Day: August 2, 2017

Middle class with new characteristics

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Source: Sixth Tone (8/1/17)
China’s Middle Class Comes With New Characteristics
Recent report looks beyond numbers to define an evolving social stratum.
By Lin Qiqing

A young woman drinks a glass of wine while looking out the window of her apartment in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, June 13, 2015. Chen Ronghui/Sixth Tone

There’s now an alternative answer to the question of what constitutes “middle class” in China.

The country’s emerging middle class is urban, well-educated, born in the 1980s, and — most importantly — living an indulgent, modern lifestyle, according to a report published Monday on Channel Wu, a WeMedia account run by financial writer Wu Xiaobo that arrived at this definition after surveying more than 20,000 people. Continue reading Middle class with new characteristics →

China’s made-up masculinity crisis

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Source: Sixth Tone (7/30/17)
‘Save Our Boys’: China’s Made-up Masculinity Crisis
Critics, parents, and educators all claim that China’s schoolboys aren’t manly enough, without seeing the gender bias in their arguments.
By Zeng Yuli (Zeng Yuli is a freelance writer focusing on Chinese youth culture)

Students take part in eye exercises at a high school classroom in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, June 4, 2007. Xiao En/VCG

China’s annual college entrance examination, the gaokao, took place last month. Although many provincial ministries of education discourage people from drawing attention to the nation’s top scorers, such admonitions cannot completely quash public interest. People are curious about not only the identities of the top scorers, but also gender: Are the girls scoring higher, or the boys?

According to statistics published online, over the last 40 years of gaokao examinations, boys accounted for 56 percent of all top scorers in China’s 31 provinces. At first glance, this would imply that boys generally have the edge over girls. However, if we look at statistics from just the last decade, the proportion of female top scorers jumps to 53 percent, giving them a clear majority. Continue reading China’s made-up masculinity crisis →

Chinese threat to Australian openness

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Source: NYT (7/31/17)
The Opinion Pages: OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
A Chinese Threat to Australian Openness
By MERRIDEN VARRALL

Students in a university classroom in Beijing. Credit in Pictures Ltd./Corbis, via Getty Images

SYDNEY, Australia — Australians are increasingly concerned about China’s growing influence in the country. Chinese money is being funneled to politicians. Beijing-run media outlets buy ads in Australian newspapers to promote the Communist Party view on local and regional issues. Chinese companies are buying Australian farms and natural resources.

The push extends to Australia’s universities. Chinese agents are said to monitor Chinese students and report on those who fail to toe the Communist Party line. And in another troubling trend, many of the 150,000 visiting Chinese students are importing a pro-Beijing approach to the classroom that is stifling debate and openness. Continue reading Chinese threat to Australian openness →

Style guide for Party media (2)

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Source: Sup China (8/1/17)
Here are all the words Chinese state media has banned
A full translation of the style guide update from Xinhua, and why it matters.
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Xinhua News Agency was established by the Chinese Communist Party in 1931 in a little house in Ruijin, Jiangxi Province. Until 1938, it was called the Red China News Agency 红色中华通讯社, but it has always had the same goal: to collect information for the Party and act as its voice. Despite its propagandist mission, Xinhua has produced some excellent journalists, such as Yang Jisheng 杨继绳, author of Tombstone, an excruciatingly detailed record of the Great Famine of 1959–1961.

Xinhua operates in a similar way to Western newswires such as Reuters: Thousands of journalists and editors across China and in 170 foreign bureaus churn out news articles, video, opinion pieces, and breaking news briefs, which are fed out to newspapers and websites across the country. But there are some key differences: Chinese newspapers and websites cannot only use Xinhua content for free; sometimes instructions from the authorities compel them to run Xinhua copy. So when Xinhua updates its style guide, it affects the way the news is written in numerous newspapers and websites across China. Continue reading Style guide for Party media (2) →