Menu
close
Home › Forums › Short Online Seminars › Contemporary China, Spring 2019 › Session #2 - March 5
Brett Kier.
Brett KierMs. Schechter,
Very interesting take on the labor question (thank you for the background info on your previous life). Perhaps another angle for students to tackle is the question of the pros and cons of a UBI (universal basic income), given the fear that many unskilled workers in China (as well as in the US) could lose their jobs to mechanization (robotics and the like).
Chris HertzogAlong with the changing economic shifts and the focus on pollution and green solutions, I was notiicing how many of our articles and subjects this week are on the rising middle class. I think students would latch on to the issues of the green movement in China, as it seems to be happening on a global level, and they would be curious how it would help the Chinese economy as it would here in the States. Our students today are quite aware of the world around them and quite conscious of environmental issues, so the interest would be there to see why China has the same concerns. Also, I would ask my students why or how this is all connected to a rising middle class in China. Why (or why not )are they so concernced with the green movement. How is this rising middle class changing China? Is this growing consumer group aware of what their consumption is doing to their own lands and waters? It seems this highly educated Chinese consumer group is growing, wealthier than ever before, able to gain access to goods as never before and are conscious of the world around them as never before. Even with the so-called SOE's, Chinese are becoming more in tune with the world outside of their borders. This is always the edge for any group or nation concerned about keeping control of certain information and still wanting people to move ahead and push the bondaries on technology, research and development and entrepenurial creativity. How far does Deng Xiaoping's saying go... and I'm paraphrasing here... "Who cares if the cat is black or white, so long as it catches a mouse."
Cesar GarciaThe infographinc provided China Daily, Infographic on eradication of poverty, 2018 is a great way to see how much china has improved over the last 40 years. It is so drastic. To think more than 700 million people were lifeted out of poverty is just outstanding. The only thing Im a bit confused is why is this a paid ad in the Telegraphnewspaper?
clay dubeHi Folks,
The two books I recommended are:
1 - Factory Girls by Leslie Chang
2- Oracle Bones by Peter Hessler
Both have interviews with people who chose to migrate in search of economic opportunities. Most of the people interviewed are in their 20s and many haven't yet married or had children. You get a sense of their hopes and fears. These books, though, are now a decade old and there are many fewer young people AND China's economy is slowing. This creates more opportunities for workers, but is also decreasing the demand for workers at the low end skill/education-wise. For example, we took a group of teachers to visit a Lenovo computer assembly factory in Beijing. Workers there had to have at least a tertiary degree, either from a college or a vocational college. A high school degree wasn't enough - for assembly work. Why? Because robots were already fetching and delivering parts and handling the lowest skilled tasks.
The films mentioned:
documentaries
1 - China Blue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9gO9MgSO7A (we screened this at USC in 2007)
2 - (not mentioned, but recommended) Last Train Home (available via Kanopy, other streaming services) trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P313uy9hni4 (we screened this with the director as well in 2010)
feature film (If someone finds this via a streaming service, please do post it. The film is outstanding. We screened it last fall.)
3 - Dying to Survive (我不是药神 I'm not a medicine god) A Chinese state television report: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uXbkiaEvuA
A pirate Vietnamese/English subtitled version is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7M52c-qFqo&list=PLAOWt0nP-YAahUm9-0mvavnwJ3LoMESE9
The film made money before it was even released: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-drug-smuggler-dramedy-dying-survive-became-a-china-box-office-phenomenon-1125299
Here's an article about the film and cancer care in China from The Lancet, Britain's leading medical journal:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanonc/article/PIIS1470-2045(18)30921-5/fulltext
clay dubeSome resources:
William Hinton, romantic best selling book by an American witness, Fanshen
Hinton's daughter Carmen remained with her mother in China when her father came back to the US. She later came to the US and became a filmmaker. Her early films focused on the village reported on by her father. My favorite is about the changing status of women, Double Happiness. It and the others are available at Kanopy: https://www.kanopy.com/product/all-under-heaven
Novels about land reform
The Sun Shines over the Sanggan River by Ding Ling (Ding Ling was an influential writer whose Diary of Miss Sophie challenged ideas about women, family; she later was ostracized by the party when she complained about patriarchical attitudes, her story is told by Jonathan Spence in The Gate of Heavenly Peace)
The Dragon's Village by Chen Yuan-tsung
clay dubeThe Financial Times article attached draws on a Brookings Institution study. The study argues that China's GDP growth is 12% less than advertised. Here's a key graph:
The paper argues that China's national statisticians try to correct for the exaggerations present in local reports of economic activity and growth, but can't really discount all of it. China's growth remains amazing, but just a bit less so.
Margaret SiryjThis Chinese newspaper infographic had some interesting graphs depicted. These payed ads were focused on the eradication of poverty, and the first graph was surprising. Commencing in 1978, there was roughly three-quarters million Chinese living in poverty and the graph was divided into five year increments with 2017 being the most recent statistic. That year, an astounding decline to 30 million (not that this is a small amount of people by any means ), but China has become a model for the world for drastically reduci.ng poverty.
Another interesting infographic featured several regions. The first to be highlighted and applauded for its gigantic poverty reduction was Eastern China, and from 2012 to 2017, poverty percentages were down 78%. This area in comparison to the other two regions: Central and Western had much less population, but still did an amazing job to drastically reduce poverty. Overall, China Daily did a great job on the graphics, and this newspaper edition could be a valuable resource to my students. I notice more and more high school students are more apt to pay attention with visuals and graphics as compared to plain text or content. Our society as a whole seems to have changed preferred platforms and visuals grab the attention more effectively than regular text. My World History students in general and my Economic students in particular are used to processing graphs and the informational evidence they provide.
Margaret SiryjBrett KierImportant details regarding HSBC wrongdoing in the U.S. vs HSBC BANK USA, N.A. Statement of Facts.
Phillip MoshoyannisThe degree to which the land in China is being used varies tremendously. Here is one example of how caplitalistic interests have crept into the system and the response by the governent to it. It is incredible to me the size of these undertakings right under the nose of the existing local governments. How are they not in on this BEFORE they happen?
http://www.pulitzercenter.org/reporting/dubai-has-palm-islands-china-has-sun-moon-and-flower
Cheryl WatsonBrett,
You made several good points about China's economy. Although China's industrialization has showed signs of slowing, the question remains: "How will China control the possibility of hyper-inflation. What economic safeguards does it have in place to avoid a severe swing from "boom" to "bust"?
Where did you find the resources about Facebook, Amazon and Google and their connection to US intelligence?
Cheryl WatsonChris Hertzog's observations observations about the explosion of wealth along the Pearl River Delta (PRD) shows that China's wealth gap is growing as those who live further west of the PRD struggle to find gainful employment. Consequently, Chinese citizens find themselves moving to larger urban areas thereby depleting villages and farming communities of traditional Chinese culture and sources of income.
Cheryl WatsonGood point Judy. You may want to caution your students against ordering calamari in restaurants when they eat out. Most restaurants use bung, or the lower part of the pig's colon, slice it up, boil it, add butter and garlic as they present it to an unsuspecting public. It looks like calamari, and is a heck of a lot cheaper.
China will have to find alternate food sources as its population grows. Although I do not condone "bung" in place of calamari, China may have to import its food from countries with more arable land.
Cheryl WatsonDue to China's aging population, coupled with a declining birth rate, immigration from southeast Asia and other countries is tolerated as a necessity. As more younger Chinese nationals study, work, and live abroad, those who live in rural or remote areas move to the cities to find positions as caretakers for elderly Chinese.
Cheryl WatsonChina's industrialization mirrors that of the early twentieth century where factories released harmful dyes and chemicals into nearby lakes, rivers and streams in the name of modernization. It took decades for naturally occuring algae to return to natural water sources. My question for students is: "How will China protect its own environment with regard to its air quality, waste disposal, and poisoned water sources?"
