China Hope Live » China: life & times

Eating Bitterness: an intro to the unprecedented Chinese migrant worker phenomenon

Joel 大江 — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:48:44 +0000

If you’re unfamiliar with the urban migrant phenomenon in China — as in, the people who make the stuff you buy and their lives — then China’s Urban Immigrants: A Diet of Bitterness is a fine overview with lots of links for further reading.

“Chinese metropolises are now home to an estimated 200 million rural-to-urban migrants . . . who occupy a precarious place in the urban hierarchy: while urbanites appreciate their labor, they are less enthusiastic about the migrants’ presence in their cities.”

For more on this topic you can browse our Migrant Workers category, or if you like documentaries, see these reviews of two good documentaries on migrant workers:

A deeper look into the dynamics of living with Chinese propaganda

Joel 大江 — Sun, 06 May 2012 15:17:43 +0000

Two insightful posts from Seeing Red in China, which is probably my current favourite China blog, about living in an aggressively and explicitly propagandized environment, and how Chinese try to deal with it. The propaganda still works, but in ways different than us foreigners probably tend to assume. Without further ado:

I tell [my daughter] that she must not be afraid to take a clear moral stand. “If you see someone is being bullied,” I said, “speak up for that person.” “Be the keeper of the good.” [But] Chinese parents would have to think twice, three times, or even lose sleep, if they are to instill these values in their children, because these qualities won’t serve them very well in the Chinese society.

We’ve written lots on propaganda, mostly the Chinese kind, including translations of the propaganda we’ve encounter in China. You can find it all in our Propaganda category.

Mainland students lining up for Western private schools

Joel 大江 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:35:58 +0000

I’ve witnessed the rise of Mainland students both at the private American university from which I graduated and in the ESL program of the private Canadian high school where I’m temporarily teaching. I also have a one-on-one private student in a public school’s ESL program. For some, it’s not their first private school in Canada; one student left the school an agency in China had pitched to her after the first semester because it was basically a big scam. Anyway, here’s an interesting report/first-person account of the rise of Mainlanders in private U.S. schools:

How China’s New Love Affair with U.S. Private Schools Is Changing Them Both

American high school diplomas are the new must-have for the upwardly mobile. Thousands of miles away, U.S. private schools are adjusting accordingly.

In six years, boarding schools like Deerfield and The Hotchkiss School in Connecticut reported a ten-fold increase in the number of Chinese applications.

It is also a lens into their complicated and often conflicting psychology: increasingly ambitious and outward-looking, at once sophisticated and perhaps a bit naive, they seem driven by a combination of faith in China’s future and distrust of its present; a belief that education abroad will translate into success at home. But, dazed by the new emerging opportunities and eager to follow the latest trend that promises them long-term security, both the parents and their children sometimes get something very different from what they’d hoped for.

The story quoted above does an infinitely better job than this one from last December.

And I couldn’t resist this photo of Prime Minister Stephen Harper schmoozing Chinese students (that’s not Dashan in the background, is it?):

More on teaching Mainlanders ESL in Canada:

Happy “Resurrection Festival” 2012!

Joel 大江 — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 21:00:48 +0000

It’s Easter weekend (复活节 in Chinese), and unlike the predictable annual mainstream media goofiness (like Jesus walking on ice floes or Shroud of Turin “discoveries” or “albatresbians”), here’s something from sinologist Dr. Brent Fulton that’s (a) informed, and (b) actually has a legitimate holiday tie-in. :)

Reason for Optimism in Policy Toward Chinese Christians

The Chinese Communist Party’s basic stance toward religion has not changed since it was spelled out in 1982 with Document Number 19. Commonly referred to as the “three designates” formula, this policy restricts religious activities to approved locations, requires that they be conducted by approved clergy, and limits their scope to the geographic sphere in which a given member of the clergy is permitted to practice. In theory, the policy limits the growth of the church by rendering itinerant evangelism illegal, severely restricting the number of leaders qualified to serve in churches, and effectively placing a cap on the number of churches that can operate in any given city or region.

Ever since Document 19 was released, activities neither specifically permitted nor specifically prohibited have existed in this gray area. Although Party policy has basically not changed for more than 25 years, and although the types of incidents mentioned at the outset of this article continue to occur, that gray area has expanded significantly. Without discounting either the reality of incidences of Christian persecution or their seriousness, it is remarkable how much Christian activity takes place on a daily basis that is technically not allowed yet goes unchecked.
[...]
Where, then, is the tipping point? Why are some (in reality, most) gray-area activities ignored, while others are attacked with a vengeance? There are a handful of triggers that, if present in a particular activity or situation, will greatly increase the likelihood of official intervention.

More from Dr. Fulton on the nature of the relationship between the Chinese gov’t and Chinese Christians can be found here:

Happy Easter, China #6: analysis, first-hand accounts, and an indirect official response [Updated]

Other related stuff:

哈利路亚！主复活了！
Christianity in China (topic)

Interview with Prof. Liu Peng on Religious Issues in China

Joel 大江 — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:43:27 +0000

Here’s a lengthy ten-part interview with Liu Peng from the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences, “an independent, nonprofit, non-governmental think tank” that exists to “promote freedom of belief within the framework of rule of law” and acts as “a ‘bridge’ between the government, the academic circles and religious groups.” Good for anyone with more than a passing interest in religious issues in China.

Render unto Caesar the Things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the Things that are God’s: Interview with Professor Liu Peng about Religious Issues in China

President Hu Jintao emphasized that we should enlist the participation of religious personnel and religious believers in the promotion of economic and social development. He explicitly affirmed the value of religion in Chinese society. . . It’s too simplistic to explain it away by saying that “cheaters bump into fools”. . . If you view religion as negative, then religion should be eradicated. If religion is not something negative, then it is another issue. Once we have established a correct understanding of religion, the next question centers on the measures that the state uses to manage religion.

More from Liu Peng and the Pu Shi Institute for Social Sciences can be found here:

The Chinese Communist Party among other, rival faiths.

More about how the Chinese government “enlists the participation of religious personnel and religious believers in the promotion of economic and social development” here:

Wishing you a glorious, harmonized, stabilized, socially managed, brazenly co-opted, painfully syncophantic, obligatorily WORSHIPFUL, kowtowing Chinese Communist Party Day

A helpful intro to China’s (wide) generation gaps

Joel 大江 — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 16:15:47 +0000

China’s politically turbulent 20th century gave each generation drastically different experiences, resulting in sharp differences in attitude and outlook between Mainlanders who came of age in the 70′s, 80′s, and 90′s. Ministry of Tofu has a very handy overview of the basic stereotypes: Post-1970s, Post-1980s, Post-1990s – The enhanced Chinese generation gap

iKill: anti-Apple infographic on Chinese factory worker abuse [Updated]

Joel 大江 — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 04:08:33 +0000

In my opinion, the problem of First World consumers profiting from the abuse of less-privileged in developing countries is much bigger than Apple, though as a global industry leader Apple is a legitimate lightening rod for criticism. (If you want to argue about the Apple/Foxconn factory worker situation in general, I suggest joining this thread, just to keep that discussion in one place.) Anyway, here’s an Apple-critical infographic based on a report from a Hong Kong advocacy group: iKill

[Update:] After an audit, Foxconn/Apple promise to do better, in the summer of 2013:
FLA-led Foxconn audit finds violations, fixes promised
The first report on Foxconn’s Chinese factories from the Fair Labor Association says the Apple manufacturer violated standards in working hours and compensation, but plans to make changes to fix those things.

Political clues in the “Chinese Google” — what a Chinese search engine can tell you

Joel 大江 — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 05:46:41 +0000

Baidu would have been Google’s main competitor in China, if Google had been allowed to compete. Dr. Mary Ann O’Donnell has discovered that a particular very taboo search term is apparently no longer taboo. She perceives a significant power shift, concluding, “it signals the end of the Jiang era. The Two Meetings are churning relentlessly forward and it seems that power has been wrested from Jiang [Zemin]’s hands.” This raises other questions about the possibility that other related and extremely sensitive topics might be opened up in the near future, and what that indicates regarding the character and attitudes toward information of China’s next batch of leaders.

This is especially intriguing given the recent political “Bo-mb” dropped by the authorities last week, and the power struggles that may indicate.

I’d describe her post more clearly if it weren’t loaded with sensitive search terms. So you’ll have to go read it yourself.

Related stuff:

Why you should read The People’s Daily

Joel 大江 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:03:03 +0000

Tom at Seeing Red in China makes the case that The People’s Daily is worth reading — and much more interesting and important than you think.

China’s “Two Meetings” — the messages you are and aren’t supposed to get

Joel 大江 — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 23:45:44 +0000

Tom at Seeing Red in China has a very handy summary of the recent Two Meetings. Things are quite interesting this year: Three messages the Party hope you heard at the Two Meetings and the surprise they hope you’ll forget

And as a bonus, here’s an analysis of Chinese online verbiage during the Two Meetings.