Electricity is the Key

May 8, 2010

For rural Chinese, electricity is the key to a modern middle-class lifestyle.  Currently, much of China outside the urban areas does not have a dependable supply of electricity.

However, China is currently working to deliver that dream to the 800 million have-nots in rural China. According to The Economist, by 2012, China should produce more power annually than America, the current world leader.

Electrical Generation Projections for China

I have read about the wide gap in living standards between rural and urban areas of China.  The main reason for that is the lack of electricity and a fast, efficient means of transportation to get around in a country with more rugged terrain than the United States.

To improve transportation in China, a grid of electrical powered high-speed rail will soon crisscross China.  China Railways operates a network of some 86,000 kilometers, which is intended to increase to 110,000 in 2012 and a massive 120,000 by 2020.

Learn more of the urban-rural gap in China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

3 Comments | business, China, economy, environment, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Not One Less (1999)

May 8, 2010

In the movie Not One Less, a thirteen-year-old girl is asked to be the substitute teacher in a small Chinese village.  The teacher tells her that when he returns, if he finds all the students there, he will pay her ten yuan—less than two American dollars.

Although money is involved, it isn’t much. When one student Zhang Huike stops coming to school, Wei Minzhim, the thirteen-year-old substitute, follows him to the city.

There are several themes in this movie. The most powerful to me were the value of an education and not losing face. If Wei loses Zhang, she will fail the responsibility the teacher gave her. To succeed, she must keep all the students and teach them.

Confucius taught the Chinese that an education was the great equalizer and the key to leaving poverty behind. Most Chinese believe this with a passion.

Zhang Yimou was the director. He says, “Chinese culture is still rooted in the countryside. If you don’t know the peasant, you don’t know China.” Because of this, there is a strong message in this movie about the urban–rural divide, which is being addressed as China sews the nation together with high-speed rail and electricity.

This a powerful movie about children, education, and poverty that shows the challenges China faces in lifting the lifestyles of almost eight hundred million Chinese, who don’t live in the cities. The challenge is to do this without losing the values that made China what it is.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Confucianism, education, family values, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Second China Quiz

May 8, 2010
The answers may be found anywhere in the first three hundred posts for this blog.  The first person to answer all the questions correctly will win a free copy of either My Splendid Concubine or Our Hart.

This prize will be open until the first person answers all the questions correctly. Write your answers in a comment to this quiz.  Make sure to number the answers so they match the questions and provide an e-mail address for me to contact you. Each question has a link that will take you to where you may find the answers.

China

1. What does the First of all Virtues mean?

2. What is the Chinese attitude toward health care?

3. What was the life expectancy for the average Chinese person before the Communists won China in 1949?

4. What was the debate on salt and iron about?

5. Chinese Internet users are _____________ as likely to have blogs as Americans. (fill in the blank)

6. (From Similar “Oily” Interests) What is Wahhabism and where does the money come from to pay for this?

7. What happened during Deng Xiaoping’s Beijing Spring?

8.  What happened to Deng Xiaoping’s son when he spoke out against the Cultural Revolution?

9. What vital key does China hold for humanity’s future?

10. How does Communist China treat its minorities compared to the way minorities have been treated in the United States?

11. Who was Faith Dremmer and what happened to her?

12.  What did Peter Hessler say about happiness?

13.  How many of the world’s smokers live in China?

14.  What is the name of China’s Oprah and how large is her audience?

15. What is the difference between China’s labor laws and United States?

16. What did Lin Yutang say about the Chinese and Christianity?

17. What did the first emperor of China consume that contributed to his madness and death? (This answer is in one of the nine linked posts in a series about Qin Shi Huangdi.) Why did Qin Shi Huangdi do this? (must answer both questions for # 17)

18. When the “Cult of the Dead Cow” gains access to your computer, what do they do?

19. Which issue of National Geographic magazine provides proof that Tibet was part of China for centuries before Mao’s invasion and reoccupation?

20. What is the name of the all-electric car being manufactured in a joint effort between Chinese and California partners?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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4 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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The American Assault on China’s Currency

May 6, 2010

For weeks, I’ve been watching the brouhaha about China manipulating its currency and taking jobs from Americans.

The truth is those jobs were lost due to American Wall Street banking greed. After all, China’s currency policies have been around for decades. The housing bubble burst in 2008. Without the economic collapse, many of those lost American jobs would still be there in spite of what China does with its currency.

It’s always interesting to watch politicians and pundits play to the mob. Looking for a scapegoat to the truth, Senator Charles Schumar (D-NY) leads 130 other lawmakers who want to punish China, and Tristan Yates wrote at Pajamas Media that America’s Socialists are bulling China’s socialists.

People Protesting

On April 13, Obama reacted to the pressure by saying it’s in China’s interest to let the market determine the value of the yuan, but he also said he would not hold Beijing to a deadline for action. “I have no timetable,” Obama said at a press conference following a nuclear summit. Source: Market Watch

Since I’ve traveled to China often and love the buying power my American dollars have when I convert them into yuan, I’m not going to follow the mob demanding currency changes in China. Prices for most essential goods in China are low allowing those living near the poverty level a means to survive.

If China caves in to these demands, what we are looking at would be a reevaluation of the yuan so the exchange rate would be 5 to 1 instead of 7 to 1— a small change for the world but a huge impact for more than a billion people.

China has kept the exchange rate steady for years. If China’s currency controls were lifted and prices shot out of control, many in China might starve. For sure, there would be more unrest and riots, and China’s government doesn’t like that.  What government would? I’m sure President Obama is not happy about the Tea Bag people running around shouting slogans about big government and so called Obamacare.

In China, “Thousands of workers have lost their jobs and many have taken to the streets to demand unpaid wages.… Street protests and demonstrations at local government offices have been a daily occurrence in many townships in the region… More such protests are on the cards in coming weeks and months.” Source: Green Left

If push comes to shove, who do you think China will attempt to appease—some overweight, out-of-work American several thousand miles away or tens of thousands of Chinese workers who also lost jobs and have families to feed and rent to pay? I guess it depends on how far a rock can fly.

The real reason behind bashing China over currency is politics.  Many Americans unjustly blame China for jobs lost in the US. Although China’s currency policies may be partially to blame, America’s high level of consumption leading to high consumer debt, deficit spending and protectionism is also to blame. Source: Politico.com

Discover Why is China Studying Singapore?

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

6 Comments | China, economy, media, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Where Does the Money Go?

May 6, 2010

“China doesn’t keep all the money paid for products made in China. Everyone in the supply chain shares.” I heard Zachary Karabell say this at the 2010 Los Angeles Times Festival of Books.

Today, I read a post in Bind Apple that emphasized the fact that Apple products are made in China but didn’t mention that Apple also manufactures in the United States, Malaysia and Indonesia and other countries. The post also emphasized the sixty-hour workweek and low pay as if it were a bad thing.

In fact, Apple says, “Their products and components are manufactured by a wide variety of suppliers around the world.  The final assembly of most products occurs in China.”

Most Chinese do not mind working sixty-hour weeks and the money earned may be low by American standards but is higher than most rural Chinese earn. 

These factory workers also send money home and manage to save, since China’s average saving rate is 40%. China’s culture is based on Confucianism, which focuses on collective rights instead of the individual.  Those workers are not working for themselves. They are working for their family and that includes parents and grandparents, who are contributing too.

Learn more about who Confucius was, or see what was going on at Apple’s Foxconn facility in Guanlan, China.

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of the award winning novels My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart. He also Blogs at The Soulful Veteran and Crazy Normal.

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2 Comments | business, Chinese Culture, Confucianism, family values, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
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The U.S. China Media Divide

May 5, 2010

Zachary Karabell, who was on the “China: The Next Super Power?” panel at UCLA, April 24, said that there is a perception problem ( due to ignorance) between the citizens of the United States and China. 

For more than two millennia, Chinese society has been based on collective rights—not individual rights. When there is a piece in the People’s Daily, the Chinese people know that the collective voice of their government is speaking. If a Chinese citizen disagrees, they usually keep their opinion to themselves and it is not for public consumption as in America.

China's Pvailion at World Expo in Shanghai

Most Chinese cannot understand that in America there are many individual, outspoken voices and opinions in the media.  If a senator or congressional representative is quoted in the media blaming China for poisoned infant formula or drywall or taking jobs away from Americans, many Chinese see this as the voice of America’s leadership even if it isn’t.

The reporters and editors for China’s state media do not need to be told what to write or say.  Since they are Chinese with the same collective cultural beliefs, they know what is unacceptable without being told. The only way these perceptions change is if the leadership at the top signals a change by telling the state media to cover stores that were off limits. This is alien to American citizens who grew up in a culture based on individual rights.

That does not mean the Chinese people do not have a voice. To understand, read the Power of Public Debate in China.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, media, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Life of Confucius – Part 4/5

May 4, 2010

His success and radical ideas were making him dangerous enemies.  The three warlords of Lu formed an alliance to get rid of Confucius. 

They found the most beautiful girls in the state and sent them to the young ruler, who spent his days and nights with the beauties, and Confucius was forgotten.  Stunned and humiliated, Confucius took his loyal students and left the state of Lu to find another ruler to support his ideas.

Confucius traveling with his students.

At fifty-four, Confucius was tough. From 497-484 BCE, he walked great distances from state to state.

 

During this journey, he and his students witnessed the suffering of the peasants. He knew that only the nobility could end the suffering, but none of the rulers would listen to him.

It was during this time that Confucius met the philosopher Lao Tse, who warned him to keep quiet or he was going to be killed.

Return to Part 3 of “The Life of Confucius” or go  to Part 5

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Confucianism, politics, Uncategorized | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

The Life of Confucius – Part 1/5

May 2, 2010

Confucius was born 550 years before the birth of Jesus Christ.  Ironically, he was born into a time of war and bloodshed and his father was a fearsome warrior. Due to the father’s skills in battle, his king made him governor of Tsou, a village southeast of today’s Beijing.

Although the father had more than one wife, nine daughters and one crippled, sickly son, he was lonely. He wanted a healthy son, so at age seventy Confucius’s father took a 16-year-old concubine who gave him a healthy son, who would become the man we call Confucius. Confucius was not a pretty baby. His head looked like a hill shaped like a crown.

Confucius was not his real name. Twenty-one-hundred years after his birth, Christian missionaries would change his real name to what we know today. 

Confucius was three when his father died. Jealous older wives disowned his mother. Facing starvation, mother and child traveled to a nearby city ten miles from the village. Life for Confucius and his mother was not easy and his path to wisdom was going to be hard. The suffering would cause Confucius to vow that he would bring peace to China.

Go to Part 2 of “The Life of Confucius” or hear the music of The Yangqin

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, Confucianism, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Why China is Studying Singapore – Part 2/3

February 6, 2010

Let’s look at Singapore—known as the Switzerland of Southeast Asia where a student might be caned for talking back to a teacher. For sure, he will be fined and caned for spitting gum on a sidewalk.  But not in America where we are free to do what we want even if that means defacing or stealing someone else’s property.

Singapore City View

I’ve heard and read more than once that Singapore was the economic model that China was watching closely—not America with its chaotic market system that expands and collapses like a popped balloon. 

This sounds like the China we often hear about in the Western media or out of the mouth of an American politician. “…is a socially engineered, nose-to-the-grindstone, workaholic rat race, where the self-perpetuating ruling party enforces draconian laws … squashes press freedom, and offers a debatable level of financial transparency—”

That description was not about China. It was for Singapore, a city-state that has a government-enforced savings plan and an average unemployment rate of about three percent.

Return to Part 1 of The Reasons Why China is Studying Singapore or go to Part 3

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | American culture, economy, tourism, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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