Square, and the youth decided that direct confrontation was probably not the best way to bring about change.

Nowadays, with a popular culture that is a blend of East and West, and more Western ideas of freedom and democracy creeping in every day, the youth of China are still a conscience for the country, albeit on a much longer time scale.

I think what is happening is more evolution than revolution.

China's World Power Status

From this week's assignment:

With all that you have learned from these recent reports about China's current internal problems, do you think that its world power status should be reconsidered? Can China successfully overcome these difficulties to achieve such status on the world stage? Create a blog entry and post a comment to at least one fellow student's blog entry.

Despite its internal problems, China's status as a world power is, in my opinion, pretty much assured.

Unless there is some sort of catastrophic upheaval, the Chinese economy will continue growing and intertwining with the economies of other nations. The fact that they've managed to establish a manned space program makes a pretty good case that they should continue to wear the "World Power" badge.

Promoting a conservation culture?

From the Shanghai Daily...last October; I suppose any article you haven't read is a new article: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2007/200710/20071016/article_334632.htm

The Daily quotes Hu Jintao: "We must give prominence to building a resource-conserving, environment-friendly society in our strategy for industrialization and modernization and get every organization and family to act accordingly."

Pretty words, but given how wimpy government organizations like SEPA are, I'll be interested to see what comes of it.

I'm betting it's rhetoric to get folks to get busy cleaning the place up before all the foreigners show up for the 2008 Olympics. China will be trying to put on its prettiest, cleanest face.

As for how I would do things differently, I think I'd need a time machine before I could do anything, because the environmental mess on China's hands has taken decades to get to this point, and it will likely take even longer to clean up.

Luxury Brands in China

From the China Business Success Stories RSS feed: http://www.chinasuccessstories.com/2008/02/21/luxury-brands-china/

This is Part 1 of a 2-part KPMG retail report. According to the report, whitch cited the Goldman Sachs financial group, China is now the third largest consumer of luxury goods in the world, surpassed only by Japan and the US.

This certainly raised my eyebrows: I knew that Chinese buying power was on the rise, but I didn't expect something like this.

It's certainly a far cry from Mao's day, when pretty much everybody didn't have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out of.

Unit 1, Lesson 2 Question

Do you believe that a widespread and cataclysmic event such as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution could occur again in China today? Why? Why not?

I strongly doubt that a confluence of ugliness of the magnitude of the Cultural Revolution could occur in China today, the main reasons being the Western cultural influences that have crept in over the years, and the speed and ubiquity of communications.

In the early 1960s, the state had very firm control of information; one knew pretty much what one was told by an operative of the government. Nowadays, camera phones and laptop computers with internet access are very common. The Chinese government still tries to control the sorts of online traffic coming into the country, but the effort is akin to trying to plug a sieve with your bare hands.

Cruising the newsfeeds...

So much going on, and there's no hope of seeing all of it!

This article at Bloomberg.com sort of jumped out at me.

China is making inroads in all sorts of places.

First blog post!

Behold! Post the First!

Go me!