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Directing a new course

The country’s premier rock musician tries his hand at experimental filmmaking Page 14 VOL . 29

Just for kicks

A veteran martial arts choreographer and mentor to Hollywood and Chinese stars decides to face the camera Page 15

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China welcomes Obama, hopes for change, too US leader takes new approach, but old disagreements loom large By Cai Hong

Claiming to bring the “change” the United States needs, US President Barack Obama has been striving to be different since he took office in January. He has accomplished a plethora of firsts and will get one more: Obama will be the first US president to visit China within his first year in the Oval Office. Different from many of his predecessors, who chose to speak at Chinese universities

during their visits, Obama is scheduled to have a dialogue with Chinese youth in Shanghai — speaking to them, taking questions and hearing directly from them. On top of formal talks with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing, he will do some sightseeing at the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. The trip will offer Obama firsthand insight into China. When Hu and his US counterpart met on the margins of the London G20 meeting in April,

they pledged to work together to build a positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship for the 21st century. During a short talk with Chinese and American college students recently, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said the Sino-US relationship of the 21st century should be anchored on the “common interest of mankind and common interest of China and the US”. Without cooperation between China and the United States in conjunction with other countries, it will be difficult for the world to deal with such enormous issues as energy, food security, climate change and the international financial crisis, Yang said.

Subsequent meetings, including the ones in New York and during Obama’s visit to China, underscore the two countries’ determination to sustain momentum. By sending high-ranking officials to each other’s countries the two nations have taken specific steps to address and allay each other’s concerns. At the first round of the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington in July, the two countries pledged to intensify bilateral ties and expand cooperation on major international issues and shared global challenges. Chinese and American commerce officials signed important agreements on business

and trade when meeting in Hangzhou for the Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade in October. And the two countries have restarted high-level militaryto-military dialogue, a barometer of the China-US relations. Xu Caihou, vice-chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates agreed to “seven points of consensus” on Sino-US military cooperation and exchanges, which deal with both practical and strategic concerns. Those concerns include highlevel mutual visits and exchanges of military officials, more cooperation on humanitarian aid, broader communication on land

forces and maritime security, and junior officer exchanges. Another agreement calls for a joint air-sea search and rescue exercise. Ding Xinghao, president of Shanghai Association of American Studies, maintained that a crisis management mechanism is taking shape. The exchange of visits between the Chinese and American commercial and military officials helped lay the foundation for Obama’s China trip. In its first eight months, the Obama administration has built on the efforts of its predecessors and kept bilateral relations on track. “I want to stress the im-

por tance of continuit y in the US-China relationship, which has brought us to this very important stage today,” US Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said in Washington in September during a briefing on the Obama administration’s vision for bilateral relations. “We are ready to accept a growing role for China on the international stage, and in many areas, we have already embraced it,” the US official said. Acceptance of the critical importance of bilateral ties, however, does not necessarily mean that distrust and disagreement have disappeared. Goal, Page 9

Hu warns against protectionism By Zhao Huanxin

Chinese President Hu Jintao and his wife, Liu Yongqing (center), examine artwork during a visit to the Nanyang Girls’ High School in Singapore on Friday, on the sidelines of The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. AFP

SINGAPORE: Boosting domestic demand and opposing trade protectionism are the two keys to bolstering the fledging global recovery, China’s President Hu Jintao said on Friday at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) CEO Summit. “The world economy has shown positive signs of stabilization and recovery,” he said. But he cautioned that the economic upturn is not firmly established, present patterns of global growth are unsustainable and major deficiencies still exist in the international financial system. “Our focus in countering the crisis is to expand domestic demand, especially consumer demand,” Hu said. In the face of the crisis, China has adjusted its macroeconomic policies. It introduced a moderately loose monetary policy and a stimulus package. China’s measures have resulted in swift economic growth

in the country and helped “the international effort to cushion the impact of the financial crisis and restore world economic growth”, the president said. “We have been working hard to improve the consumption environment, adjust distribution relations, increase people’s ability to spend and foster new areas of high consumer demand,” he said. One of China’s top priorities is to continuously improve its citizens’ well-being by addressing issues such as medical care, housing and old-age support, which presently constrain domestic consumption. However, Hu said the international financial crisis has fueled trade and investment protectionism, and developing countries, in particular, are victimized by a mounting number of unreasonable trade and investment restrictions. China is one of the biggest victims of protectionist measures, the country’s Vice-Minister of Commerce, Yi Xiaozhun, said on Friday.

In the first nine months of this year, 19 economies launched 88 probes into Chinese products, involving $10.2 billion of export goods. The United States alone carried out 14 probes, according to sources at the Ministry of Commerce. “Protectionism will not help any country move out of the crisis,” said Hu. The president said the current slowly improving global economy is no reason not to reform the international financial system. “We should continue to increase the representation and voice of developing countries in international financial institutions, speedily implement the quantitative reform targets set at the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh and improve the decision-making processes and mechanisms in these institutions, ” he said. Hu also said regional economic integration in Asia is an important step in making the area stronger and will help drive the global economy.

Online vote for panda’s name draws thousands of fans By Susan Mittleman

Until now, he’s been called everything from “the cub” to “Heartbreaker”, “furry ball of fluff” to “roly-poly” and “chubster”. But at 11 am Tuesday Pacific Standard Time, the San Diego Zoo’s nearly 15-week-old giant panda cub will be bestowed with a proper name. The zoo has been following the Chinese tradition of waiting 100 days before naming a child. But how it has chosen that name is an all-American tradition. Just as each panda cub is unique, so has been each naming process by the zoo. Hua Mei was born in 1999. Because she was the first giant panda to be born in the United States and survive, she was considered very special. So she was named by China, and her name literally means “China USA.” Next, in 2003, came Mei Sheng, who was named by the zoo’s panda team. His name means “born in the USA”. Su Lin was born two years later. “The

panda team actually picked five names they liked, and then had them approved through China,” explained zoo spokesperson Yadira Galindo. “Then the zoo had an online vote for a favorite.” Her name translates to “A little bit of something very cute.” Since the giant pandas had been gaining so much notoriety, when the fourth cub was born in 2007, the zoo decided to involve the community. They asked people to come to the zoo and suggest names, requesting they be in Chinese and have a special meaning. After approval from Chinese officials, she was officially dubbed Zhen Zhen, aka, “Precious”. On Aug 5, 2009, Bai Yun gave birth to her fifth cub at the zoo, (the fourth fathered by her current male companion, Gao Gao). Ever since the news of the birth, millions of panda fans from all over the world have been following the cub’s progress 24 hours a day, on live panda cams, via the Internet. “Before the birth we had about 8,000 to

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10,000 page views a day,” said Galindo. “After the birth, we’ve been averaging about 37,000 page views a day.” Acknowledging the pandas’ popularity and recognizing the power of the Internet, this time the zoo decided to name the little guy by asking visitors to submit names, following the same guidelines except, said Galindo. “We also accepted them (names) online, so people outside of San Diego could (also) participate.” Over 10 days in October, zoo officials received more than 6,300 suggestions, about half from zoo visitors and the rest from online fans. Those were narrowed down to five names they thought would best fit the panda and the community’s taste. After approval from Chinese authorities, it came down these: Fú Shèng (福圣): Blissful San Diego; Xiǎo Lóng (小龙): Little Dragon; Xióng Wěi (熊伟): Extraordinary Bear; Yǒng Xiǎng (永祥): Eternally Blessed; and Yún Zǐ(云 子): Son of Cloud. (Mother Bai Yun’s name translates to “White Cloud”.)

A serious spin

After four days of online voting through Nov 3 the zoo had received 17,526 suggestions. Two days after the voting ended, the zoo held an hourlong online interactive baby shower. “It was an opportunity for fans to ask keepers questions and get some fun facts about the pandas,” said Galindo. All this attention falls on a cub who hasn’t really done much of anything yet. For the first few months, Bai Yun and her cub will stay mainly together in a private den, only accessible to the public through the pandacam. Zookeepers perform a weekly exam on the cub. All giant pandas in the United States are on loan from China for research purposes. In 2010 Su Lin will return to China, as she is of age to participate in the giant panda breeding program. The San Diego Zoo will post the formal name of the newest cub on its website after the announcement Tuesday. Log on to sandiegozoo.org/pandacam for the verdict.

Cross-cultural marriages

Table tennis is big in China, but is also growing in popularity in the US. In recent years, the number of established table tennis clubs and organized ping-pong competitions in the US has increased, as have purchases of ping-pong tables for both personal and commercial use.

Distinctly different ways of life help build a better union, says a cross-cultural family living in a two-story detached villa with a flower garden in Beijing’s suburban Shunyi district. Page 8

Page 7

Despite potential, microfinance still faces challenges in China.

Road to riches

The unamed cub gets a veterinary exam with keeper Heidi Trowbridge on Oct 20.

Chinese demand for micro loans outstrips supply, but regulations prevent international investors from making up the shortfall. Page 11

Big stretch As fashion and health awareness expands in China, people’s desire to stay slim and trim also is growing. China has become the world’s largest commercial fitness and leisure market with more than

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400 million potential consumers aged 18 to 50. Page 12

Spending up Recession-hit consumers in the United States and Europe are scaling back on showy purchases, but Chinese consumers are flocking to domestic retailers, spurred by government stimulus measures such as rebates on home appliances and tax cuts for low-emissions cars. Page 13

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

ACROSSCHINA

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2 die after receiving flu vaccine

Fiscal revenue rises in Oct

Medical authorities say A(H1N1) inoculations are safe By Shan Juan

China reported two deaths among A(H1N1) vaccine recipients on the mainland as the country rushes to vaccinate 65 million people by year’s end, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Friday. One of the deaths occurred in Hunan province on Monday. A secondary school teacher died while playing basketball eight hours after getting his H1N1 shot, the provincial health department announced Friday afternoon. Preliminary findings indicated his death was not linked to the vaccine and thus would not affect the ongoing H1N1 vaccination program across the country, said MOH spokesman Deng Haihua. However, Deng declined to

reveal information about the other post-inoculation death, citing the regulation that local health authority should be the first to publicize such an incident. As of Thursday, China had vaccinated more than 12 million people on the mainland against the raging H1N1 flu, with at least 1,235 adverse reactions reported from the vaccine, according to the MOH. Most of the reactions were mild and temporary, the ministry said. Preliminary results from the autopsy on the Hunan victim showed that the sudden cardiac arrest, also known as cardiopulmonary arrest, might be the cause. Experts say more than 1,700 people in China die of cardiac arrest each day. “The death was a coincidental medical event after inoculation which could not be avoided as a

A teacher wears a bitter look when she is vaccinated against the A(H1N1) virus in Shenyang, Liaoning province, on Thursday. Wang Huan

vaccination campaign extends to a huge population,” said Liu Dawei, a vaccine expert with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Final findings on the cause of the man’s death will be released soon after studying comprehensive medical records, including the autopsy report, Deng said. For safety concerns, the same batch of the vaccine received by the deceased man was suspended, he added.

The autopsy on the other victim was to be performed on Friday night, Deng said. No vaccine is risk-free, but the influenza vaccine is among the safest available, said Vivian Tan, press officer of the WHO Beijing office. “We have seen minor side effects with the pandemic H1N1 vaccine like sore arm, redness, low fever, headache. However, severe adverse events are very uncommon. Nonetheless, it’s important to monitor the

situation closely in case of any serious adverse reactions after vaccination,” she told China Daily on Friday. So far, 15 life-threatening adverse events from the vaccine, including anaphylactic shock, have been reported, Liu revealed. “Victims would get free treatment and a cash compensation,” he added. “Regardless of whether someone gets the vaccine, bad things happen to people every

day and generally occur at fairly predictable rates,” said Dr Steven Black, a physician in the Center for Global Health and Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital in the United States. “Identifying real safety concerns with new vaccines means we have to untangle actual safety signals from background medical events, which are those that would happen without a vaccination,” Black said.

China’s fiscal revenue for October reached 684.49 billion yuan (about $100 billion), up 28.4 percent compared with the same period last year, the Ministry of Finance announced on Nov 13. Of the total, the central government collected 380.34 billion yuan, up 37 percent year-on-year, while local governments collected the other 304.15 billion yuan, up 19.2 percent. A statement on the ministry website attributed the rise in fiscal revenue in October partly to the recovering economy, but mainly to the low figures basis of last October. Fiscal revenue in October was also up 22 percent compared with September’s 560.94 billion yuan. From January to October, the country’s total fiscal revenue reached 5.84 trillion yuan, up 408.8 billion yuan, or 7.5 percent year-on-year, with the central government collecting about 54 percent of the total. Of the main categories of tax revenue for the year to October, consumption tax revenue was up 83.8 percent from the same period last year. Xinhua

Driver who sued police over traffic scheme claims threats against family By Xiao Yu

SHANGHAI: A driver who sued local traffic police for legal recognition of his innocence said he has received threats pressing him to withdraw the case. Zhang Hui, a white-collar worker in Shanghai, was fined 10,000 yuan ($1,470) in September by local traffic management authorities of the Minhang district for operating an illegal cab service. Zhang immediately brought the local traffic police to court,

alleging that the police obtained evidence against him by adopting an illegal entrapment scheme. According to Zhang, on Sept. 14, he was stopped by a pedestrian who claimed to be suffering from a severe stomachache. Zhang turned the man away at first, but eventually gave in because the man appeared to be seriously ill. During the short drive, Zhang twice declined the man’s offer to pay. When Zhang stopped at a turn, the passenger snatched his car key. The police arrived,

dragged Zhang out of his car, and charged him with operating an illegal taxi service. In late October, the local traffic police withdrew the charge, returned the fines and apologized to Zhang, after Sun Zhongjie, a 19-year-old migrant worker, cut his small finger to call public attention to his own case, thus setting off official investigations in Shanghai. Despite the acquittal, Zhang decided to go ahead with the lawsuit against Minhang district traffic police for vindication of the law.

However, his wife received an e-mail early this week, in which the individuals who threatened Zhang also claim to have details about his family, including his parents and 5-year-old daughter, according to Zhang. He believes that the e-mail came from someone who worked with the local traffic police on its entrapment scheme. According to the letter posted by Zhang on Tianya, a popular online community in China, the anonymous sender claimed that he and his colleagues have

failed to earn money for one month since the exposure of the entrapment cases. “Mr Zhang has received an apology from the government and the refund of fines, which proved his innocence. Please drop the case and let us make a living for the sake of our families…” the letter reads. Zhang, in a telephone interview with China Daily on Friday, said the letter has infuriated him. “I feel threatened,” Zhang said. “I don’t want to elaborate on that, but who knows what

they action they might take in the days to come,” said Zhang. He vowed he would not withdraw the lawsuit because of the anonymous threat. The illegal entrapment cases, which have also occurred in other parts of Shanghai, which were disclosed recently, have garnered widespread attention. The Pudong New District government issued a public apology on Oct 26 to Sun Zhongjie. Zhang’s case has also led to a heated discussion among netizens, most of whom have

supported Zhang and expressed hope for the safety of his family. Still, one netizen doubted the authenticity of the letter, saying it’s unlikely that a police officer could obtain such details about Zhang and his family. An officer in the press department of the Minhang district, who declined to be identified, said: “We regard it a personal issue (concerning the letter Zhang received). We don’t want to make any further comments on his case. Let’s wait and see the final judgment next week.”

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CHINA-US RELATIONS

MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

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China-US trade war unlikely

Chengdu company primed on pumps

In wake of rising tariffs, countries duty-bound to improve trade relations

By Huang Zhiling

By Ding Qingfen

US Commerce Secretary Gary Locke (left) and China’s VicePremier Wang Qishan shake hands before a delegation leaders meeting in Hangzhou on Oct 29. AFP

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Weiwen, a senior expert on WTO and China-US trade relations. “China, undoubtedly, is and will remain the major target of the US, and scapegoat of the low recruitment rate and sluggish economy, although the nation should not have been so,” said He. Despite news that the US economy has posted positive growth during the third quarter of this year, the world’s largest economy is still hamstrung by high unemployment. According to the US Department of Labor, the country’s unemployment rate surged to 10.2 percent in October, the highest since 1983 and much

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Although trade friction between China and the United States will likely rise in the months ahead as the economic recovery of the US remains in limbo, there is little possibility that the two countries will become embroiled in a full-blown trade war, analysts said. Since US President Barack Obama issued a special duty on tire imports from China in September, the first and largest, such maneuver of his administration, trade conflicts between two of the world’s most important economies have sharpened and have spread to other areas, particularly in recent days. On Nov 4, the US requested that the World Trade Organization (WTO) establish a dispute settlement panel to rule on China’s restraints on exports of raw materials, which the Chinese government insists is consistent with WTO rules. That same day, the US Commerce Department slapped preliminary anti-dumping duties on Chinese steel pipe worth $2.6 billion. The move came after preliminary antisubsidy duties were put on the pipe, which is used in oil and gas lines, in September. On Nov 5 the US International Trade Commission approved another two probes of imports from China: glossy magazinequality paper and certain salts. The new levies were approved about one week ahead of Obama’s trip to Asia. The trip includes a four-day visit to China, starting Sunday. China is regarded as one of his most important destinations during the trip. “As the unemployment rate is expected to remain high next year, the US will initiate more trade protectionist cases or/and measures against China,” said He

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higher than had been expected. Most economists predict the job situation will remain grim through 2010. Even Obama has conceded that more Americans will lose their jobs, even as the worst may be over for the economy as a whole. Obama is under great pressure from labor unions, particularly the United Steelworkers, the prime initiator of the recent trade remedy cases against China, including the special guarantee tire case and the steel pipe duties. “Unions have given Obama nice support during the presidential election, and therefore are

winning his promise of returning the favor,” said Zhang Yuqing, a panelist on the WTO Dispute Settlement Body. The healthcare reform package Obama has been pushing forward to expand medical treatment to most Americans also needs the support of unions, Zhang added. The US House of Representatives recently narrowly endorsed healthcare reform legislation, the largest in decades. The Senate, however, has shown signs of balking at the $1 trillion bill. No trade war

However few believe a trade war of any kind will break out. “There is neither sign nor reason that China and the US will turn the confl icts into a war. It’s not good for either party,” He said. It is estimated that trade remedy cases, as of late last year, only account for 5 percent of the China-US trade by volume. “They are a minimal part of bilateral trade and happened in a special period. Cases will decrease when the US economy

“As a businessman, I am happy to be based in China right now and to be doing business here. It’s a good time to be in China,” said John Watkins, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmChamChina) and also president of Cummins East Asia. Watkins’ words came in an interview with China Daily on the eve of the much-anticipated visit to Beijing by the US President Barack Obama. According to Watkins, he is not the only one to feel this way about the current advantages and long-term potential of the Chinese economy. Addressing the global market, he said: “I have heard from our member companies that global sales are down by a big number — 20 or 30 percent for many companies. Sales are down by only half that amount in China. There are also some sectors here where sales are actually up year-on-year. “The Chinese government has done a very good job with the design and implementation of its stimulus package. This has helped the US companies do well in China this year.” With a history of more than 20 years, AmCham-China now has over 1,200 companies ranging from small and medium-sized companies to Fortune 500 businesses. It also has more than 2,500 individual members. As a trade promotion organization, AmChamChina functions as a bridge between the US and Chinese governments and their commercial sectors. Summarizing its role, Watkins said: “Our aim is to help our members win in China.” With regard to the impending presidential visit, Watkins said he believes that AmCham-China members will

be most keenly interested Development Agency jointly in issues relating to open signed a memorandum of markets and energy, themes understanding recognizing that are likely to dominate a new US-China Energy discussions during the tour. Cooperation Program initiated In recent months, a number by AmCham-China. of trade disputes between the Watkins said: “The US and China have resulted program is a bilateral publicin a tense bilateral trade private partnership aimed at relationship, with particular converting government policies regard to Chinese tires, steel and ideas into real business gratings and concrete-steel opportunities. It is based on wire stands, as well as the AmCham-China’s Aviation import of poultry and auto Cooperation Program, which products from the US. proved very successful when it Leaders from both sides launched five years ago.” confirmed their commitment to “So far 21 companies have non-protectionism policies in the signed up and we expect 20th meeting of the China-US somewhere between 50 to 100 Joint Commission on Commerce companies will take part in the and Trade (JCCT), held last month future.” in Hangzhou as a warm-up for In addition to launching the the presidential visit. energy cooperation program, Reflecting Watkins has on the justifiable TRADE importance pride in of free trade, AmChamSPECIAL Watkins said: China’s other “We would achievements like to see the markets remain during 2009. As part of the open for trade and investment. chamber’s two “door knock” It’s in nobody’s interest in the trips in Washington this long term to close the markets. year, for instance, they made The dialogue between both a breakthrough in terms of sides has reduced the frictions reducing processing times for and AmCham-China welcomes certain visas, simplifying the that enormously.” application process for visas As China and the US are by their members’ Chinese each other’s second largest employees and customers. They trading partners, Watkins also have worked closely with said he believes that it’s the US government to reform its inevitable that there will be export control regulations. occasional disagreements. He AmCham-China also actively said: “In fact, I am surprised communicates with Chinese that there are not more issues. government and discussed Between the US and Canada, a number of market access for instance, there are far more and IPR issues, as well as of these kinds of cases than proposing some solutions to between the US and China.” local protectionism issues. At Watkins was also very the request of their members emphatic in his belief that and local governments, they cooperation in the areas of clean have also organized provincial energy and energy efficiency visits that have been “very between US and China will popular” with both sides. provide huge opportunities for Watkins said: “Up to now, his members. we have initiated total of four During the JCCT session, provincial visits, covering some China’s Ministry of Commerce 13 cities this year.” and the US Trade and With its primary mission of

Bandolino Berry shoes, which US first lady Michelle Obama was wearing on the day of Barack Obama’s inauguration, are made by the Chengdu Roeblan Footware Co Ltd. Wang Xiwei

Cummins goes green

Relations better than ever By Han Tianyang and Tony Murray

turns good,” he said. Most observers believe the US will not launch additional trade remedy cases for fear of antagonizing China. Obama said recently that the US sees China as a vital partner and competitor, but the two countries must address economic imbalances or risk enormous strains on their relationship. And US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke also said during the China-US Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade held in Hangzhou in late October that both countries should avoid trade protectionist measures against each other. Both would be losers if trade conflicts escalate into a trade war. Experts suggested that China actively resort to the WTO rules for protecting industries from being hurt by the US and launch trade remedy investigations of its own against the US. After the extra tire duties were enacted, China announced it would launch investigations into two categories of imports from the US — of broiled chicken and certain types of automobiles.

CHENGDU: Wu Xifan, a young businessman in this capital of Southwest China’s Sichuan province, is excited when he talks about US President Barack Obama’s visit. Wu, 25, is upbeat about prospects that the trip will bolster collaboration and constrain disputes between the countries. His company, whose chairman is Wu’s 60-yearold father, Wu Deguo, makes Bandolino Berry shoes and many of its customers are Americans. Berry shoes seems to have caught the imagination of many Americans after coolspotters.com, a fashion website in the country, posted a photograph of first lady Michelle Obama in a J. Crew dress with Bandolino women’s Berry pumps on Jan 20 with the caption: “This sweet and tangy Berry is a thoroughly delicious treat.” The Chengdu Roeblan Footware Co Ltd, with 1,300 workers in the suburbs of Chengdu, is the world’s only producer of the Berry shoes. Before Michelle Obama was seen wearing its shoes on the day of Obama’s inauguration, Roeblan had made 500,000 pairs of Berry shoes for the US market. The shoes cost $79. Orders for another 400,000 pairs have been placed from the US since January, Wu said. Many Chinese customers — men and women — have called Roeblan to order the same shoes worn by the American first lady.

“Both my father and I receive a lot of calls because callers do not know the Berry shoes are not sold in the Chinese market,” said Wu, who studied international business in Singapore. Company employees and their family members are proud of the company’s rising prestige. Peng, a young team leader at the company, said wives of many co-workers wanted a pair of Berry shoes from their husbands as a gift. But Roeblan is not entitled to sell the shoes in China. It has been entrusted by the Paramont (Asia) Ltd whose headquarters are in Dongguan, in South China’s Guangdong province, to produce the Berry shoes only. “We have to tell both our workers and callers that we hope, Paramont, which is a Brazilian company, will sell the shoes in China one day,” Wu said. Berry shoes, which have leather uppers and are classic pointed toe pumps, look simple but are hard to manufacture, according to Wu Deqing, the twin brother of the company’s chairman. It takes several workers four or five hours working together to produce one pair, said Wu Deqing. To endure tear and wear, the Berry shoes need three nails in the bottom of the heel. The nails can break the shoes during the production process. “It took experts in the company three months to solve the problem,” said Wu Deqing, who has spent more than three decades as a shoemaker.

John Watkins

boosting economic relationships, AmCham-China has also done a lot of work to promote corporate social responsibility. The organization held its 2009 Annual Charity Ball last month and subsequently donated 1.2 million yuan to charity. The money will be used for two causes, a UNESCO-led project to help several minority groups in Southwest China strengthen their healthcare system and for the Surmang Foundation to help alleviate poverty through health promotion in rural China. Speaking of the organization’s altruistic aims, Watkins said: “If you add up all the money we raised at the charity balls for the last seven years, it is around 9 to 10 million yuan. This is solely the amount the chamber has raised and doesn’t include any sums contributed separately by our member companies.” Watkins has lived in China for nearly 30 years now and can speak fluent Chinese. He has become a passionate advocate for the country and is happy to declare: “China is my home.” Addressing the connection between US and China — seen by many as the pivotal economic, political and cultural relationship of the 21st century, Watkins said: “I personally think that the US-China relationship is as good, stable, broad and deep as it has ever been. In business, we always talk about continuous improvement and I want a continuous improvement in all aspects of ties between US and China.”

Cummins, a world leader in diesel engine manufacturing, has long been working with Chinese partners to introduce green engines to the market. The company is committed to bringing in advanced, low-emission environmental products to Chinese customers, and to seeking innovative solutions for emission reductions for Chinese customers. It is the first engine maker to introduce Euro II, Euro III, Euro IV and hybrid applications to the China market. Cummins joint ventures in China, Dongfeng Cummins and Xi’an Cummins, developed Euro I V diesel engines in 2008 in advance of the Chinese government’s requirements. Beijing Foton Cummins Engine Company, Cummins’ joint venture with Foton Motor, started to produce the new ISF 2.8L and ISF 3.8L in Beijing this year. These two clean diesel engines meet stringent on-highway and off-highway emission standards worldwide, including Euro IV and above. Leadership in combustion research, fuel systems, airhandling systems, electronics, filtration and aftertreatment allows Cummins to maintain its goal of maximizing customer value by providing the most appropriate emissions control for each market served. Cummins’ diverse product portfolio meets or exceeds all emissions requirements, and at the same time, delivers on customer needs for fuel economy, performance, reliability and durability. In addition to local production of Euro IV engines, Cummins is the first foreign diesel maker to invest in the local manufacturing of key sub-systems, including turbocharger, filter, fuel system and after-treatment products. This initiative supports Chinese

partners and OEM customers as they work to meet future emission standards, including Euro IV and above. Cummins Fuel Systems opened a plant in Wuhan, to locally produce fuel pumps and injectors in 2008. Cummins Emission Solutions plant in Beijing started producing Cummins’ leading aftertreatment systems, the critical subsystem for engines to reduce emissions and meet the environmental standards, this year. Cummins has also proactively cooperated with Chinese OEMs to develop hybrid applications for the China market. The hybrid solution has been successfully applied in key sectors such as public transportation. Public transit buses are the most important and busiest transportation tools for the city. Guaranteeing the lowest emissions and the most efficient fuel consumption is a critical part of the industry’s commitment to the environment. The experience of the successful applications in metropolitans, such as Beijing and Hangzhou, have shown that the hybrid bus powered by Cummins offers significant environmental and energy saving benefits. The buses use 20 percent less fuel and have significantly lower emissions than conventional technologies. In his July visit to China, US Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke had the opportunity to view a hybrid Beijing city bus that is powered by Cummins Euro IV engine with a Selective Catalytic Reduction aftertreatment system. It is publicly recognized as one of the cleanest on the road in China, achieving low emission targets while meeting

AUTO SPECIAL

customers’ demands for power and performance. Cummins’ environmental performance has not been confined to the engine and components sectors, Cummins Power Generation provided combined heat and power system (CHP) to help Chinese customers, such as Beijing South Railway Station, to achieve energy saving target. CHP is the production of two kinds of energy —usually electricity and heat — from a single source of fuel. Cogeneration can replace the traditional method of supplying energy from multiple sources, e.g., purchasing electricity from the power grid and burning natural gas or oil separately in a furnace to produce heat or steam. These methods can waste up to two-thirds of the energy in the original fuel. With cogeneration, 70–90 percent of the energy in the original fuel is put to productive use and total energy savings can be 30 percent or more. Entering the Chinese market as early as 1975, Cummins is one of the first US companies seeking business opportunities in China. Cummins began licensing its engine technology in China in 1981 and formed its first joint venture in the country in 1995. Today, Cummins operates 26 facilities in China — including 15 manufacturing sites — representing all areas of the company’s business. In its 34-year history in China, Cummins has made substantial contribution in driving the technological and industrial upgrade through the introduction of the most advanced clean technology and product platform. The environmental performance and proven reliability of Cummins power have been widely recognized among Chinese customers.

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CHINA-US RELATIONS

MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

5

Joint efforts will create clean world

US official: Scientific dialogue between US, China is promising

By Sun Xiaohua and Jiang Hongyuan

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton chats with Mark Norbom (second from left), president and CEO of General Electric (GE) Greater China, as US Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern (left) and GE President and Regional Executive Jack Wen looks on, during a visit to the Beijing Taiyanggong Gas-fired Thermal Power Plant in Beijing on Feb 21. Xu Jingxing

Private companies energize efforts to combat climate change By Sun Xiaohua in Beijing and Wu Chong in New York

David Mohler checked out of the St. Regis Hotel in Beijing on a snowy Monday morning, finished his business trip and headed back to the US. One week later, US President Barack Obama would check into the same hotel during his debut visit to China. Mohler is senior vicepresident and chief technology officer for Duke Energy Corp, the third-largest US electric power holding company based on kilowatt-hour sales. Although Obama and Mohler come from different backgrounds, they share the same ambition for their visits to China. That is, they are looking for opportunities for the two biggest energy consumers and greenhouse gas emitters in the world to work together on energy and climate change.

Jin Canrong, deputy dean of the International Studies School at Renmin University of China in Beijing, said Obama’s visit will strongly promote bilateral collaboration on the energy and the environment. The two countries show “a strong commitment, especially on joint renewable energy development”, Jin said. “It is great to have our political leaders to set a tone on collaboration,” Mohler said. “But it is not enough; we need companies and utilities to get to work.” Duke Energy is one of the entities which aim to churn political visions into solutions, Mohler said. Operating in a country that is one of the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitters, and as a company that generates 70 percent of its electrical power from coal combustion, Duke Energy plans to replace its generators to cut CO2 emissions over the next 40 years, said Mohler.

“As we look forward to that challenge, we think it is also an opportunity ...” Mohler said. “(The US and China) could mutually benefit from doing it together.” The company currently is working with two Chinese partners — China Huaneng Group and ENN Group, both leaders in China’s energy sector. China Huaneng Group is State-owned, while the other is private. Duke Energy plans to explore a variety of renewable and other clean-energy technologies with China Huaneng, China’s biggest electric utility, which produces more than 10 percent of the electricity consumed in China, according to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed this year in Beijing. The MOU between Duke Energy and China Huaneng includes high-level discussions and information-sharing on a number of renewable and clean energy fronts.

As for the collaboration with ENN, Duke Energy announced an agreement to accelerate the development of low-carbon and clean energy technologies. Duke Energy’s agreement with ENN, one of China’s largest privately held diversified energy companies, includes potential development of commercial solar projects. It also involves technology development in coal-based clean energy, biofuels, natural gas, smart grid, energy efficiency and carbon-capturing algae. The companies plan to jointly build large-scale solar power plants in the US next year. Despite the strong commitment and actions taken in recent years to develop renewable energy, Mohler still believes that the prime success of the collaborative efforts will come in the areas of low-carbon and clean coal technologies. The development of integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) technology — which

turns coal into gas — will be another priority of Sino-US cooperation, Mohler said. Because both countries heavily depend on burning coal for power generation, it is “unpersuasive” to abandon using coal in the short term, he said. Another carbon-cutting technology, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), also is attracting a lot of attention in the US and China. The Asia Society and the Center for American Progress recently conducted a study that explored the opportunities for China and the US to develop CCS technologies on a cooperative and mutually beneficial basis. Andrew Light, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, said the study showed the US is “willing to assist China to achieve its clean energy development goals as a necessary condition for heading to an international deal”.

Scientific exchanges between the US and China on ecological protection hold great promise for creating a clean environment in China, a senior US official said. Kevin Yale Teichman, deputy assistant administrator for the Science Office of Research and Development with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), made the remarks in October during a high-level environmental forum in Wuhan, one of the largest cities in Central China. Teichman’s office, which works closely with China’s ministries of science and technology, and environmental protection, has made a series of cooperative plans for the next few years. The initiative follows a string of joint efforts in recent years. Teichman said that China now faces six environmental challenges, which the Sino-US joint working plans will target, including ambient air pollution, water pollution and scarcity of water, toxic substances, the management of solid and municipal waste, resource conservation and climate change, said Teichman. “There is strong commitment from the US EPA, China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), which is shown in the memorandums of understanding,” he said. For instance, the US EPA and China’s MEP have established a 10-year framework on air

quality which was developed under the China-US Strategic and Economic Dialogue. The framework promotes market-based policies for pollution prevention and control from electricity generation and industrial sources, control of vehicle emissions, regional air quality management, control of nitrogen oxide emissions, ozone and particulate pollution management, and assessment of these policies. The two sides have laid out steps to reduce air pollution in China, such as controlling of vehicle emissions, which currently are not addressed in China. The measures will apply to emissions sources such as oceangoing vessels, coastal vessels and cargo-handling equipment at ports. With the MOST, the US EPA will focus on drinking water research, hold joint workshops on multi-pollutant control for coal combustion, and environmental technology verification. “In the long term, we potentially will work on water infrastructure monitoring and drinking water emergency response, contaminated soil remediation, green community and building indicators and monitoring for new types of pollution,” Teichman said. However, a single scientist cannot accomplish the mission of creating a clean environment alone, Teichman said. Social teamwork involving chemists, engineers, exposure scientists, clinicians, social scientist, legislators, economists and the media can help meet the goal of a cleaner world, he said.

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Brotherly connection to China For a presidential sibling, helping Shenzhen’s children at a charity house strikes the right note By Chen Hong

SHENZHEN: Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo is getting used to being associated with his half brother, US President Barack Obama, but he aims to chart his own course. “It’s certainly changed my life since his election, but I just want to focus on my important things,” Ndesandjo, a resident of Shenzhen for seven years, told China Daily recently. Those things include playing piano, practicing Chinese calligraphy, writing and teaching children at a local charity house. Those tasks are “as important as breathing”, he said. Describing China as a “turning place” — a place where he sees things in a different way and discovers new things every day — Ndesandjo said his brother’s visit to China can help

Obama and members of his administration better understand the country, the people and its culture. “I would like to share my views with my brother when he comes to Beijing,” Ndesandjo said. “Chinese people are very gentle, soft, generous and hospitable. They know the true way to welcome people from other countries sincerely.” Meanwhile, Ndesandjo hopes to introduce his Chinese wife, a native of Henan province and a big fan of Obama, during the president’s visit. Bearing a resemblance to Obama, Ndesandjo is slim and energetic. He often wears a bandana. He enjoys speaking in Chinese, using Chinese proverbs and literary quotations. So far, he has passed Level 7 of Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK), China’s

Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo, the halfbrother of U.S. President Barack Obama, plays the piano during an interview in Shenzhen, China’s southern Guangdong province early this month. Reuters

only standardized test of Mandarin proficiency for non-native speakers. It is an intermediate stage of competency. Learning Chinese is among the motives that drove him to China in 2002. He acknowledged that mastering a new tongue is among the biggest challenges he has encountered while living in the country. The other attraction is China’s culture. A Dream of the Red Mansion, gave him a deep insight into Chinese customs and traditions through the

profound descriptions in the Qing Dynasty novel. He plans to re-read it. “The Chinese have a strong sense of family. I feel really comfortable here,” he said. Family is of prime importance to Ndesandjo, though many memories of his own upbringing, particularly his early years in Kenya, are unpleasant. He recounted abuse at the hands of his late father, Barack Obama Sr., also father of the US president. Ndesandjo’s mother, Ruth

Nidesand, Obama Sr.’s third wife and an American, was often beaten by her husband when he got drunk, Ndesandjo said. Ndesandjo and Obama Sr. eventually divorced amid allegations of domestic abuse. Nidesand returned to the US, where she married a man whose surname was taken by Ndesandjo. The incurable hurt of family violence to a child is one theme of his book Nairobi to Shenzhen, a semi-autobiographical meditation on family,

multiculturalism and love. Ndesandjo, who works as a marketing consultant, recently completed the book, which covers his life in Kenya and United States. He plans to publish the book, which provides a fuller account of his family background and ties, in the next several months. But rather than dwell on painful memories, he prefers to devote his energy to bring warmth, confidence and love to orphaned and disadvantaged children in the local charity

house, where he has taught every week for seven years. “The spirit of love can be passed on,” said Ndesandjo. “Sometimes people have a loving heart, but they do need some guidance to turn it into action.” He will donate 15 percent of the proceeds from the book to charity. In January Ndesandjo played piano in a concert that raised money for orphans. He is also preparing for a charity piano concert next spring.

Obama’s books best-sellers in China By Zhu Linyong

The first African-American president in US history has swept China’s book market during the past year. Typing “Obama” in Amazon.cn, one of China’s largest online bookstores, brings up

86 search results, 50 of which are Chinese books about the US president’s life story, his 2008 political campaign or compilations of his speeches. Statistics from Amazon.cn show a spurt in Obama-related book sales after the announcement of the 2008 election result. Book sales on inauguration day

were more than three times higher than any other day. Zhongguancun Book Building also said it saw an about 80 percent increase in sales following Obama’s election victory. Han Manchun, editor of the Chinese translation of Obama’s The Audacity of Hope, said the book sold out its first two

print runs, which started last September, and the total print figure is 140,000. Han attributes the book’s success to Obama’s charisma and appeal as a political leader, and the honesty and wisdom in the writing. “I finished one-third of the book the night I got its original English edition, and knew immediately it was a book worth translating, publishing and reading,” Han said. The Chinese translation of the Obama biography, Dreams from My Father, has also been well received, with more than 100,000 copies printed since January. Editor Huang Ying said Obama’s story is inspirational, and expects the book to continue selling well. Huang described the readership as mostly high school and college students and young whitecollar workers. Ai Xiaofen, 22, said she is an Obama fan. She said she was attracted to his books because “Obama is the perfect man for all girls”. “He is handsome, and young, and most importantly achieved victory and success from humble circumstances with determined conviction and action,” Ai said. College student Tian Ran borrowed Dreams from My Father

Obama-related book sales jumped on Amazon’s Chinese website after the 2008 election. Asinanewsphoto

from her school library to see how Obama became what he is today. “Obama’s life is like a Hollywood blockbuster. There must be something to be learned from his story,” said Tian. While many may pick up Obama’s books to learn more about his life and his realization of the “American dream”, Wang Huiyao, the translator of Dreams from My Father and director-general of the Center for China and Globalization, hopes they give Chinese readers an idea of the larger picture of the world. “Obama and the younger generation he represents has become the core of US political and social power,” Wang said.

“We need to know their demands, ideas and ways of thinking, which are bound to exert profound influence on China and the world in general. That’s why I recommend the book to my friends in the business and political circle,” said Wang. Tian Zhi, editor of Selected Speeches of Barack Obama, published by Nanjing-based Yilin Press, said he was enchanted when he first watched Obama speak. He compiled 14 of the president’s speeches for the bilingual book, which eventually topped China’s English language best-seller list. Wang Shouren, dean of the School of Foreign Stud-

ies, Nanjing University, said Obama’s speeches are powerful because of his straightforward yet expressive English, meticulous reasoning, smooth pacing and imposing vigor. Xiao Xifan, information analyst in an American consulting company, said she tries to improve her English by memorizing Obama’s speeches. When she feels down, she said, she recites Obama’s words: “Where we are met with cy nicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can’t, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”

US president impresses young Chinese By Wang Zhuoqiong and Hu Yongqi

Amid piles of paperwork in his simple office on the outskirts of Beijing, a 28-year-old public welfare lawyer pauses to say his job is special because he feels a kinship with the most powerful man in the United States. “I am young, passionate and dedicated to helping the poor of the community with my knowledge,” said Li Songchen, who represents migrant workers at the Beijing Zhicheng Law Firm. “Barack Obama at my age was doing the same thing.” When he was in his twenties, Obama worked for a churchbased community organization on Chicago’s far South Side and worked on civil rights cases with a small law firm. The same drive to support the disadvantaged helps Li tackle challenges on the job and in life. Li lives on a thin salary and deals with legal cases that often last years and offer few opportunities to win. “Part of the reasons for Obama’s popularity comes

from his knowledge of ordinary people through his grassroots and community experience,” Li said. “The more you talk to the people at the bottom, the most disadvantaged people, the wider vision you gain, the better communication skills you acquire,” Li said. Li is among the young Chinese who have gained new perspectives about their responsibilities, and about equality and sacrifice through Obama’s stories. As the first African-American president, at age 48, Obama has made himself approachable to young people with his smiles, and through Internet communication tools including Twitter and Facebook. “Whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical … what gives me the most hope is the next generation: the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change has already made history…” Obama said in March 2008. During his visit to Shanghai, Obama will discuss Sino-US relations with young Chinese people.

In advance of that dialogue, the response from the Chinese side is warm. “He seems to be a role model to me,” said Ding Yi, a 24year-old graduate student in Guangzhou who has followed Obama since the 2008 presidential campaign. She said she respects the president for his enduring ties with the common man — a stark contrast to the aloofness of many American politicians. “Most politicians usually have tough images,” Ding said. “But Obama’s cordial smiles and gestures and his willingness and persistence to (advocate) change for a better life make people feel warm and safe.” Young people have also taken note of president’s family ties with China. Obama’s half brother, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo has lived in Shenzhen for seven years. “I think his first visit to China and meeting its people will give him new impressions, which will improve our bilateral ties,” said Ding.

Respect notwithstanding, some st udents have ra ised q uest ions about t he president ’s globa l responsibi l it y a f ter h is “trophy”: the Nobel Peace Prize awarded last month. In a survey earlier this month by China Daily, 158 out of 200 students in Beijing are most interested about the president’s feelings about garnering the award within the first year of his presidency. Cui Yue, a student at Peking University, said how Obama manages the war on terrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq is a big issue. “He promised to end the war in his election speeches, but until now it seems the United States has had to dispatch more troops there,” she said. “We are expecting him to do more for world peace.” “Actions speak louder than words,” said Wang Yiwen, who is to graduate next year from the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. “We are looking forward to Obama’s substantial actions to make a change for people around the world.”

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

7

A more serious spin on table tennis America may paddle back to top echelons of the ping-pong world By Rin-rin Yu

WASHINGTON: On a Wednesday evening at Club Joola in Rockville, Md., Tom Nguyen is giving an introductory table tennis lesson to a new student, a middle-aged man in a wheelchair interested in learning strategies from a sitting position. Nguyen taps orange balls across the table to him and suggests different strokes and hand positions as the man returns the ball. Like any other American kid whose idea of table tennis involved casual recreation with friends, Nguyen “was just a basement player, pitterpattering it back and forth,” he said. “When I see table tennis now, there’s no comparison. The speeds, the spins, the different strokes. That’s how I got hooked.” Today he’s an assistant manager at Club Joola, a private, table tennis club in suburban Washington, DC. The club is based in a clean, bright gym with several tables, and a few wayward orange balls scattered across the red floor. Three coaches, including former US Olympian Amy Feng, teach several classes of different ability levels throughout the week. Joola, a German table tennis equipment manufacturer, opened the club nearly two years ago in the community, which has a large Chinese population. Table tennis, as a serious sport, is wildly popular in China, but is also growing in popularity in the US. Americans are coming around to the idea that excelling at table tennis, or ping-pong, requires considerable skill, practice and strategy. In recent years, the number of established table tennis clubs and organized ping-pong competitions in the US has

increased, as have purchases of ping-pong tables for both personal and commercial use. In late September, ESPN aired the biggest table tennis tournament in the US, the HardBat Classic, in which 500 qualifying participants competed for a $100,000 prize. Though Chinese table tennis players continue to dominate the sport, some experts are reporting new trends. “The Chinese association saw a decrease in interest in the Chinese population,” said Teodor Gheorghe, the highperformance director of the United States Association of Table Tennis. “There’s a lot more activity in the US,” said Robert Blackwell, CEO of table tennis equipment manufacturer Killerspin LLC. “I think it’s always been popular. But I have seen a lot more tables sold this year and it’s gone up in participation quite a bit in the last five years.” According to a survey released by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers’ Association, participation in the sport in the US went up 35 percent from 2000 to 2008, to approximately 17.2 million people. Nearly 5 million are considered serious players who play 13 or more times a year. Some experts say the struggling economy is drawing people to an inexpensive sport that almost everybody can play. Televised table tennis competition also likely gets more people into the sport. Each Summer Olympics brings an increase in table sales, said Gheorghe. Movies also create interest, such as 1994 Oscar winner Forrest Gump, in which Tom Hanks’ character mastered the sport and was sent to China as part of the ping-pong diplomacy effort, and the 2007 comedy Balls of Fury, in which a table

tennis prodigy is recruited by the FBI to take revenge on his father’s killer by beating him in a symbolic tournament. “We had a sense that table tennis was making a comeback,” said Andrew Fried, a producer and event organizer who was involved in ESPN’s televised HardBat Classic tournament. In January, Washington and Beijing celebrated the 30year anniversary of China-US diplomatic relationships with a table tennis match in Beijing, evoking the historic 1971 tournament, which broke the ice between the two countries and inspired the phrase pingpong diplomacy. But table tennis actually has a longer history in the US, where it was played as early as 1901, than it does in China. Parker Brothers Games filed a patent on the name “pingpong” shortly after the turn of the century. In the 1920s, the Parker Brothers-promoted American Ping-Pong Association gathered steam. The company set out to sell as many of its tables, paddles and balls around the country as possible, causing tension with table tennis clubs and manufacturers who could not use the ping-pong name, and helping to ensure the sport was established in the US. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the Chinese took to the sport, recreationally and competitively. It caught on quickly, however, and Chinese players were soon beating those from other nations. China is currently the topranked country or region in the International Table Tennis Foundation. The United States is 43rd. But the US may soon move up in the ranks. According to Gheorghe, at least 100 new table tennis clubs were started over the past six years, meaning there are now 300 across the US. The definition of club varies, however, from a room with a table where people pay to

play to a full-scale gymnasium equipped with lines and stateof-the-art equipment, said Gheorghe. “We would like the concept of a club like it is in other countries: it has a coach, has a team, has a program for juniors, to develop them and teach them the right technique, right footwork and make them good players,” said Gheorghe. “Not just recreation only,” added Gheorghe. SpiNYC attempts to do just that. Three filmmakers who had a ping-pong table in their New York apartment founded the new table tennis club. They challenged friends to play against them in their apartment. It proved popular and they began organizing tournaments on Friday nights, and more people started showing up. “Before we knew it… we had a liquor sponsor and

girls coming and writeups in (the media),” said Bill Mack, co founder and co-owner of SpiNYC. “Within six weeks, 250 people were coming to the party. We didn’t know what to do with ourselves, so we said we better start a club.” The three opened their club this year. It includes a high-end table tennis gym, locker rooms, showers, regulation tables and equipment, bleacher seating, and — to add a nightclub feel — a full liquor bar. By day, it’s a serious training ground for

some of the best players in the country, except on weekends, when families can use it. SpiNYC already boasts a member list of about 400 people, world-class coaches and celebrity investors. The three founders plan to branch out into different markets around the country and the world, including China. A

Chinese investor has already expressed interest in opening a branch in Shanghai. The club helps give table tennis a more appealing image, which will boost participation, said Mack. “We need to get it out of that basement rec room mentality and get it into something that’s a sport,” he said. “We respect what China has done to make table tennis legitimate and athletic at a very high level. But watch out, China, we’re coming,” he added.

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Tying the knot bridges differences By Erik Nilsson

Joseph Laria and Wang Jin, shown with daughter Jacqueline, say their different backgrounds make their relationship more interesting.

Cross-cultural marriages Distinctly different ways of life help build a better union By Chen Jia

Jacqueline Laria, 2, giggles at the camera and shouts, “daddy dang (Chinese slang for “swing”)”, as Joseph Laria, her father, tosses her into the air and catches her. For little Jacqueline, there are two words for everything — one in English and one in Chinese. Laria’s wife, Hangzhou native Wang Jin, said their daughter can now speak more Chinese than her father. “We talk about her education every day,” Wang said. “Joe believes Chinese grandparents are overprotective. He always reminds us that our daughter should sleep alone, exercise more and wear fewer layers of sweaters.” The cross-cultural family lives

in a two-story detached villa with a flower garden in Beijing’s suburban Shunyi district. Wang is vice-president of CBC Group Ltd, and Laria is a senior program manager for Microsoft’s China Research and Development Group. “My husband is always rooting for my crazy ideas,” Wang said. “He supported me when I quit my job in the US to take on a new position in London. … Still, for him, Beijing is a remote Asian destination.” Wang and Laria were graduate school classmates in 1994. While they had some mutual friends, they didn’t really know each other until a chance second meeting a year later. They had started working in different departments at the same company in Dallas.

Laria bumped into Wang one day while walking past her office on his way to the lab. There was a large world map in the atrium outside, and Laria started pointing to the places he’d visited, lived and wished to travel. He was delighted to find the Chinese woman shared his interest in other cultures. “Our love of maps, travel and adventure continues to this day,” Laria said. “Our different backgrounds make our relationship more interesting. Meanwhile, we approach life problems in a similar way, because we both studied engineering science.” Laria believes Wang is an energetic, smart and optimistic woman. “There weren’t too many Chinese girls in my social life before grad school,” he said. “It’s so hard to tell which kind of Chinese woman does more charm for an American man. … I love her not because of her

culture; the culture is just part of her personality.” Wang believes their love also has helped her career pursuit. “As a Chinese woman, I didn’t feel confident, and I was worried that my English skills weren’t as good as native speakers’,” she said. “Joe helped me become more self-assured, and understand American culture and history. He always sees me as better than I thought myself to be.” When she struggled, he would encourage her to do her best. Her experiences in the US helped her understand the American spirit. “They’ll give you equal opportunities and extra encouragement, because you’re trying harder than a native speaker.” The couple believes their chances of success are greater than that of single-culture couples. “It’s a big decision to form a union across different cultures.

Guan Xin

... We already have acknowledged that we come from very different backgrounds and, therefore, speak differently. So, I remind myself that a non-Chinese way might be better when we have different opinions,” said Wang. The best way to resolve marital issues is to respect differences and to think of your partner’s feelings first, she said. “I think today’s marriages between Chinese and Americans are more about love and are on more of an equal footing,” she said. “We’re lucky to be living in a peaceful age, when the whole world is based on trade. We can work for an American company in Beijing today, and we could later work for a Chinese company in the US.” But Wang said some differences do come out sometimes. “During the Olympics,” she said, “I wave the Chinese flag and he waves the American flag.”

Liaoning province native Hu Wenshu and her husband, American Eric Lerdal, hold the same view of cultural differences — that those differences are a mirage in marriage. Lerdal, 40, said the manner in which they began their courtship at a university in Hebei’s provincial capital, Shijiazhuang, in 2002 was typical of any college sweethearts in the United States. “We just spent a lot of time together and started discovering common interests,” Lerdal said. “I didn’t really think too much about it,” Hu, 28, said. “I just thought he was a really nice guy.” So they married two years later. They staged a traditional Northeast China wedding in Hu’s hometown near Liaoning’s capital, Shenyang, before holding an Americanstyle reception in the US. While the couple agrees Lerdal has adopted some Chinese habits, Lerdal said his wife is a “pretty typical” Chinese without any particular inclination toward Western thinking. But none of that matters, they agree. “We just kind of tossed culture aside,” Lerdal said. “I think it’s all superficial.” He said that may be because the US and China are both heterogeneous societies. One thing Lerdal said initially took some getting used to was the different conceptions of jealousy. “I realized it’s not because she doesn’t trust me; it’s a display of affection,” he said. He pointed out that in the US, jealousy is more closely linked to suspicion. And when it comes to raising their 2year-old twins,

Lucy and Luray, they say they do it their “own way”, rather than following their homelands’ conventions. Paul Cokeley and his wife, Li Jie, also said that cultural differences don’t mix into their chemistry. The 31-year-old American said his wife, 29, instead often understands him — and especially his sense of humor — better than most foreigners. The couple said that while cultural barriers don’t affl ict their romance, the threat of them actually helps their relationship. “Whenever we have a problem, we’re more careful … because we don’t want to offend the other person’s culture,” Cokeley said. “When you don’t have cultural differences, you can easily just jump into an argument because you’re angry.” But while they don’t clash between themselves, some frustrations have arisen since Li’s mother moved in last month to care for their newborn daughter, Charlotte. But after the mother leaves, the couple doesn’t anticipate conflicts over child-rearing issues. Both couples envision a bright future for their crosscultural families. “I hope we’ll be happy together for the rest of our lives,” Hu said.

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CHINA-US RELATIONS

MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

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Visit marks attitude change By Chung-yue Chang

US President Barack Obama will pay a state visit to China Sunday through Wednesday, a critical stop on a trip across Asia. This major foreign trip for the president, coupled with a visit by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton nine months earlier, is heralded as a strategic shift in the attitude of American leadership toward Asia. Budding at the beginning, and implemented during the first year of his young presidency, the overture is lauded by watchers the world over. By culture America is Eurocentric. However, for the past 75 years the United States has titled culturally toward the Asia-Pacific region. The green holistic Asian “high touch” values provide a healthy balance to America’s “hi-tech” heritage, nurtured in part by the Asian-Americans who have helped make the US a technological powerhouse. In this respect, Asia has been good to America. Now Obama is taking the US to the next level by engaging Asia directly on hard issues such as climate change, security, politics and the world economy. This direct engagement with Asia has evolved naturally because of a number of factors, both remote and immediate, going back 30 years. Those factors include: the meltdown of the Cold War order; the formation of the European Union; the troubling unresolved terrorism that has racked the Middle East; wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and the alarming global crises in climate change and the economy. The triggering factor, however, is the economic and political rise of developing countries in Asia — India and, especially, China. In partnering with China, Ambassador Jon Huntsman, Obama’s Chinese-speaking representative in Beijing, repeated many times that China and America must “help each other, learn from each other and make progress together”. For this “help-progress” partnership to be productive and equal, “learning from each other” is the key. Each side must learn from the other naturally, using the benchmark of one’s own circumstances and situations. But learning also involves teaching. In teaching the other, one side must do so with sensitivity, respect and pragmatism. Free of myopia and a prejudicial ideological stance, the partnership can thrive. Overall, China has been learning from

America for at least a century now. During the first half of the past century the Untied States helped establish educational institutions and hospitals in China, some of which are still operating. Philosopher John Dewey lectured extensively in old China for two years (1919 to 1921) on American pragmatism. For the first 30 years after 1949 New China had no contact with the US. After normalization of relations in 1979, the next 30 years saw an increased flow of Chinese coming to America to study; many came to teach as well. At different historical periods, China learned, and now continues to learn — in her own way — from the American experience.

There are differences in attitude and values, and challenges on tough issues. Obama’s visits to Shanghai and Beijing will certainly address some of those issues. The US has learned from China as well. Today American students are studying at every major Chinese university on subjects beyond language and culture. American students are becoming a cultural icon in China. They often appear on Chinese television shows. In fact, there is a popular CCTV program featuring the daily happenings, often faux pas, of a fictional American student living with a Chinese family. More Americans live and work in China. To introduce Chinese language and culture to average Americans, China has established, since 2004, more than 40 Confucius Institutes at places such as the University of California, Los Angeles, the University of Michigan and the University of Maryland. Then there are the well-established research and teaching centers on Chinese studies at prestigious institutions such as Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Stanford and Princeton Universities. America does not lack China experts. Despite that academic expertise, America in general does not know China well enough. There are differences in attitude and values, and challenges on tough issues. Obama’s visits to Shanghai and Beijing will certainly

address some of those issues. The resolution of problems would help build mutual trust, which is indispensable for any partnership. Trust begins with genuine understanding. Chinese culture today is a complex, one-ofa-kind fusion of singularly unique ancient tradition with an acquired Western modernity. The West-based modernity alone facilitates China’s understanding of the US. America’s Western fixation creates challenges in understanding China’s ancient culture and its ancient-modern cultural mix. Here are two examples of such challenges: First, there are areas in which some Americans misread ancient China in important ways. Take, for example, the influential 6th century BC Military Treatise by Sunzi (or Sun Tzu). This book is translated and known in the West as The Art of War, when its true meaning is actually The Art of Peace. Militarily, a state should be strong, but true peace is achieved primarily by winning the enemy’s hearts and minds, not by military deterrence or occupation, which, respectively, is secondary and tertiary at best. The co-presence of a strong defensive military posture and pacifistic stance is part and parcel of China’s cultural heritage. America must not misread this heritage from an inappropriate Machiavellian viewpoint. For this reason one understands why China today is opposed to colonialism and neocolonialism, and why China publicly announced not to be the first to use nuclear weapons. Second, Americans must understand that China, by fusing ancient wisdom with modern know-how, can govern, harmonize her people, make money, defend, design, construct and manage climate change. In healthcare, the complementary practice of ancient Chinese and modern Western medicines is a case in point. The two medicines are as different as day and night, yet they work well together. Patients benefit by the judicious administration of both, often at the same hospital. The world hopes that President Obama’s China visit in 2009 will truly be historic. It may signal the beginning of something good. The world wishes President Obama well during his China visit, a hallmark event for America, for China and for the world. The author teaches philosophy in the United States

Strategic reassurance a key goal > OBAMA, From Page 1 “Adapting to the rise of China, as well as other emerging powers like India and Brazil, while protecting our own national interests. This, I believe, is one of the key strategic challenges of our time. And the key to solving it is what I would call strategic reassurance,” Steinberg said. Niu Xinchun, research fellow of American Studies with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said that Steinberg’s words indicate a level of distrust which permeates current China-US relations. Mutual trust is the key to keeping bilateral relations growing steadily. Trade friction between China and the US in recent months is among the evidence that the two countries need to improve trust in each other. In September Obama decided to impose punitive duties of 35 percent on Chinesemade tires. The US Commerce Department announced a preliminary assessment on Chinese-imported steel wire decking. The

US International Trade Commission approved probes into imports of high-quality paper from both China and Indonesia totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, as well as certain salts from China that are used in cleaning products, food additives and fertilizer. Still, the two countries are widely divided on the issues of Tibet and US arms sales to Taiwan, which are core interests of China. “Though China and the US pledge to strengthen strategic trust, it is difficult to get to it,” said Fu Mengzi, an expert on American studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Studies. “Both sides need to take specific actions, especially the US.” The two countries have reached consensus on this point. “Strategic assurance must fi nd ways to highlight and reinforce the areas of common interest, while addressing the sources of mistrust directly, whether they be political, military or economic,” Steinberg said. In spite of their differences, China and the US are making inroads to tally an impres-

sively growing list of areas in which cooperation has been enhanced. But the two nations are far from intimate. This is the nature of China-US relations. “Given China’s growing capabilities and influence, we have an especially compelling need to work with China to meet global challenges,” Steinberg said. “Yet China’s very size and importance also raises the risk of competition and rivalry that can thwart that cooperation.” When Obama was elected president in November 2008, the celebrity-styled US president won many Chinese hearts. The Chinese people’s passion for him has waned as time passes, though. A survey by Global Times online last week showed that Obama’s China trip will not raise the Chinese people’s expectations. Nearly 55 percent of the interviewees said they were not interested in his visit. The change from the blind optimism to coolheaded skepticism shows maturity, which is good for a normal, stable China-US relationship, experts said.

Wang Xiaoying

Warming up to a new climate of environmental stewardship CHEN WEIHUA The climate change seminar held last week at the Asia Society in New York, which focused on China, was quite a surprise. The event included several US experts on climate change and several prominent scholars on China, such as Orville Schell, Jerome Cohen, Barbara Finamore and Andrew Nathan. I was expecting a lot of criticism of China’s approach to climate change. Academics should be able to express their opinions on their area of expertise, whether they be negative or positive, without people taking undue offense. It is sometimes part of their job to analyze and critique, just as it is part of my job as journalist. However, the criticism of China I had heard at some previous seminars was over the top, and seemed based on a poor understanding of the situation, ideological inclination or a stereotyped Cold War mentality, instead of solid facts. So when Finamore, founder and director of the China Program of the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Orville Schell, director of the Center on US-China Relations at the Asia Society and former dean of the University of Calfornia Berkeley, Journalism School, repeatedly mentioned China’s progress on clean energy and carbon reduction, I was amazed. China was credited for its strong efforts in fighting climate change, particularly the government’s plans to increase energy efficiency at power plants and other industrial buildings. President Hu Jintao’s pledge at the UN Climate Change Conference in September that China will reduce its carbon intensity by a significant margin between 2005 and 2020 was highlighted, as was China’s remarkable

progress under the current Five-Year Plan in trying to reduce energy intensity by 20 percent between 2006 and 2010. Measures such as evaluating local government officials for their performance on carbon reduction and progress in renewable energies impressed seminar participants. To be honest, few of China’s 1.3 billion people are probably any more aware of the progress in their own country in fighting climate than most Americans. And I know China’s problems in this area are still huge despite its efforts. The US took more heat than China at the seminar, and was criticized for a lack of leadership. While the US House of Representatives’ approval of a climate change bill was applauded, the stiff opposition the bill faces in the US Senate was blasted. The recent protest in the US against a Chinese wind-turbine company’s plans to supply equipment to one of the largest wind farm developments in western Texas was also criticized. But ultimately, the researchers and academics did not sit down to cheer for, or against, China, the US or Europe. They are pinning high hopes on the historic summit between visiting US President Barack Obama and Hu ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December. Pushing for collaboration between the US and China was the key message of the seminar. The Asia Society, in partnership with the Center for American Progress and Monitor Group, recently released a roadmap for US-China collaboration on carbon capture and sequestration. The Natural Resources Defense Council, meanwhile, has put out several reports on special carbon capture projects in China. As the Chinese ambassador to the US, Zhou Wenzhong, told me and other reporters in Washington last week, the China-US relationship is now characterized by cooperation and dialogue in almost every field. The tone of the seminar appeared to support the ambassador’s words.

Windows to that mysterious world: My American experience Discovering America through a hodgepodge of popular culture, highbrow and low, helps a young man connect with the real and the abstract, Raymond Zhou, columnist of China Daily, recounts his American experience over the past three decades. The following is the first installment.

My earliest impression of the United States was positively negative. Back in the early 1970s, America was one of the bad elements, together with bourgeois and the “Soviet revisionism”, that we were supposed to “struggle against”. It popped up in slogans during mass parades and in limericks for children, preceded by “down with” and followed by “imperialism”. It had a face, too, in cartoons with the eagle nose as the most striking feature. We also learned that American soldiers would put up a white flag in war without much provocation, hence the term “paper tiger”. Yet, to a child who had never been away from the small town in eastern China where I grew up, America remained vaguely abstract. Less than abstract. It didn’t represent anything. It was just … the other. My second impression of America came almost a decade later. The occasional visiting professors from the US were the first fleshand-blood representatives of that “other” country. I was not the type who wrangled an after-class Q&A session, so I knew them usually from a dozen rows of seats away. And they were invariably friendly and ready to crack a joke. My serious contact with the US was initiated via the radio. During my college

years, an evening ritual included several hours of tuning in Voice of America and its language teaching programs. A news show was tailor-made for people like me with slower-than-normal reading speed. I also got my first exposure to Mark Twain stories and Christmas carols this way. Sometimes a classmate with better reception would tape a show and share with the rest of us. A jazz hour on the dial was met with resistance as none of us could make head or tails out of this “strange” music. Someone got a cassette of American pop songs. We devoured it as the lyrics were easy to decipher. It was not until years later that I learned they were hot tunes from the 1950s. The earliest American movies available to my generation, during the late 1970s and early 1980s were just as haphazardly selected as the rest of my crash course in American pop culture. Most were second-rate titles few Americans had heard of. We were told China could not afford the expensive ones, but it turned out a blessing in disguise because we saw a lot of imports from other countries, particularly India and Japan. My movie vista was not monopolized by Hollywood blockbusters. As a matter of fact, I was so ill- equipped with necessary knowledge that when I saw the fi rst blockbuster from the US, I was utterly disappointed. It was Star Wars. I was expecting a serious fi lm with social themes. Likewise, an Oscar winner with racial discrimination as its subject matter sent people running from the theater because the Chinese title suggested a thriller. Such

Luo Jie

was my confusion about America’s most popular cultural export that I’d laugh my head off if anyone suggested back then I’d write volumes and volumes on American cinema. My on ly “systemat ic” approach to America and its culture was through its literature. I was an English language major and literary writings were the means to achieving language proficiency. Under normal circumstances language should be the means to the end, say, appreciating great literature. But I didn’t know better. Anyway, I got to read Emerson, Thoreau, Hawthorne, Stowe, O. Henry, Mark Twain, etc.

The Scarlet Letter struck me as shockingly reminiscent of the “cultural revolution”, which we had just suffered through. Call it witch-hunt or revolution, it has an eerily similar manifestation — mass hysteria, and it could happen any time, anywhere. I picked Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson as topics for research. How could one country produce two great poets that were almost the polar opposite of each other? I was curious. Years later I saw newsreels from the 1920s and awakened to the spirit of Whitman — the vast landscape, the boundless energy, the open-hearted embrace. To fully understand Whitman, one must step on American soil and mingle with its ordinary people. As for Dickinson, about which I wrote a book-length Freudian analysis, I still cannot figure out a trace of Americanism in her. She was more a soul sister of Li Qingzhao (1084-1155), China’s pre-eminent poetess, both great observers of the mental horizon. By the 1980s, the US was a dream that beckoned young Chinese. Not many could articulate what it stood for, but it must be something nice. An education on the other side of the Pacific was out of reach for most of us and information about what was happening there was by no means consistent or reliable. A magazine a tourist left behind, a tape received as a gift, or even a Sears catalog were used as windows to that mysterious world where everyone drove a car and every family had what we’d call a “villa”. From those tidbits of information, I, like many of my generation, gathered that Americans did not seem to work that

much, yet they were fabulously wealthy. Racism seemed to be the only problem. African-Americans probably lived like “class enemies” of China of yore, hunkered down and threatened with beatings from the foremen. As my study of American literature stopped at the early 20th century, my mental picture of that country was based chiefly on the 1930s murals with class struggle as the leitmotif. America was more a notion than a nation. We would use the little material we could access and build a framework upon which we simply fleshed out with whatever we had. The image that came out of this process was a hybrid — America on the outside and China on the inside. For example, my dad once told me Harvard University was surrounded by thick walls on all sides and no students were allowed to leave for a home visit during their years of excruciatingly assiduous study. Instead, they spent their days memorizing classics, waving and nodding their heads. For him, America’s best-known institution of higher education had to be a modern replica of an ancient Chinese school. Many also thought the American president was an emperor who wore a suit and a tie. We didn’t get the fuss about Nixon and Watergate (we all hold him in high regard because he was the one who fi rst showed friendliness to us) but the Clinton sex scandal taught us something we could not learn otherwise — an American president does not enjoy half the privileges of a Chinese emperor. That was quite a revelation.

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

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On the right track

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S President Barack cement that foundation as they set Obama stepped off their sights on the 21st century the plane in Shanghai and take. last night to begin his There is no denying that China visit in China, which and the US differ in ideology lasts through Wednesday. and political and social systems, Obviously, he carried with him as well as in core values and a heavier agenda than his seven concerns. These differences have predecessors, with his hallmark kept the two countries estranged appeal for “change”. But he has for decades and then put their rearrived with many more positive lationship on a roller-coaster ride notes from both sides, despite over the past 30 years. the differences and challenges The two countries have also that both countries face in their immediate anxieties, especially relations. in the area of trade. Obama has arrived better preBut now it is time that the two pared, as both sides worked hard countries find better ways to reand ensured a smooth transition spect and accommodate each side’s and a good start in the relation- core concerns and join hands to ship after he moved into the White deal with pertinent international House in January. problems. Most imporThese critical tantly, whereas It is time that the two problems, from some of his pred- countries find better economic recovecessors met their ery, food shortChinese counter- ways to respect each ages and the A parts only once side’s core concerns. (H1N1) f lu to every few years, climate change he has met and and nuclear nonheld talks with President Hu Jin- proliferation, today endanger the tao face-to-face two times already, well-being and very survival of in London in April and New York not only the Chinese and Ameriin September. cans, but also the people of the In addition, he has held three world. conversations with Hu by telOnly cooperation between the ephone since he was elected two countries, along with other president last year. countries, will lead to long-term The talks have been reward- solutions to meet the challenges. ing, as the two presidents have As Obama said before he agreed that their countries embarked on his current trip to should work together to build Asia, “On critical issues, whether a positive, cooperative and com- climate change, economic recovprehensive relationship, instead ery, nuclear nonproliferation, it’s of engaging in zero-sum compe- very hard to see how we succeed tition. or China succeeds in our reAt the same time, cabinet mem- spective goals without working bers from both countries have met together.” extensively and reached consenLikewise, Foreign Minister sus that will enhance broader Yang Jiechi said: “Without the exchanges of views and person- largest developing country and nel in almost all sectors of society developed country working toincluding students, scientists and gether in conjunction with other military personnel. countries, it would be hard for the Even though the two presidents world to deal with these pressing have already highlighted shared issues concerning world peace and interest, we expect them to further development.”

Cost of the auto boom

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his will be a year of milestones for many carmarkers in China with both production and sales of new vehicles having exceeded 10 million units in the first 10 months for the first time. However, while enjoying these robust figures, domestic automakers should not lose sight of the rising cost of driving in this country. If they do not do their best to bring down the environmental and economic cost of their cars as soon as possible, expectations of a sustained expansion of the auto market will prove premature. On Monday, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers announced that vehicle sales reached 10.9 million units between January and October, up 37.8 percent over the same period last year. This news is no surprise to the carmakers. Unexpectedly strong domestic sales since the beginning of the year have already made them the envy of their foreign counterparts who have been hit hard by the sluggish performance of other major auto markets around the world. The muscular growth of the domestic auto market so far this year is generally attributed to the government’s massive stimulus package, including tax cuts and vehicle upgrade subsidies for rural residents. Yet, as carmakers prepare to expand production next year, they should not only worry if the government will keep the tax incentives in place, but also whether the steady rise of fuel prices will become a bigger concern for potential car-buyers.

The government raised the prices of both gasoline and diesel by 480 yuan ($70.28) per ton last week — the fifth rise this year. As a result, the retail price of gasoline climbed 0.36 yuan per liter and diesel rose by 0.41 yuan per liter. With prices at the pump reaching record levels, carmakers should no longer take this year’s pent-up demand for granted. Under the current pricing mechanism, the government frequently revises retail fuel prices to ref lect changes in international crude prices, and consumers will think twice before buying new cars as international crude oil price seems set to rise further. Worldwide energy demand will continue to grow amid the global economic recovery, the surge in the number of new cars sold in China itself may considerably inflate domestic demand for gasoline, thereby pushing up fuel prices. The rapid increase in auto production and sales has brought about not only tremendous benefits to carmakers and car buyers, but also huge challenges to traffic control and environmental protection. The present boom has come as a pleasant surprise to carmakers, who were worrying about survival amid the worst global financial and economic crisis in many decades. But it could also end sooner than expected if domestic carmakers do not pay close enough attention to the underlying environmental and economic cost. Given the size of the Chinese market, only more energy-efficient cars can help sustain the auto boom.

Pang Li

Snow changes climate talk By Wu Yixue

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o say heavy snowfall has almost paralyzed North (and parts of Central) China is to state the obvious. Vehicles on many highways and expressways in north, northeastern and northwestern China have either come to a standstill or are moving at a snail’s pace. Even in cities such as Beijing, which has received its heaviest snowfall in 54 years, venturing out has become treacherous business whether one is walking on pavement or inching forward cautiously in a car or a bus. So one can imagine what people are going through in cities and towns and villages not used to or prepared for snow at all. Tens of thousands of people are stranded on the highways and airports and railway stations across north and northwestern China. The blocking of highways means thousands of tons of essentials and perishables such as vegetables and fruits cannot reach their destinations, making life more difficult for the people, especially the poor. Even before yesterday morning’s snowfall, more than 10,000 vehicles and 30,000 people had been stranded in Shanxi province alone. Shanxi

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Crack down on land speculation Land speculation has become a major source of profits for realestate developers and if related departments do not act to address the issue, it is likely to cause severe problems for people’s livelihoods. The reasons for the prevalence of land speculation are obvious. First, it is easier for developers to get loans if they are holding extensive land parcels. Second, although local governments are supposed to push developers to start construction or revoke landuse rights if they fail to develop an acquired plot, the policy has never been enforced seriously. Third, property developers make big money from hoarding plots. All the factors, however, point to the absence of supervision. If developers had been punished for land hoarding, who would have

experienced its country worsened CHINA heaviest snowfall the conditions. It FORUM since 1951, and was only because neighboring Hebei since 1987. A ma- of the backbreaking efforts of workjority of highways in Hebei have been ers, soldiers, committed officials and closed, blocking tens of thousands of ordinary people that the death toll vehicles and passengers just on the was so low. Truly, the country rose as Beijing-Zhangjiakou Expressway. one, as it had done after the Sichuan The heavy snow has forced authori- earthquake in May last year. ties to close Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, We were taken by surprise then, Xi’an and Zhengzhou airports for and blamed the weather gods for the safety reasons. Airports in cities such plight of those caught in the web of as Beijing, Urumqi, Yinchuan, Xi’ning the changing climate. But we promand Hohhot have been compelled to ised to learn a lesson — better adapt cancel or defer hundreds of flights, to climate change — and be prepared leaving thousands of passengers for any eventuality. stranded. But have we? Can we defend ourThis winter’s snow has already selves by saying November is too claimed three lives. Three children early to take precautionary steps died and 28 were injured when the against heavy snow? roof of a primary school canteen But this is not the time to point acin Handan, Hebei, collapsed late cusing fingers. Heavy snowfall had Wednesday, according to the Xinhua indeed been forecast for last week. News Agency. And last winter’s experience should All these bring back cold, bitter have made us realize what heavy memories of January and February snow means. 2008 when millions of people returnWe have accepted that global warming home to celebrate Spring Festival ing is a reality and poses a threat to were caught in one of the worst sleet China and the rest of the world. We and snowstorm the country has seen, have resolved to fight climate change, which didn’t spare even the eastern, as well as adapt to it. And last year’s central and southern parts of the snowstorms steeled that resolve. country. Power cuts, disruptions in Adapting to climate change, water supply and lack of essential however, doesn’t mean confining commodities in large parts of the our actions to certain areas such as

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risked lending money to them? In addition to neglecting their duty, some local governments have gone even further. Earlier this year, experts revealed that some government departments took over land at low prices and sold it to developers for a 10-fold profit. In this process, many government officials dipped their fingers into the realty pie. In order to crack down on land speculation, several steps should be taken. It is necessary to strengthen supervision of vacant land. Given the fact that some local governments are tempted by fat profits, the Ministry of Land and Resources should make joint efforts with the Ministry of Supervision and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Party to investigate land usage. The reform of local governments’ monopolistic holding of land is vital. Major developers and Stateowned realty companies should be checked since they play the most

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important role in the business. Xiao Yao You http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_ 626ada370100ftex.html

Supervise entrapment Traffic police in Pudong New District, Shanghai, have been under fire recently because they used entrapment to lure drivers who run unlicensed cabs and confiscate their vehicles. Are the judicial authorities and the executive branch entitled to use entrapment, then? I’m afraid they are. First, there is no substantial legal provision against applying the practice to law enforcement. According to the Criminal Law, illegal evidence cannot be used as the basis of fact. Yet it doesn’t clearly define “illegal evidence”. Accordingly, we can’t

building dams to prevent floods and provide irrigation during droughts. It doesn’t mean only switching on the central heating system in cities such as Beijing in case winter sets in earlier than expected. Adapting also means using every possible administrative and communications channel to help the people in many different ways, and warn them of the dangers lurking at the corners. Since heavy snow had been forecast, we could have at least warned people against hitting the highways unless it was absolutely necessary. We could have used the press and public notification networks, such as TV, the Internet and mobile phone services for the purpose. They could have been used to warn air passengers, too, about the possible cancellation or postponement of their flights. We could have ensured that remote areas in North China had had enough supply of food and other essentials to last the cold, dark days. We ordinary people can come with only ordinary suggestions. It’s for the government officials to think and plan about the more intricate and complicated issues. And that is not a tough ask, given the advancement we have made in technology and communications.

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decide whether it is illegal. Second, it has been common practice for police to set traps in their investigations. Bugging, going undercover and seeking help from informants have all been broadly used to fight against drug smuggling, illegal firearm sales and terrorism. Therefore, Pudong police are not pioneers in using the method. Third, entrapment is also a widespread investigative technique all over the world. Without entrapment, neither the “Watergate scandal” nor the “Iran-Contra affair” would have been uncovered. As a result, it is the Pudong police’s tendency to accumulate wealth, rather than entrapment, that is against the law. And, to avoid violation of people’s basic rights in the name of entrapment, the practice should be under close supervision of the Party and its disciplinary agency. Wei Dongsheng via e-mail

Display your affection but think of the public, too LI XING

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early 40,000 people have joined an online debate over whether a college has the right to interfere in public displays of affection by students on campus. It all started with a media report about a unique part-time job that the Nanjing University of Forestry created for its students four years ago. Wearing red armbands as identification, the students patrol the campus, discouraging their schoolmates from spitting, littering, vandalizing school property and stepping on lawns. But their most controversial assignment is to stop students from displaying “intense intimacy”, such as kissing, embracing, or sitting on each other’s laps.

The university is proud of its program. Jinling Evening News quotes one school official as saying: “The program not only creates nearly 100 part-time jobs, but also helps to maintain a civilized environment.” The campus is “clean”, the official said, now that students are encouraged to show some restraint in public. Not surprisingly, the students see it a bit differently. One student complained that the monitors always appear when she and her boyfriend “just try to sit a bit closer”. Another student, a junior who calls himself Ah Wei, said online that he and his girlfriend no longer meet to talk in the campus garden. “We felt as if there was always a pair of eyes watching us,” he wrote. The student monitors feel torn. They like having a job, but they are afraid of offending their schoolmates. About two-thirds of the online posts appear to favor the monitors; about one-third opposes them. I certainly understand the students’ position. After all, who wants

a chaperone hovering around during an intimate moment? College students are adults; they should be responsible for their own actions without being monitored by others. We Chinese have come a long way in openly expressing our emotions, including affection. Confucius dictated that men and women should observe propriety. Ancient rituals even forbade men and women from touching hands. When I was growing up during the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), it took up a lot of courage even to start talking with the boy sitting next to me. In my middle school years, some girls never even looked a boy in the eyes. In those days of scarcity, young lovers had no privacy whatsoever. They often met in parks to talk and perhaps hold hands. Kissing and embracing in public were simply forbidden. If they were too intimate, they ran the risks of being taken away by police. A lot of barriers have fallen since China began to open up 30 years

ago. Go to any middle school after school and you will see students streaming out of class, boys and girls chatting and laughing together. It is not uncommon to see boys and girls holding hands or even kissing if they think no one is watching. College-age men and women are adults and should enjoy even more freedom. On the other hand, I do hate to see young people indulging in acts of intimacy in public, oblivious to the feelings of others. A colleague of mine recently found herself crowded at one end of a subway car, while a pair of teens disported themselves at the other end. “All the people around me just tried to pretend the boy and girl weren’t there,” my friend said. The Nanjing University of Forestry may have gone too far, but it is their job to teach youngsters to behave in public so as not to offend people’s sensibilities. [email protected]

11

INSIGHT

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Blocks on the road to Riches Despite potential, microfinance still faces challenges in China, reports Dan Chinoy

T

Main picture: Du Xiaoshan, a poverty alleviation researcher for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who founded Funding the Poor Cooperative (FPC) in 1993. Jonah M. Kessel

Above: Lu Xuetao, a Hebei farmer who was able to boost his livestock and salary, thanks to a micro loan. Chantal Anderson

Below: Wang Guiling owns a small pharmacy and clinic in Yixian county, Hebei province, just two hours from Beijing. She said her business relies on small loans from FPC to restock until she is paid by her customers, who mostly buy on credit. Chantal Anderson

en years ago, Lu Xuetao’s livelihood depended entirely on two pigs and a handful of chickens. A poor farmer in Hebei’s Yixian county, just two hours from Beijing, he lived virtually untouched by China’s dramatic economic growth, rising standards of living and rapidly expanding opportunities. That all changed in 1999, when a small organization called Funding the Poor Cooperative (FPC) offered him a loan of 1,000 yuan ($140). Lu used the money to buy a new pig and paid the loan back easily. It was a vital springboard and, after a decade of help from FPC, his farm has expanded to almost 80 pigs and more chickens than he can count. His annual income has also soared to 30,000 yuan. “I couldn’t have done it without the loans. I just wouldn’t have had any other options,” said Lu, who in his collared shirt, glasses and faux leather shoes looks more like a computer programmer than a farmer. This, advocates say, is the promise of microfinance in China: opportunities for those largely forgotten by the country’s economic development. Pioneered in the late 1970s by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and his Grameen Bank, the basic concept is simple: extend small loans to the poor for otherwise unaffordable investments with a long-term payoff, like a pig or a stove for a roadside dumpling stand. But despite almost 15 years of research, pilot projects, advocacy by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the State Council’s renewed focus on poverty reduction, stories like Lu’s are still rare in China. As Yunus joined China’s microfinance experts in Beijing for a major conference last month, it was clear the sector faced a daunting array of problems that have stymied its development, including inadequate or overly restrictive government regulations, complex logistical challenges, poor risk management, a lack of expertise and insufficient funding. The numbers tell part of the story. Two-thirds of the nation’s rural villagers — about 480 million people — have no access to formal credit, the China Banking Regulatory Commission estimated in 2006. A recent report from the World Microfinance Forum in Geneva, Switzerland, also stated there were only about 100 poverty alleviationfocused microfinance NGOs in China, serving an estimated 150,000 clients. Only about 10 NGOs can independently cover the costs of their loans, the report stated. In contrast, there are more than 1,000 such microfinance institutions in India, according to Intellecap, an India-based social investment consultancy. That does not include the mil-

lions of informal “self-help groups” of 10 to 15 women who receive and distribute small loans from the country’s 500 or so formal banks. Grameen Bank alone has nearly 8 million customers worldwide. “The development of microfinance in China lags far, far behind the rest of the world,” said Bai Chengyu, chairman of the China Association of Microfinance, to which most microfinance organizations in China belong. When Du Xiaoshan, a poverty alleviation researcher for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, founded FPC in 1993, things looked more promising. Starting as a pilot project in Yixian, then one of China’s poorest counties, Du closely followed the Grameen Bank model — loaning mostly to women, requiring borrowers to apply in groups that guaranteed each member’s loans — to see if the concept could be adapted

The demand for micro loans is about 5 trillion yuan but the supply is maybe 1 trillion yuan. That is a huge gap. The market space is huge and that is very attractive to international investors. Right now, they can’t invest because of the government’s regulations. BAI CHENGYU Chairman of the China Association of Microfinance

to China. “Grameen’s model trusts poor people, and it has a system that guarantees poor people will pay back the loans. It uses business methods, not charity, but its goal is specifically to help poor people, especially poor women,” said Du. Working closely with local and central governments, FPC quickly expanded to four branches in Hebei and Henan provinces. With a loan repayment rate between 95 and 99 percent, it was soon financially sustainable: the money made from the loans covered the cost of making them. China’s first microfinance organization was a success. “What did we learn? We learned that the Grameen model could work here,” said Du. Yet the model has proven difficult to replicate in China, mainly because the central government never expanded its support for microfinance beyond a few small pilot projects supported or managed by local authorities, he said. “Only documents from the

central government say China should support the development of all kinds of microfinance models and institutions; but there are no concrete policy and regulations,” he said. This has left the sector on uncertain ground, without any concrete legal basis for its operations, said Liu Dongwen, director of the microfinance department at the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. “If you want to get more capital, go to a bank for a loan, they’ll say your business has no legal basis, so we can’t give you a loan, so you can’t get much money,” said Liu. “And the officials and tax departments also ask us: what kind of organization are you? What kind of business are you? Are you a legal business? Under what laws and regulations should we supervise you? This presents all sorts of challenges.” Casey Wilson, co-founder of Wokai, a small China-focused NGO that helps channel donations made through its website to local Chinese microfinance lenders, agreed. “The government is pretty ambivalent about how to approach microfi nance. On one hand, it seems pretty positive about it in terms of poverty alleviation and helping the poor. On the other, it worries if it liberalizes financial regulations too much there could be a few bad apples that undermine the financial sector as a whole,” she said.

Microfinance by the numbers 480 million People who have no access to formal credit, representing 66 percent of China’s rural villagers. 100 Poverty alleviationfocused microfinance institutions. 37,000 Branches of the Postal Savings Bank of China offer small business and microfinance loans.

8,000 State-owned rural credit cooperatives. 150,000 Active clients are served by microfinance institutions in China. 10 NGOs in China that can independently cover the cost of their loans. More than 1,000 Microfinance institutions in operation in India.

Sources: China Banking Regulatory Commission, World Microfinance Forum report, Intellecap, Postal Savings Bank of China

O

ne explanation for this is the government’s experience with rural agricultural cooperation funds in the late 1980s, said Liu. Originally established as loan and banking institutions to serve ordinary villagers in the countryside, the funds were very loosely regulated and, as a result, quickly overwhelmed by corruption and poor management. By the mid-1990s, Beijing branded the project a failure and ordered all to be closed. Many villagers never got their money back. “Because of this — you could call it a lesson — the government is very nervous about opening up rural finance,” said Liu. He argues that the lack of large-scale NGO microfinance programs in China has made it difficult to convince the government that microfinance can be successful here, despite the fact its own regulations are a major reason the sector has not developed quickly. For all its success, even FPC remains a small-scale program with no plans to expand across the country, said Liu. “It’s a chicken and egg situation. The performance of NGOs in China has not been sufficient to convince the government microfi nance can be done in a sustainable way in China, that it can be expanded here,” he said. The nature of microfinance itself also presents other busi-

ness and logistical challenges. Most microcredit loans are usually between 1,000 and 5,000 yuan in the countryside and 3,000 to 20,000 yuan in the cities. The payoff on such loans is relatively low, especially compared to the cost, effort and expertise required to make and recover them, a fact that has kept most major banks away from microfinance in China, even though they face far fewer regulatory hurdles than NGOs. “The problem is three words: cost to serve,” said Joe Horn, a private business consultant and founder of a small charity in Yunnan province that offers microfinance loans. Rather than focus on providing the poor with credit, a few smaller regional banks — with strong support from the China Development Bank — have begun to offer small and mediumsized enterprise loans to family

businesses and individuals. Taizhou Commercial Bank, for example, one of the most successful small business-focused institutions, has an average loan size of 446,000 yuan, and even its micro loan section hits an average of 91,000 yuan — sums well out of reach for someone like Lu Xuetao. “It is a very good thing from a moral and economic point of view. It is not direct aid to the poor, but it helps to create jobs so people can earn an income,” said Jorn Helms, senior advisor at Taizhou Commercial Bank. However, the situation has left China’s rural poor with few places to go for loans and, in the absence of NGOs and banks, most villagers must rely on loan sharks, friends, and a loose patchwork of pilot programs and State-run financial institutions for credit. The most important of these

are China’s 8,000 State-owned rural credit cooperatives, which operate like small banks. Many provide good services and make good loans, but others suffer from inadequate financial and management skills, which all lead to non-performing loans — loans close to or already in default — and a lack of focus on China’s poorest villagers. In the worst ones, Helms said, “it is like how I would imagine a scene from the 1980s: people sitting in rundown offices, not very professional”. To supplement and compete with the cooperatives, China’s postal savings banks have started to make small business and microfinance loans. With 37,000 branches nationwide, two-thirds of which are in the countryside, they are potentially one of the largest sources of rural credit. But they, too, lack management and financial expertise. “Not all branches are wellequipped to give loans,” said Du. “Their biggest problem is that because they used to only take deposits and didn’t give loans, their human resources are not so strong for lending. But they are slowly training their staff and learning through experience.”

T

o further test the waters, in 2005 and 2006 Beijing created two new types of microfinance organizations: microcredit companies and village banks. While both were intended to improve access to credit in rural areas, they remain constrained by government regulations, such as the requirement a formal bank must be the controlling shareholder in any village bank and that fact neither organization can operate outside its registered county. The programs have had an impact, though. Grameen Trust, the bank’s non-profit arm, announced in September it plans to open two microcredit companies in Sichuan province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. The venture will be partly funded by Chinese online business-to-business networking company Alibaba, with an initial goal of serving 8,000 borrowers. “These last few years have seen a lot of development and progress. But coverage is still very low and credit bureaus are often non-existent in rural areas,” said Du. Still, the market for rural credit is too big to ignore, said Bai Chengyu, who argued that someday China will develop a thriving microfinance sector. “The demand for micro loans is about 5 trillion yuan but the supply is maybe 1 trillion yuan. That is a huge gap,” he said. “The market space is huge and that is very attractive to international investors. Right now, they can’t invest because of the government’s regulations.”

12

BUSINESS

MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

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Big stretch: Fitness industry getting stronger Beijing offers many sports venues Who joins fitness clubs in China today

By Mark Hughes

2.6%

Teachers

7.4%

Civil servants

23.7%

Selfemployed professionals

13.6%

Students

16.9%

Others

35.7%

Business employees Source:Asian Social Science Graphic by Zhang Ye and Su Jingbo

A fitness coach trains yoga students in Qinhuangdao near the Great Wall in North China’s Hebei province. Yoga is becoming a popular form of exercise as more people strive to maintain good health, helping turn China into the world’s largest commercial fitness market. Asianewsphoto

Fitness clubs increasing, but prices dropping with competition By Yu Tianyu

Shu Ge, a 30-year-old public relations manager at an international retail company, started practicing yoga when she was four months pregnant. She went to a luxury yoga club in Beijing’s Chaoyang district at least three times a week, which costs her 260 yuan per visit. She kept it up until one month before giving birth to her daughter. And she cannot wait to return to the club. “It is old-fashioned that pregnant women should stay in bed before and after pregnancy,” Shu said. “I cannot tolerate it at all if I’m out of shape, so I choose yoga as a healthy and safe way to not only keep fit, but also help maintain a good state of mind,” she said.

As fashion and health awareness expands in China, people’s desire to stay slim and trim also is growing. China has become the world’s largest commercial fitness and leisure market with more than 400 million potential consumers ages 18 to 50. Besides, according to health experts, an estimated 200 million Chinese will face obesity challenges in the next 10 years — a trend that also might fuel market demand for health and fitness clubs. The market is developing fast. In 2007, the number of fitness clubs in China totaled 2,500, including 465 in Beijing. The size of Chinese fitness market was estimated at about $10 billion to $15 billion. With China’s fast-growing economy, there is also extra consumer money to spend. Spending on sports and other

recreational equipment leaped 8.5 percent in the first half of 2008, compared with the same period in 2007, to 10.3 billion yuan, according to government figures. Post-Olympics boom

Industry experts attributed the boom to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Since the Olympics ended, statistics show that the number of fitness clubs in China now exceeds 3,400. After a stressful 10-hour workday, Song Bingbing, a 29-year-old IT engineer, went straight to the gym to work out for two hours. He has a personal trainer, which costs him 280 yuan a session in addition to the 1,500 yuan annual membership fee. “It is actually a large amount of spending for me, since I only earn 3,500 yuan a month,” Song said. But it is worth it, Song said, “I used to weigh over 80 kg, but now, I’m only 65 kg,” he said.

The fitness industry’s contribution to the GDP (2008)

2.2% at least 3,400

Fitness clubs across the country (2008) Fixed assets investment in culture, sports and entertainment (2008)

142.3 billion yuan FDI in cultural, sports and entertainment (2008) $260 million Engel’s coefficient of Chinese residents (2008) 43.7%

26%

yoy

42.8%

yoy

Per-capita income of urban residents (2008)

37.9%

15,781 yuan

8.4%

yoy

Per-capita income of rural residents (2008) Rural residents

Urban residents

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

4,761 yuan

8%

yoy

Graphic by Shen Wei

“I come here to be healthy, and since I started going to the gym, I find I have become more energetic at work,” Song said. “And I have more confidence when I’m facing my boss and colleagues.” But there is good news for Chinese exercisers who, like Song, are not wealthy. About a decade ago, fitness club membership was regarded as a luxury and also a symbol of the upper class. Clubs were located at four-star or five-star hotels, and the cost of membership was 10,000 yuan a year or more. In the past two years, with the rapid growth of Chinese fitness clubs and the subsequent increase in competition, many Chinese fitness club operators have had to cut the price of membership and offer more discounts. Famous fitness club brands such as Hokay, Zhangbei and CSI-Bally Total have had to follow the suit — especially since the global economic recession. Z hou Fen, a business school student, paid 1,500 yuan for a two-year membership at Hokay last August. Her friend only paid 1,100 yuan this year for the package, she said. The price of membership at Nirvana Fitness, which used to focus on the high-end fitness market, has decreased to 5,000 yuan or less in Beijing. An industry insider said that among the 1,000 newly established fitness clubs in the past year, 600 to 700 clubs might soon be forced to close down because of the lag time between what are often large initial investments and returns

on those investments. And the operators are also facing pressures from soaring land rents and personnel costs, he said. China’s relatively young fitness market also lacks the management experience found in other countries, insiders said. “China provides a huge market, but it is in its infancy,” said David Chan, who established Megafit, the fi rst Chinese chain of fitness clubs in Shanghai, and is now a fitness consultant. Wang Cheng, general manager of Nirvana, said the current price war will hurt the fitness industry as a whole, suggesting that relevant government agencies or industry associations bring operators together to discuss solutions. Wu Shijun is a businessman who has been involved in China’s fitness industry for the past decade. “One of the answers for Chinese fitness club operators is to fi nd their exact target consumers, and then work out relevant strategies along with services and products,” Wu said. A report published in Asian Social Science by Wan Bin of the Dalian University of Technology, described who joins fitness clubs in China today. According to the report, business employees are the major customers, accounting for 35.7 percent of fitness club membership in 2007. Sel f- employed professionals accounted for 23.7 percent, civil servants 7.4 percent a nd teachers 2.6 percent. Students accounted for 13.7 percent of fitness club memberships.

It ’s easy to say that the weather in Beijing dictates against keeping fit, what with it being so hot and humid in summer and so cold in winter, it’s certainly true for many people. However, just over a year since the 2008 Olympics, it’s hard to avoid sports being thrust in one’s face all over the city. There is the huge Olympic Park still attracting thousands of visitors. Logos from the games remain plastered over everything from yogurt drinks to posters on buses. Workers’ Stadium remains an iconic landmark, and there are many parks where people practice tai chi. Many well-paid Westerners happily sign up for membership at the many gymnasiums that have sprouted up around the city. Stefan Ellerbeck, 32, an engineer from the United Kingdom working on a oneyear contract in Beijing, spends several hundred yuan a month attending Huixin International Fitness Club on Beichen Dong Road, Chaoyang district. The center boasts worldclass fitness equipment and group exercise classes including yoga, aerobics, Pilates and table tennis. But he mainly uses it for its swimming pool, spending 70 yuan a session. “It’s a lot more than I would have paid at home but given the nature of my job and the weather, I find it really refreshing,” Ellerbeck said. “It relaxes me after work and keeps me fit. I would go running, but I’m a bit wary of sucking in the Beijing air too vigorously, what with the pollution you can visibly see on some days. The sauna and steam room here are good, as well. After a hard day at the office or on site, it’s the perfect tonic,” he said. The pollution doesn’t deter Brad Murray, 46, a US citizen who works as an English language teacher. He was caught resting after puffing his way through the Olympic Forest Park. “I run early in the morning when I think the air is cleaner. It’s also cooler in summer,” he said.

“It’s incredibly beautiful here, and there is hardly anyone about. I’m looking forward to winter when the leaves drop just to see how the scenery changes. I guess I may have to reconsider if it gets icy. Running is a very good cardiovascular exercise. After a run I feel good about myself. I’ve respected my body,” Murray said. For some, the humble bicycle is the perfect medium for a healthier lifestyle. Beijing’s flatness makes it less arduous than cycling around San Francisco, say, and it opens up more of the city to the wide-eyed explorer. “Beijing is a huge city, laid out on a vast scale,” said cyclist Veronique Maban, 28, a public relations worker originally from Paris, who has lived in Beijing for two years. “It’s impossible to walk everywhere. You can get from A to B easily by subway, but you miss out on so many sights. I used to use the bus, but seeing all these bicyclists in Beijing eventually opened my eyes,” she said. Now she travels to most places by bike. “If I see anything interesting, and I have the time, I stop off. I have discovered some great restaurants on my bicycle that I would never have known about without it. And, of course, it keeps me fit. I bought the bicycle new from Wumart and it only cost 350 yuan,” Maban said. “The only downside is you have to keep your eyes wide open. I had extra mirrors attached to my bicycle because you need to know what’s coming up behind you. I must be one of the few bicycle owners who have put lights on their bicycle. I think it’s crazy that so many people ride around in the dark here without lights. Fingers crossed, I have never had an accident,” she said. There is certainly a variety of ways to get and stay fit in Beijing. Some Westerners play soccer against Chinese opponents. Others go hiking regularly along the Great Wall or at Fragrant Hills. Still more simply walk to and from work . There are squash clubs, badminton clubs and tennis clubs aplenty. All that is required is the will to sign up.

Children exercise at a fitness club in Guiyang, the capital city of southwestern China’s Guizhou province. Reports that as many as 200 million Chinese might become obese within the next 10 years mean a huge potential fitness market. Asianewsphoto

Online gaming company founder trots away from spotlight He is a billionaire, but softspoken William Ding, founder of Chinese online gaming company NetEase.com, feels as comfortable on the farm with his pigs as he does in the boardroom. The publicity shy 38-year-old juggles his time between China’s No 3 online game operation and a pig-raising business he started in February, in search of balance and quiet as the nation’s raucous online community develops at breakneck speed. The bespectacled bachelor, China’s 23rd richest man, worth $2.25 billion, according to Forbes

magazine, was one of China’s earliest Internet pioneers when he founded NetEase in 1997 as a tiny search engine. More than a decade and several controversies later, NetEase is one of China’s more prominent names on the Web and Ding has acquired celebrity status in China, pursued like a rock star by packs of reporters and admirers. “Ding has encouraged a whole generation of young people to want to enter the Internet business,” said Internet entrepreneur Edward Liu, who, along with Ding, attended one of China’s

biggest Internet conferences last week in Beijing. “They all want to be like him,” Liu said. Ding belongs to an elite group of Chinese mavericks who have made billions of dollars on the Internet in China, the world’s largest market with more than 300 million users. He sits alongside others such as Jack Ma, head of Alibaba Group, known for its online shopping platform, and Robin Li, founder Baidu, known for its Internet search engine. Born in China’s Zhejiang province, which churns out some of the country’s famous entrepre-

neurs, Ding was schooled as an engineer and worked for several companies, including Sybase, before founding NetEase. The company lost its No 2 status in China’s online game sector to rival Tencent in the second quarter. Ding, whose Chinese name means “solid” or “sturdy”, has needed those qualities to weather a nonstop stream of controversies in China’s roughand-tumble Internet market. Early on, NetEase faced the possibility of delisting after it failed to turn in its annual report. It also saw its shares plunge in

late 2003 as China embarked on a campaign to clean up pornographic mobile content. More recently, NetEase has been caught in the crossfire of a government turf war that has threatened to put the brakes on a promising gaming title, World of Warcraft. A source close to Ding said the taciturn executive is in a bind over the tussle and hopes the fighting ends soon. “He is very principled and won’t do anything illegal to make things easier for NetEase,” said the source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensi-

tivity of the matter. “We are just waiting it out.” Ding, whose casual attire of jeans and sneakers sets him apart at many of the suit-filled conferences he attends, retains his calm by finding solace in activities such as his new pig farm. Last week at the Internet conference in Beijing, a cartoon on one notice board depicted a beaming Ding, holding one of Mao’s little red books in his right hand and a herd of pigs in the background. “This is not an investment for NetEase or a way to make

extra money. I hope that it will increase food product safety and work opportunities for rural people,” Ding said in an interview shortly after starting the farm. His goal is to raise the 10,000 hogs in a healthy, more respectful and less intensive environment than a typical Chinese livestock farm. ‘He respects the natural law of things, and believes that if it is not followed there will be negative consequences,” the source close to Ding said. Reuters

13

BUSINESS

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Consumer spending up despite global crisis

Confidence in China up 6 points in Q3, Global average up 4 points, US up 4 points 110

101

99

90

86 84

70 2nd 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 1st 2nd 3rd Half’06 Half’07 Half’07 Half’08 Half’08 Quart’09 Quart’09 Quart’09 Source:Nielsen Consumer Confidence Survey Graphic by Su Jingbo

People positive about their future, fueling higher retail sales

Saving and investing in their children’s future are high priorities for Chinese

By Si Tingting

across the country. Fifty-seven percent of Chinese consumers who were On a recent shopping spree, surveyed described local job He Yi, a 25-year-old fashion prospects as “good” or “excelmagazine editor, spent half lent” for the next 12 months, a of her monthly salary buying figure 14 percent higher than brand-name clothing, acces- the second-quarter response. sories and skin care products “In the previous survey in just one morning. conducted in July, we saw that Many well-heeled Chinese consumers were beginning shoppers such as He, who lives to feel that the economy had with her parents in Beijing and bottomed out and was on the has a small car in her garage, road to recovery. In the third are spending freely despite the quarter, we see an extension global economic downturn. of this optimism,” said Mitch “Like many of my friends, my Barns, president of Nielsen job is stable and not affected by Greater China. the financial crisis,” she said. “Consumers are gradually “The big-name brands have feeling more comfortable with not just offered some unusual their situation and feel that the promotions during the sluggish economy is moving in the right economy, but also launched new direction,” Barns said. lines especially tailored for midThe World Bank China dle-income and fashion-loving Quarterly Review late last consumers,” He said. month pointed out that continFor He, the financial crisis ued increases in government has been an advantage in transfers are likely to support making high-end brands more income growth somewhat in affordable and available. 2010, including a 10 percent He’s observations reflect rise in pension commitments. recent business headlines. Moreover, in much of Chinese consumers are now 2009, households benefited buying bigger from negative flat-screen inflation, which televisions boosted their and more While recession-hit purchasing vehicles than consumers in the power. This will Americans. likely change China Mobile’s United States and next year customer with inflation Europe are scaling base recently expected to turn crossed the back on showy positive again, purchases, Chinese half-billion according to the mark. And consumers are World Bank. the country Despite this is now among flocking to domestic renewed sense the world’s retailers. of optimism, fastestactual behavgrowing ior remains luxury restrained, acmarkets. cording to the Nielson report. The headline stories suggest Many consumers remain consumers are shifting gears skittish about spending their from recessionary behavior to money, and in some regions recovery mode. spending habits appear to have Indeed, while recession- changed permanently, the marhit consumers in the United ket research company said. States and Europe are scaling One of the bigger concerns for back on showy purchases, Chi- retailers is that consumers have nese consumers are flocking to become used to big promotions domestic retailers, spurred by during recent months, and now government stimulus measures they no longer look at not-onsuch as rebates on home appli- promotion items. Instead, they ances and tax cuts for low-emis- tend to shift to lower-priced sions cars. brands, the research company Retail sales increased in real reported. terms by 15.3 percent in the However, the Nielsen survey first 10 months year-on-year, also showed that there is still which is at least two percent- a willingness to spend on new age points higher than in the products. previous nine months. “Companies that focus on According to a consumer innovation and introducing confidence survey released re- new products to the market cently by Nielsen Co, consumer will be the ones to drive conconfidence in China in the last sumption throughout China,” quarter reached its highest Barns said. level since mid-2007, driven by It’s not just the well-off cona strong improvement in local sumers on a spending spree. job prospects in western China Experts said that affluent Chiand in second-tier cities, as well nese consumers are spending as personal income increases a smaller proportion of their

Global Average US China

108 105

How consumers are utilizing spare cash after covering living expenses (percent of respondents who rated the priority as high) Putting into savings Education of child

53 42 41

New clothes Dining out

30 30 29

Books & magazines New technology prouducts, such as digital products Home improvements/ decorating

28

Out of home entertainment Tour/holidays/vacations

27 27 24 20

Insurance Education and training of adult Investing in shares of stock/mutual funds/real estate etc DVD&CD/game software

income than the poor. “The poorer people tend to consume higher proportions of their income than richer people,” said Athar Hussain, director of the Asia Research Center at the London School of Economics and Political Science. “So if China shifts the distribution of income in favor of lower-income groups, consumption will increase,” Hussain said. In many economists’ view, China must significantly reform its social programs before more people will part with their money. However, Hussain described building such a social security system for a country with 1.3 billion people as “a bigger task than building the Great Wall”. Chinese families save for buying apartments, their children’s education and medical expenses. And many save for the marriages of daughters or sons. “You cannot subsidize marriage, but you can certainly subsidize educational costs. You can also increase the proportion of health expenditures which is refunded,” said Hussain, who has been watching the Chinese economy for the past 20 years. Hussain added that the government also should increase the country’s minimum wage and minimum pension levels. In addition, the government

should more strictly enforce regulations to ensure people living on a minimum wage salary get paid on time, he said. Hussain said that China also could increase the proportion of mortgage loans made to homebuyers. “The mortgage loans which people get in China are low by Western standards, and they have to put down a larger deposit. The government can reduce the deposit and give loans for a longer term,” he said. According to Hussain, the average mortgage loan term in China is about 10 years, while in Britain, it is 25 or 30 years. “The shorter the term to pay the mortgage, the more chances the person defaults,” he added. Urban demand, meanwhile, is being boosted as millions move into the $4,000 to $6,000 income bracket in China and shift from spending only on essentials to buying more expensive goods such as apartments, cars and electronic appliances. The next 10 years will witness a boom in the number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), said Zhou Tianyong, deputy director of the Research Office of the Party School of the CPC (Communist Party of China) Central Committee. Such a trend will bring more people up to the wealthier echelon, as SMEs tend to provide

more job opportunities than capital-intensive State-owned companies. Since more residents of rural communities are moving to the cities, their spending patterns will be influenced by their fellow urban dwellers, he said. In the coming decade, Zhou said, people will continue spending to improve their living standards, and they will continue buying cars, electronic devices, healthcare products and beauty products. In addition, they will start consuming more service products provided by educational institutions, domestic workers, travel agents and the entertainment sector, he said. Therefore, economists and experts are arguing that China should try to keep migrant workers in the cities, as they will be the future spenders. Fan Jianping, a senior analyst at the State Information Center, suggested that China should issue certain residence policies to give migrant workers incentives to buy apartments and to include them in the social security safety net enjoyed by their counterparts born in cities. These efforts are needed to encourage migrant workers to stay in the city where they have been working, Fan said. Much of China’s rural market remains untapped. In his

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Paying off debts/credit cards/loans

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Healthcare products/ service

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I have no spare cash Potential homebuyers check out the options at the 2009 Dalian Autumn Housing Exhibition. Nielsen research found that housing, children’s education and medical care are three top concerns of Chinese consumers. CFP

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Source:Nielsen Consumer Confidence Survey Graphic by Zhang Ye

recent field trip to the countryside in Hebei province, Wang Bin, an official with the Ministry of Commerce, found that the consumption patterns of the local rural people are 10 years behind their urban counterparts and that sales network development is at least 20 years behind. “China should improve its sales network, especially in the countryside,” Wang said. However, Ji Xinyu, general manager of the strategic development division of Hainan Airlines Retailing Holding Co Ltd, said his company encountered problems when trying to move business to the rural area. The company recently set up a few branches in some counties and townships to sell travel services to rural residents. “The sales revenues in rural areas are not stable, as rural people’s shopping patterns are unpredictable. In addition, the cost to set up a vendor store in rural areas is rather high because the company has to pay more compensation to send their more experienced city-based staff to work in the countryside,” Ji said. Despite a popular notion that China over invests and under consumes, many experts believe China’s under consumption is actually overstated. Spending by Chinese house-

holds as a percentage of GDP is roughly half the US consumption ratio and remains significantly below consumer spending levels in Europe and Japan. Despite sales of items such as automobiles and household appliances, the ratio of consumer spending to GDP in China today has actually fallen relative to Chinese spending levels of a decade ago. In 1952, household consumption accounted for 69 percent of China’s GDP. That proportion fell in the 1990s to 46 percent, and is about 35 percent today. By comparison, US household consumption in 2007 was 72 percent of GDP. A key source of the underestimation of service consumption in China is housing, said Morgan Stanley analysts Qing Wang and Steven Zhang in a report released in September. Based on official statistics, it is estimated that consumer spending on housing accounts for only about 3 percent of personal consumption in China, whereas spending on housing represents about 16 percent of personal consumption in the US and 6.6 percent in India. “This is too low to be even close to the reality,” the report said about the China figures, pointing out differences in how countries estimate housing costs to consumers.

Rise in stock index forecast follows positive earnings reports Unexpectedly strong earnings at listed Chinese companies have spurred analysts to raise their profit forecasts, creating room for about a 15 percent rise in Shanghai’s benchmark stock index over the next three months. The upbeat earnings, fed by China’s steady economic recovery, are restoring optimism in the stock market after last quarter’s gloom, but the rally could be derailed if the government moves more quickly than expected to tighten monetary policy. “It’s very clear that corporate earnings, propelled by the economy’s recovery, are now improving much more quickly than the market had expected,” said Wu Xiong, a research manager at Orient Securities in Shanghai. “Investors can now adjust their investment strategy and

take a much more optimistic approach,” Wu said. Mainland-listed firms’ combined net profits rose 26 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, leading analysts to boost their forecasts for 2009 Chinese corporate earnings growth to 20 percent from a flat performance forecast just two months ago. That cut the average forecast price to earnings (PE) ratio of stocks. The 12-month forward PE ratio on Shanghai A shares stands at 18.3 as of November, down from 22.6 in August and well below the all-time high of 35.1 hit in 2007 during the market’s bubble peak, data from Thomson Reuters showed. The lower PEs, considered reasonable given China’s growth potential, give China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index room to rally in the coming three months or so by

about 15 percent from its current level. That would see the index breach its 2009 high of 3,478 points in early 2010, according to eight fund managers, analysts and economists surveyed by Reuters this month. In a previous survey in early September, Orient Securities’ Wu and the others proposed a defensive investment strategy, partly because of high stock valuations. The market has staged several good-sized technical corrections since August, however, that have trimmed valuations. China’s nearly 1,700 listed companies ended their thirdquarter results reporting season by the end of October with a combined quarterly net profit of 290 billion yuan. Analysts now expect a big fourth-quarter profit rise, es-

pecially given a very low base of just 37 billion yuan a year earlier, when listed companies took large provisions and de-stocking was at its peak as the global financial crisis dampened demand. With the yuan widely expected to renew its rise against the dollar, market analysts said companies with substantial local-currency assets, such as banks and property counters, or with most of their costs in dollars, such as airlines, likely will perform well. “As China’s economy recovers and exports improve in coming months, renewed yuan appreciation should not be a surprise,” said a manager at a Chinese mutual fund in Shenzhen, who could not be quoted by name as he was not authorized to talk to the media. “So firms with significant yuan assets will see those as-

sets appreciate gradually and earnings of companies, with most of their spending priced in dollars will be boosted by cost-cutting,” the mutual fund manager said. The rally could also spill over into overseas stocks related to China, including components of Morgan Stanley Capital International China, such as Geely Automobile Co, and American depository receipts of New Yorklisted Chinese companies, such as oil companies Petrochina and Sinopec. In addition, it could offer fresh impetus for foreign funds to enter the Chinese market after a recent relaxation of restrictions on foreign portfolio investments. Analysts said a key factor that could derail a market uptrend would be an early exit from China’s relatively loose monetary policy — for

example, an interest rate hike before the start of the second quarter — as improvement in both the domestic and global economies makes it easier to return to a more normal policy stance. After a series of strong economic data issued in midOctober, including 8.9 percent third-quarter GDP growth, and an industry survey in early November showing China’s manufacturing sector expanding at its fastest pace in 18 months, evidence is mounting of strong momentum in the world’s third-largest economy. Overseas, Australia has raised interest rates twice since early October, its first hikes since March 2008, while Norway became the first European country to raise rates in early November. Despite China’s emphasis

on policy continuity, a shift toward greater optimism in official rhetoric has unsettled the financial markets. The indicated yield of China’s benchmark fiveyear government bonds has jumped nearly 20 basis points since late September, reaching its highest level in a year this week. “Pressures are building due to fears of monetary tightening, which may be a key deterrent for the index to rise sharply for now,” said Shanghai Securities investment chief Zheng Weigang. “Still, most market players believe an exit from pro-growth policies will be a gradual process, leaving enough of a time gap for the index to rise above its 2009 peak by early next year,” Zheng added. Reuters

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

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More than just another pretty face

The country’s premier rock musician tries his hand at experimental filmmaking, receiving mixed reviews from most, including himself. Liu Wei reports

Directing a new course L

egendary Chinese rocker Cui Jian refuses to make more music unless he has new inspiration — something he is finding by swapping his spot on stage for a film director’s chair. “When some stars run out of passion to create something new, they turn to the restaurant business or to drugs … I have seen so many of them go that way,” he said. “I’m instead turning to filmmaking. While I’m not very good at it, it refreshes my creativity and recharges my battery,” he said. Cui’s film is set in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, in 2029, 21 years after the Sichuan earthquake. A girl finds a boy who saved her life during the disaster only to discover he’s the same person who severely hurt her younger brother. While the plot sounds melodramatic, Cui says the storyline isn’t the flick’s driving force. “I instead focus on the feel or atmosphere,” he said. “There are already so many storyline-driven films, and I can’t make a better one.” He said power is a theme that he is obsessed with. “Earthquakes that don’t kill people have a charm of their power. And love and hate are about power, too,” said Cui. The film is part of the Chengdu, I Love You (Chengdu, Wo Ai Ni) project, which is inspired by an acclaimed series of short films about Paris and New York. It premiered at the Venice festival in September. “I was not making it just for fun,” Cui said. He dislikes many people’s interpretation of his 30-minute film. “Making a film is like making a dream come true, and it’s magical to see your dream become visible on the screen,” he said. Born in 1961 to a military orchestra trumpeter and a dancer, Cui often slipped into army cinemas as a young boy. He identifies two types of films — those that make you “fly with them” and those that don’t. He places The Godfather, Once Upon a Time in America and No Country for Old Men in the first category.

He has befriended some of China’s most avant-garde directors, such as Jiang Wen and Zhang Yuan. He guest-starred in Zhang’s Beijing Bastards (Beijing Zazhong), in which he played himself. The film about rockers, poor painters and underground bands living outside the mainstream was never screened in China. When the film faced financial difficulties, Cui spent about 200,000 yuan ($29,000) of his own money to help fund the production. He played a music teacher in Yu Zhong’s Roots and Branches (Wode Xiongdi Jiemei). But he doesn’t like the film, because he believes the ending should have been thought-provoking rather than simply happy. He also appeared for a few minutes in Jiang’s 2007 film The Sun Also Rises (Taiyang Zhaochang Shengqi), playing a thinker who guides the hero. In the same year, he directed an eight-minute short film called The Era of Amending the Hymen (Xiufu Chun Mo Shidai). The film fiercely criticizes traditional Chinese conceptions of women’s chastity. Available only online, the film received tens of millions of views but mixed reviews. His director friends assisted him with the screenplay of Chengdu and advised that he watch more films. “We actually didn’t talk a lot, but I can feel their encouragement; they are generous people,” Cui recalled. In the film, Cui not only pays tribute to the quake-devastated city, but also elaborates upon his understandings of music, dance and kungfu. But the movie wasn’t wellreceived at the Venice Film Festival. Variety calls it a “laughably inept opening seg”. Some critics say it’s broken, and tries to address too many things. Cui accepts responsibility for these shortcomings. “I’m not capable or experienced enough to make a film,” he said. Actress Tan Weiwei said Cui was mild and reticent on the set. When she couldn’t understand

Mainland actress Fan Bingbing (pictured left), who has long been pigeonholed as “just another pretty face”, challenged herself to play the role of a lowly foot masseuse in Lost in Beijing (Pingguo) in 2007. Although the film was later banned, many considered Fan’s performance a breakthrough in her acting career. Now, the 28-year-old is working with director Li Yu again, this time playing a teenage rocker. In Guanyin Mountain (tentative title), Fan plays a young lady who fails the college entrance examination and decides to become a rock singer. She and two other teenagers rent the home of a 50-year-old former Peking Opera actress, whose husband and son have both died. As the four become close friends, they learn that life is not as horrible as they had thought. Fan is confident about playing the role of a teenager. “I’ve never felt that I’m too old for this,” she said. “If you visit my home, you’d find many comic books. It’s all about what you feel in your heart; if you think young, you are young.”

Raging rocker speaks softly offstage

Top: Chinese rock icon Cui Jian says making movie has refreshed his creativity. Above: Actor Huang Xuan and actress Tan Weiwei perform in Cui Jian’s film. which is part of the Chengdu, I Love You project.

him, he would have her listen to some music and told her what he wanted was in the music. “The film is very stream-ofconsciousness,” she said. “He is actually using film to describe the music in his heart.” Cui admits he’s much better at making music than movies. “Making music requires fighting with myself, but making a film means fighting with a team,” Cui said. “You need to compromise again and again.” Since the filming started last winter, Cui and the other two directors were told by the film’s investor, Zonbo Media, that they had to finish in about three months to make it to Venice. Cui started first and was consequently under greater stress. He was troubled by all kinds of deadlines — those for casting, wardrobe and special effects. As a singer who could spend several years on one album, Cui was not used to such an intensive schedule. He wanted to design at least three kinds of wardrobes for the characters and select the best among them. But the time restrictions meant the first try became the final product. And after he chose the special effects, he had to spend his own money on half of them, because the other two directors were using the facilities the team already had. “I treated the film like a child and gave it my best love, but others treated it like a house and only wanted it to sell well,” he said.

In addition, Cui had to change his screenplay repeatedly to appease censors. The heroine was a lawyer in his original script, but he later learned that films related to public security and the legal system must be approved not only by the State Film Bureau but also by the ministries of public security and justice. He didn’t have enough time to wait for all of the approvals, and he did not want to create problems for the project, because it would be unfair to the other two directors. For the same reason, he had to use dubbing to replace some lines. He was agitated when asked if that counted as lip-synching, because he has been the poster boy for the anti-lip-synching campaign since 2002. “Chinese need more freedom,” he said. “Only being able to paint within a restricted frame severely diminishes the power of art. “Chinese artists should have the freedom to criticize society more fiercely and comprehensively. This is their natural duty and will improve our society,” he said. Cui believes the film is just a “semi-manufactured” work that conveys only 60 percent of his own ideas. “But I would still do it again, even though I now know how hard it is to make a film,” he said. “We need more people to participate in the industry … and strive to create a better environment.” The film will premiere by the end of this year.

The point Cui Jian brings up the most when discussing his film is that he’s not a savvy director. The rock icon is far less ferocious than many believe. He instead comes across as humble and polite. He ignored his mobile phone each of the many times it went off during the interview. Known as China’s Bruce Springsteen or its Bob Dylan, Cui rose to stardom in 1986 with his signature song Nothing to My Name (Yiwu Suoyou), which evoked senses of disillusionment and the lack of individual freedom felt by young people at that time. In the following years, Cui has been known not only as the “Godfather of Chinese Rock” for his songs closely related to social changes — a title he rejects — but also as an outspoken warrior against everything filthy in the music industry and society as a whole. He is a fierce opponent of lip-synching in live performances and initiated the anti-lipsynching campaign in 2002. He played an active role in charity performances and led many rock stars to stage a benefit concert for Sichuan earthquake victims in 2008. He frequently went off topic during the interview to address issues, such as the entertainment industry’s difficulties, official corruption and artistic freedom in China. He kept going until his manager had reminded him three times that he had a schedule to keep. He doesn’t show many facial expressions, and his face is half hidden under a cap. But he speaks in a fast, straightforward and candid manner. He says direct things, such as, “I don’t know how to talk to you if you have not seen the film”. He keeps a low profile, and has never appeared in commercials or posed with famous actresses or singers for magazines. So he’s no darling of the paparazzi, who discovered he had lived with his parents until he moved into an austere apartment several years ago. People know little about his personal life, and he never talked about it in interviews. He always wears a white cap emblazoned with a red star in public. He once said that the cap is a signature of his public figure status. He does not wear it around family and friends. He defines himself as an artist rather than a star. And an artist’s responsibility, he emphasizes, is to criticize, not to hype. His ongoing national tour will wrap up with a stop in Beijing on Christmas Eve.

But looking young is another issue. The shirt she often wears in the film cost only 20 yuan ($2.90). Fan bought it from the cheapest market in Beijing. She also used a pair of boots that cost 60 yuan when she bought them 13 years ago, when she started her career in Beijing. She also listened to rock ’n’ roll for three months to get a feel for what life was like for rockers. And she does her own singing in the film. Li, who shocked many by casting Fan as a foot masseuse in Lost in Beijing, believes in Fan’s potential. “She has so many sides,” Li said. “I believe I can make a different side shine every time I work with her.” Li uses her signature handheld approach to the film’s cinematography and gives the cast as much freedom as she can. “I never cut if the actors are showing emotion, because I want them to become the characters, not just play them,” she said. “For passionate and diligent actors, this is the most enjoyable way of acting.” Onboard with Fan is another belle — 56-year-old Taiwanese actress and director Sylvia Chang (pictured right), who plays the landlady. The renowned actress has not appeared in a film for three years. She joined the project because of what she calls “a magical connection”. “The film is set in Sichuan, and my parents met and fell in love in Chongqing (which used to be a city in Sichuan and is now a municipality),” she said. “And my middle school in Taiwan was at the foot of a mountain called Guanyin. I felt thrilled when I read the script.” A successful director herself, Chang argued with Li about the film’s ending for two days. Chang believes her character should live, because she has learned life can be happy while living with the three teenagers, but Li prefers a tragic conclusion. In the end, Chang respected Li’s wishes, while Li compromised by shooting multiple endings. The film is expected to premiere next summer.

China Daily

China Daily

Good cops catch the bad guys By Liu Wei

The director of the smash hit The Message (Feng Sheng), Gao Qunshu, has adapted the true stories of four legendary policemen who captured 1,400 escaped criminals in seven years into a film. Tentatively entitled Legendary Four (Xifeng Lie), the film is adapted from the real experiences of four policemen in Guizhou province. Each boasts an extraordinary aptitude, such as shooting, bomb disposal or hand-to-hand combat and they caught some of the area’s most ruthless criminals. Gao was determined to bring their story to the big screen after he read a news report about them several years ago. “They are real heroes, which we direly need in today’s society,” Gao

said, while on location in the yellow, windy desert of Dunhuang, Gansu province. “They deserve our sincerest respect.” Mainland actor Duan Yihong plays the team’s leader, Leopard, an experienced commander and strategist. The character is based on Wang Junqing, the head of the four legendary Guizhou policemen. Wang is a veteran commander, who sleeps with The Art of War by ancient military strategist Sun Tzu under his pillow. Yak is a Herculean team member played by actor Zhang Li. Yak eats 20 eggs and two bowls of noodles for each meal, and is an exceptional fist-fighter. Zhang tried eating 10 eggs a meal to feel connected with the character. He also ate raw meat for a month to obtain the “tiger-eye” look the script suggests.

Yak’s character is inspired by Wang’s partner, Zhang Meide, who once carried two criminals while climbing a 2,500-m-high mountain and reportedly eats 100 eggs a meal. Rising kungfu star Wu Jing, expected to become the next Jet Li, plays Antelope, a former martial arts champion and rookie cop. He drives full speed along the most perilous of zigzagging mountain roads pursuing criminals. Antelope’s character is based on officer Zhao Qiang. Senior actor Ni Dahong plays Mastiff, a sharpshooter and geography expert, who can identify every rock and beast in the desert. Ni’s character is based on Chen Wenguang, who captured 13 criminals in two months with his outstanding marksmanship.

The four chase a killer-turned witness and his girlfriend through the desert, while protecting them from two mobster hitmen. Gao has visited nearly all of China’s public security bureaus since 1995 and has befriended many police officers. His second film, Old Fish (Qianjun Yifa), starring a real policeman named Ma Guowei, won Ma a Best Actor award and Gao a Jury Prize at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival. Ma also guest stars as a public security bureau official in Legendary Four. “If you talk to the most excellent cops in China, you will find each of them has their own strong charisma,” Gao said. “I hope I can create faithful portraits of some of them.” The film is scheduled to screen next summer.

From left: Actors Wu Jing, Ni Dahong, Zhang Li and Duan Yihong portray four real policemen in the film Legendary Four. File photos

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MONDAY NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Are there such people as Chinese-Chinese? HOT POT

XIAO HAO

Left: Tiger Chen (left) gives martial arts instructions to Uma Thurman on the set of Kill Bill. Above: Chen works with Keanu Reeves as his stunt mentor in The Matrix.

Chen (left) had a cameo in The Matrix.

File photos

Just for kicks A veteran martial arts choreographer and mentor to Hollywood and Chinese stars decides to face the camera. Liu Wei reports

T

he man has a singular talent for coaxing stunts out of ravishing damsels. And for assuaging fragile egos. Veteran martial arts choreographer Tiger Chen, or Chen Hu, recalled how he coached the three pretty ladies of Charlie’s Angels — Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu — who rewarded their young master with generous kisses. “Cameron’s kiss was the sincerest, Barrymore has the thickest and wettest lips, and Lucy’s kiss was the loudest,” said Chen, with scarcely concealed delight. He also said each of them thought the kungfu routines of the other two were better. Chen used the oldest trick in the trade to coax them to the set — by telling each hers was best. Often, after two hours of practicing the mabu, a basic kungfu posture, the three would simply collapse on the floor, while the recommendation is to walk awhile to prevent injuries. Chen told them they would end up with a big backside if they didn’t —which got them tojump up right away. A protégé of famed choreographer Yuen Woo-ping, the 35-year-old also reduced the likes of Keanu Reeves (The Matrix) to tears — almost. The stunt mentor , who has worked with movie stars for 12 years, revealed how a dedicated Reeves “would cry when doing the stretches but would often ask for extra training on weekends”. Chen is now gearing up to face the camera himself. Kungfu Man (Gongfu Xia) tells of how a Chinese martial arts master protects an American boy from his kidnappers in an adventure set in South China’s Yunnan province. Its kungfu scenes will be choreographed by Chen along with Yuen Cheung-Yan, brother of his master, Yuen Woo-ping. The film will feature a 6-minute kungfu scene in which Chen will fight with more than 30 others. Explaining his decision to go in front of the camera, Chen said, “Choreography is, after all, a passive job. You are restricted by the director’s ideas and the actors’ physical condition.”

Kungfu scenes, without special effects, will account for half the film, said Chen. “What people like most is still real kungfu.” Chen got into filmmaking in 1997, after being selected in a kungfu contest held in the US by Yuen, who was looking for assistants to help with The Matrix. “Tiger was a shy boy who spoke little English then,” Yuen recalled in the prologue of Chen’s book, From Sichuan to Hollywood. “But I knew he would be something when I saw him perform in the contest.” The Matrix was one of the first Hollywood films to invite a Hong Kong stunt team as kungfu choreographers. Although the Wachowski brothers were loyal fans of Yuen, Warner Brothers producers were not sure about the choice. So at a dinner, Yuen asked Chen to display his skills with the nine-section-whip, a traditional Chinese weapon. One stunned producer turned to Yuen and said: “I want my actors as good as him after three months.” Chen immediately got to work on Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and Laurence Fishburne, putting them through the most basic skills, such as stretching and splits. Reeves wanted to come up with his own style, recalled Chen. He did not want to merely copy Bruce Lee, Jet Li — or Chen. The stuntman told him to watch films of Lee and Li every night and combine what he saw with what he was taught. “You will see in The Matrix series that Reeves’ style is unique,” Chen said. “Of my star pupils, he was the most hard-working and interested in Chinese culture.” Chen told him about the panda, landscape and food of his native Sichuan, and shared the philosophy and culture behind tai chi. Sometimes, they also talked about girls, exchanging ideas about relationships. When making The Matrix II, Reeves’ former girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, died in a car accident. Chen and Reeves never really talked about it. “What I did do was to make the training less harsh,” said Chen. The actor helped him with the screenplay of Kungfu Man and part of the funding. “Maybe we built a bond because I am the person who tortured him the most in his life,” joked Chen. He has also worked on projects such as Kill Bill and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, building a close relationship with Yuen, who treats him like his own son. But he never forgot his dream to make his own film. After all, it was Jet Li’s 1982 film, The Shaolin Temple, that motivated him to learn martial arts at the age of 8. Chen left for the US after graduating from a kungfu school at 20, working as a coach and performer. Sometimes, he had to do dishes in restaurants to make ends meet. “I wanted to see the outside world and realize my dream,” he said. “I told myself the worst thing would be to end up performing on the street.” When he joined Yuen’s team, he was the only one who did not speak Cantonese, and was not used to Hong Kong cuisine. But, recalled Yuen, the young man never complained. When making The Matrix, he dislocated his shoulder while going through a routine with Reeves. But he continued with the training and ended up having to undergo surgery. Chen did not invite any of his star friends to join his film project or even guest star in it. “They are superstars, and people will not like a film just because Reeves or Liu are in the cast list,” he said. “It depends on my own efforts.” Looking to the future, his dream is to direct a film. “I will then really have a film of my own.” After being a stunt mentor to stars for 12 years, Tiger Chen fights for himself this time by starring in the new martial arts movie Kungfu Man. Wang Jing

Ancient moves in a modern city By Chantal Anderson

It is an eclectic bunch: some are housewives, some students, some businesspeople, some Chinese, some foreign. But once together they are brought in unison by a simple sound: “Ommmmmm …” The group is just beginning a 90-minute yoga class at the Yoga Yard in Sanlitun, where Robyn Wexler, 34, a Californian who co-founded the studio, is leading the class. Wexler said that 10 years ago she found it hard to find places to practice yoga in Beijing. “There was essentially no yoga going on. I maybe remember hearing about one class taught by a foreigner,” she said. Her experience was not a unique one a decade ago, but today yoga has spawned a thriving community of Chinese and expatriates that is supporting dozens of studios in the capital. Various styles and environments for yoga are offered from the popular dance-like vinyasa to hot yoga, which is practiced in a room with a

temperature of between 35 C and 40 C. Many practitioners also visit all-day yoga retreats in the mountains. For Anna Sophie Loewenberg, a US native who lived in Beijing in the late 1990s and moved here permanently in 2006, yoga’s increasing popularity in the city seems to have happened overnight. “I remember coming back and being shocked to find yoga was everywhere,” said Loewenberg, a documentary filmmaker in her thirties. When Loewenberg discovered Mountain Yoga retreat near Fragrant Hills, it was like “finding a diamond in the rough”. “Before Mountain Yoga there was never a place like this in Beijing — a place to get grounded and gain a sense of well-being,” she said. Loewenberg now makes regular weekend trips to the center with her girlfriends to rejuvenate with a morning hatha yoga class, meditation, tea and an afternoon hike in the countryside. Theresa Pauline, a 26-year-old art teacher who moved to Tianjin from Denver in 2007,

said she felt lonely at first as she did not speak Chinese, but that all changed when she found her first yoga class at a local gym. Despite the language barrier, she practiced frequently at the classes, which helped her cope with the transition of arriving in a new country. Pauline later moved to Beijing and earned her yoga teaching certification last year. When she has enough time in her schedule, she teaches Chinese students in a local studio and shares the joy yoga gives her with others. “For me, yoga was a complete lifestyle change,” she said. After experiencing her first hot yoga class at age 21, Pauline decided to “stop partying and start focusing on my body and mind”. She said that since starting yoga, she has noticed growth in physical flexibility, strength and her overall well-being. Outside of Wex ler ’s st ud io t he ra i n slaps against the thick-paned windows. The sound mixes therapeutically with the “breathe and release” of the class. Wexler tiptoes on the hardwood f loors so as not

Robyn Wexler (center) poses with students and teachers at Yoga Yard in Beijing.

Chantal Anderson

to break the mood. She remembers the instant demand for the first classes she offered back in 1999. “After a few classes, the room was overflowing with students,” she recalled. Three years later, she opened Yoga Yard with then-student Mimi Kuo-Deemer. Wexler said she has witnessed a tremendous change in the city’s attitude to yoga. “Today if I stop a young person on the street and say ‘yujia’, they will have an idea what I’m talking about. In 2000 that wasn’t the case,” she said.

One day last week I went to a private clinic in Beijing. As usual the clinic was quiet and only a few clients — half of them expats — sat around waiting. A tall Scandinavian-looking guy came and sat next to me. We struck up a conversation about the newspaper story I was reading. Then he asked. “Are you Chinese-Chinese?” Reflexively I explained that I had lived in the US for many years. The Scandinavian guy then nodded, seemingly satisfied. “You don’t look very Chinese to me,” he said. It was not the first time that I was asked that question, which made me wonder — what makes me look not very Chinese-Chinese? Surely there are other Chinese who gel their hair, wear Zara and work out in the gym. My Chinese staff at work say it is not my appearance, but some je ne sais quoi that gives me away. I laugh and speak my mind at will at work. I tell them not to call me “boss” but address me by my first name. In return, they make fun of my poor memory of Chinese idioms.

Pang Li

Then what is this “Chinese-Chinese”-ness that I am so obviously poor at grasping? The question did not always bug me. In fact, it fanned my ego that my high-school friends called me “half-American,” for raising my hand and asking questions in class, and for not shying away from any opportunity to be different. I used to be flattered when asked by other Americans if I had grown up in the US, back in the days when I desired very much to be something other than the stale, conservative and order-following Chinese stereotype in my mind. Then after spending 12 years in the US, I knew I would never be a full-blown American. So I moved back, partly to understand whether there is such a thing as ChineseChinese. The longer I have lived in Beijing, however, the less certain I am of what a true Chinese-Chinese is. For every three money-chasing Chinese, I can find a Chinese content with his routine life. For every five Chinese who give up their dreams for desk jobs, I can find an entrepreneur risking it all to strike it rich. And for every 10 Chinese who go ga-ga over Gucci and Prada, I can find a young kid dead serious about art or the environment. Of course, statistically, most Han Chinese in prosperous regions of China are very focused on making their lives better off, their kids better-educated and their families and friends proud of their achievements. But any statistical definition of Chinese-Chinese sounds a bit too vulgar. Aren’t there any big words that can be claimed to be shared by all true Chinese, such as Confucianism, materialism, individualism, conformism or entrepreneurialism? I remember my trip along the ancient Silk Road, from Xi’an to Kashgar, a few years ago. I saw the ruins of Tang Dynasty (AD 618907) grandeur and Han Dynasty (206 BC to AD 220) border expansion. I met many ethnic groups with languages and customs different from us Han. I found, at the many Buddhist grottoes along the Silk Road, how Buddhism had migrated to and been modified by China. I realized then that what we considered to be “Chineseness” now must have been different from that of our forefathers. So any romantic concept of deeprooted Chinese Chinese-ness appears to be a myth. Of course there exists a continuation from generation to generation, but this continuation itself has always been changing. I believe true Chinese-Chineseness is our ability to absorb, to learn and to grow, which would make me feel more Chinese-Chinese despite what others might say. To comment or contribute, e-mail [email protected]

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MO N DAY N OV E M B E R 1 6 , 2 0 0 9

Prescribing compassion At an age when most people call themselves retirees, a doctor continues to reach out to those in need, immune to all the plaudits being heaped on him. Chang Ailing from China Features reports

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noisy cab speeds a long a da rk country road on a muggy night in July. Dr Gui Xi’en, 72, sits on the cramped back seat with a satchel on his shoulder and suitcase on his lap. He is on h is way to Shangcai, an AIDS-ravaged county in central China’s Henan province. As the cab approaches the county seat, Gui directs it to a small hotel. He plans to stay the night and quietly visit the villages the next day. Ten years after he first exposed their deadly secret in 1999, Gui — who blew the whistle on China’s “A IDS villages” — is still sneaking into rural communities in Sha ngca i, of fer i ng cou n seling to those dying of the disease. “I came secretly before, because they (local officials) were not nice to me. I still come secretly now, because t hey are too nice to me,” says Gui. “If they know I am here, they will come see me and invite me for lunch or dinner. I think that is unnecessary and I don’t like it.” From being driven out of the villages to being treated as a n “i mpor t a nt g uest ”, Gui’s exper iences ref lect China’s changing official attitude toward the HIV/AIDS epidemic, among the most serious public health problems confronting new China since 1949. A n i n fect ious d iseases specialist with Zhongnan Hospital at Wuhan University in neighboring Hubei province, Gui first visited Wenlou, a village of Shangcai, in July 1999 as a favor to a fellow doctor there. H I V/A I DS was t he last thing he expected to find. Some villagers suffered from constant fever and diarrhea. People died ever y month, with their bodies covered in sores and dark, wine-colored blotches. Panic had seized the village. Gui took 11 blood samples from the villagers, and found 10 to be HIV-positive. He immediately informed the local health authorities and urged them to take action. But their response was to refuse him further entry to the villages. Two months later, during a long-weekend holiday when he calculated that officials would let their guard down, he snuck back into Wenlou with three students. After three days of house calls, Gui returned to Wuhan with 159 blood samples. The result was shocking — 90 of them were HIV-positive. Gui realized that he had

st umbled on a f ull-blow n AIDS epidemic, something he had only read about in medical journals. The origins of the tragedy went back to an unchecked blood selling and collecting industry that flourished in the early 1990s. Armed with detailed data and analysis, Gui wrote a letter to Beijing. With the central government involved, the local authorities could no longer hide t he let hal infection. But they looked on Gui even more unfavorably. On June 8, 2001, Gui went to Wenlou alone. He took medicines to the villagers. T he cou nt y gover n ment sent police to expel him. Gui escaped with the help of villagers, who hid him from the police, and moved him to a safe place by motorcycle in the middle of the night. T he m i ld -ma n nered doctor t hen w rote to t he cou nt y aut hor it ies i n a n uncharacteristically strong tone: “One day the tragedy will be written into history

I came secretly before because they (local officials) were not nice to me. I still come secretly now, because they are too nice to me. GUI XI’EN Infectious diseases specialist with Zhongnan Hospital at Wuhan University

and those responsible will be condemned by history.” Today, the health clinics Gui visits in the AIDS villages provide free HIV testing and antiretroviral treatments, and charity homes shelter AIDS orphans and the elderly whose caretakers have died of AIDS. Nationwide, the government has been providing free ant iret rov iral t reat ments to rural HIV/AIDS patients since 2004, and to urban sufferers facing financial d i f f icu lt ies. T he gover n ment has also provided free HIV screening, free therapy to block mot her -to -infant t ransmission, f ree infant HIV testing and financial assistance for children who have lost their parents to the disease. T h is su m mer, P rem ier Wen Jiabao visited Gui in his home and thanked him for his efforts in checking the epidemic. In 2007 and again in 2008, Wen invited Gui to join him on visits to HIV/AIDS villages and AIDS orphans. The Chinese media hailed

Gui as a medical hero, but Gui is far more comfortable talking about the villagers t ha n about h is role i n revealing the epidemic. He says, “I just did what a doctor should do.” On last Saturday morning, when Gui arrives at bus stop outside Houya ng v i l lage, Zhao (not his real name), a farmer with HIV, is already there waiting for him. “Dr Gui is honest, kind and gentle, and is always ready to help. Whenever we call and ask him to come to the village, he comes,” says Zhao, whose wife and 6-yearold son are also infected with HIV. A f ter pick i ng h i m up, Zhao takes Gui by his motorpedicab directly to his home, where HIV carriers and AIDS patients are waiting. “I cannot take him to the village clinic. There would be too many people there to see him. He might not be able to leave today.” As Gui sees his patients inside Z hao’s d ilapidated house, Cheng (not his real name) waits anxiously at the Shangcai County Hospital. Cheng’s cousin who also has AIDS is in the hospital. Cheng calls Gui and asks him to come. He also wants Gui’s help to enroll his daughter in a good local high school. Cheng sees not h i ng inappropriate in his requests. He is sure Gui will help. He was a mong t he f i rst 10 HIV-positive villagers Gui diagnosed 10 yeas ago, and Gui has continued to extend medical and financial help ever since. “He is a ma r velous man,” Cheng says. “He was unpopular here in the past. Since Premier Wen visited him, everything has changed. But he has not changed. He is still the Dr Gui I know.” Despite his age, Gui works full-time and spends most weekends and holidays visiting poor farmers, a routine he began almost 50 years ago. In 1960, a medical graduate of 23, he volunteered to work in the remote hinterlands of Q i ng ha i prov i nce on t he Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, answering the government’s call for young intellectuals to work and settle in the frontier areas. Du r i ng h is 16 yea rs i n Q i ng ha i, he focused on cu rbi ng i n fect ious d iseases a nd endem ics, such as measles, t y phoid and plague. But as medical staff were scarce, he was surgeon, laboratory analyst, anesthetist and pharmacist. He once a mputated t he seriously injured arm of a herdsman. “The man said I saved his life and was grateful to me. But I felt sorry for

Ten years after he first exposed China’s “AIDS villages”, Dr Gui Xi’en, 72, continues to visit rural communities in Henan province, offering treatment and counseling to those affected. Hu Weiming

him, because a proficient surgeon with good facilities might have been able to save his arm.” Gu i reca l ls v isit i ng and treating the herders’ fa m i l ies. “I d id n’t need Tibetan translators at that time because I spent so much time with them that I could speak Tibetan fairly well.” The bleak and wild plateau also served as a refuge for Gui from the turbulence of t he “cu lt u ra l revolut ion” (1966-76). Gu i was bor n to wel l educated parents, both UStrained scholars. His father graduated from Princeton University with a doctorate in physics. His half-Chinese, half-Dutch mother graduated from Columbia University. They returned to China in the 1920s. During the “cultural revolution”, many Chinese with “complicated family backgrounds” or relatives overseas suffered

persecution. Despite his “problematic” genealogy, he could still go to villages and the pastoral regions and offer medical help to herdsmen. “I was on good terms with the locals, so I didn’t suffer much,” he says. The experience taught Gui that doctors had to work in their communities, rather t ha n wa it i n cl i n ics for patients, a lesson he passes on to his students. “Infectious diseases are not only medical problems, but also social problems. We must reach out to the people in need.” The same afternoon, Gui meets Cheng and his cousin in Shangcai County Hospital. He reads the girl’s medical records and offers advice to the resident physicians. He also discusses with Cheng his daughter’s schooling. As he is about to leave, a girl approaches him. “Dr Gui, could you please have

Left: This 2001 photo shows Gui with AIDS patients from Henan province in his home in Wuhan, in neighboring Hubei province. The five were put up in an abandoned building pending further checks, but were booted out by the neighbors. Zhang Xiaoqing

Right: Gui presents gifts to AIDS patients in Jinchun county of Hubei province in January 2006. Liu Weidan

a look at my mother? She doesn’t feel well and has not eaten much for a week,” she pleads. Without hesitation, Gui follows the girl to her mother’s ward. At about 4 pm, Gui must leave for Zhumadian city to catch a train back to Wuhan. He apologizes to the families of patients who are still waiting to see him and promises to return. On the bus to Zhumadian, he looks d raw n. “Once I was able to see about 30 to 40 patients on a day like this,” he says. “I am really inefficient now.” It is a comment that belies his strong sense of urgency. He describes himself as an “old farm ox” that nevertheless plows on diligently.

He quietly recalls a colleague, a year his senior, who died suddenly a week ago while eating at a restaurant. Gui attended the funeral the day before he left for Shangcai. “His family was heartbroken at his sudden death. But I admire him. I think this is a good way to leave, without suffering much and burdening other people,” he says. “For people my age, this (death) is a natural thing,” he says with a slight smile. “That’s why I hope I can still do something. I may not have much time left.”