Session #4 - March 19

[Chris Hertzog]

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704562469/germany-risks-u-s-backlash-if-it-hires-chinese-company-huawei-for-5g-tech

 

 

Above is the article on NPR yesterday about Huawei and Germany.  Having lived in Germany for a few years I will say that there is little love for China there when it comes to German ideas or tech being copied or used illegally.  Germans know they exist in this world because they make products that people need and want.  They make some very, very popular items such as fast luxury cars and high tech industrial products that are simply found no where else.  They teach and believe it is because of their education, R&D and focus on maths and science... in other words their products for this world are in their heads, rather than in the ground like natural resources.  In that, they are very, very concerned about tech theft and copyrights and protections in regards to China.   They certainly build in China, but they are very, very cautious about letting go of their intellectual property.

 

However, while Germany makes really fast cars and has the Autobahn, their internet and phone speeds are absolutely terrible.  It seems crazy that one of the highest tech countries and high end product makers on the planet has such slow phone and interenet speeds, but they do.  

 

I heard a speech from Angela Merkel on this and she said that China, and in particular Huawei, has an answer for Germany.  The details between the lines was that Merkel was making it clear that she understands the concern about letting a Chinese firm establish a high speed communication netork.  She also understands the drama surrounding Huawei and what they have been accused of. 

 

But the fact is, Germany has not been able to get a network like that going and they need one.  They have needed one.  We shall see if Huawei can produce and build such a network and keep it safe.

[Brett Kier]

China’s current social organization does not seem to support a more equitable distribution of labor within the home (importantly, neither does the US). In many ways, the juxtaposition of China's modern drive towards economic growth and the ever-present traditional cultural practices of Chinese families are at loggerheads. The rise of materialism in China that has been discussed in our lectures is in many ways similar to the unmediated market forces in the US, where the postmodern left upended the status quo, and in the process created a great deal of social unrest (that continues to this day). The old and the new are fighting it out in China as well. But the problem of shadow work persists, as you pointed out; and shadow work is disproportionately and unfairly done mostly by women. One question I have is how feminism is taking shape in China, specifically, which wave of feminism does it more closely resemble? Also, will the shifting gender politics of the country take a turn in the postmodern direction, as it has in the US?

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