Society

news and reports on contemporary social issues in Greater China

Building community with gay dating app

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Source: NYT (12/16/16)
Building a Community, and an Empire, With a Gay Dating App in China
The Saturday Profile
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ

Ma Baoli, the founder of China’s biggest gay dating app, Blued, in the company’s office in Beijing last month. The app has three million active users. CreditAdam Dean for The New York Times

MA BAOLI was accustomed to secrets.

By day, he was a police officer in northern China with a wife and a knack for street chases. By night, he led a life as a gay man, furtively running a website for gay people across China at a time when many were viewed as criminals and deviants. Continue reading Building community with gay dating app →

Macao gambling firms visit Jinggangshan

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Curiouser and curiouser. I wish I could have put this in the chapter on red tourism in my museum book!–Kirk

Source: Global Times (12/14/16)
Macao gambling firms’ trip to red site met with amusement, anger online
By Zhang Yu

A group of some 60 staff members from Macao’s casino industry recently visited red site Jinggangshan for a one-week patriotic course, sparking discussions from mainland netizens over its significance.

Staff members of Macao casino companies pay tribute to revolutionary martyrs in Jinggangshan, East China's Jiangxi Province. Photo: Courtesy of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings

Staff members of Macao casino companies pay tribute to revolutionary martyrs in Jinggangshan, East China’s Jiangxi Province. Photo: Courtesy of Sociedade de Jogos de Macau Holdings

Every year, millions of visitors flock to China’s red sites to pay tribute to deceased communist leaders and learn about the Communist Party of China’s (CPC) revolutionary past. Continue reading Macao gambling firms visit Jinggangshan →

Transnational crime crisis

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An informative article on cross-border activity of organized crime in Asia. Notes lack of cooperation among law-enforcement authorities of different nations and sketches reasons for that. I’m sure there is a lot more that could be said on the subject, but you don’t hear it discussed very often.–A. E. Clark <aec@raggedbanner.com>

Source: The Conversation (122/6/16)
Asia is in the grip of a transnational crime crisis – but governments look away
By Roderic Broadhurst, Chair professor, Australian National University

The immense demand for methamphetamine (ice), ecstasy and new psychoactive substances among the wealthy urban residents of East Asia and beyond has revitalised organised crime in the region.

The scale of recent drug seizures in underground laboratories in China’s Guangdong province alone is staggering – and it’s jumped by 50% in the last year. In January 2015, for instance, 2.2 tonnes of solid and liquid methamphetamine destined for Shanghai were uncovered in the coastal county of Lufeng. In May that year, 1.3 tonnes of ketamine and 2.7 tonnes of its precursors were found in the city of Yangjiang, disguised as black tea bound for Southeast Asia. Continue reading Transnational crime crisis →

My son is gone

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A moving short film about a mother in Taiwan whose son was beaten to death in 2000 for not being gender “normal.” The Yeh Yung-chih Incident (葉永誌事件) led to the enactment of the Gender Equality Education Act. –Kirk

Guokao

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Source: BBC News (12/1/16)
The people who can’t quite get a government job
By Ruhua Xianyu

Applicants get ready for China's National Civil Service Exam, which attracts a million candidates each year

GETTY IMAGES :Applicants get ready for China’s National Civil Service Exam, which attracts a million candidates each year

It’s a fiendishly difficult “brain burning” exam that promises those who pass a job for life. And that prize is so coveted that some come back again and again for more test punishment.

China’s National Civil Service Exam or “Guokao” took place this week. Every year around a million people take the test in an attempt to get one of about 27,000 government jobs dubbed “iron rice bowls“, with guaranteed job security, steady income and benefits. Chances of success are 36 to one this year. Continue reading Guokao →

‘Empty heart disease’

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Source: Sixth Tone (11/23/16)
Life is Meaningless, Say China’s Top Students
Peking University professor reports that students have full course loads and ‘empty hearts.’
By Fu Danni

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A student enjoys the snowy scenery at Peking University in Beijing, Feb. 8, 2014. IC.

Success doesn’t always bring happiness: A Peking University professor said that 40.4 percent of first-year students at the prestigious university feel life is meaningless, and 30.4 percent hate studying, news portal Sina reported on Monday.

Professor Xu Kaiwen, the deputy head of the mental health education and counseling center at Peking University — China’s highest-ranked university — made the remarks at an education summit in Beijing earlier this month, and referred to the phenomenon as “Empty Heart Disease,” or “kongxin bing” in Chinese. Continue reading ‘Empty heart disease’ →

Millennials in the mountains

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Some of you might be interested in this short film–Kirk.

https://aeon.co/videos/why-some-chinese-millennials-are-taking-up-the-hermit-s-life-in-the-mountains

Why some Chinese millennials are taking up the hermit’s life in the mountains

Over the past several decades, China has transformed from a largely poor and rural farming nation to a world power with massive economic heft and a rapidly growing urban middle class. While access to the global economy offers the emerging generation of young adults unprecedented access to material goods and a wide range of lifestyles, consumerism has come at a cost for some Chinese millennials who are seeking something beyond money. With a contemplative style that evokes its subject, the Beijing-based filmmaker Ellen Xu’s Summoning the Recluse introduces several young Chinese urbanites who are embarking on spiritual quests. Through a hermit’s lifestyle that draws on Buddhist, Taoist and Confucian traditions – either for a brief respite from modern life, or for the long haul – they focus on studying religion, meditation and connecting with nature, seeking meaning in what they describe as an ‘ancient way of life’.

Producer: Ellen Xu
Director of Photography: Max Duncan

Documentary on smuggling of rhino horns and ivory

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There is a new shocking AlJazeera undercover documentary just out, on the ongoing mass killing of rhinos and elephants in Africa to supply the market in China and Vietnam (which acts as a smuggler’s route for China), with Johannesburg-based Chinese “businessmen” giving details on camera, about their smuggling of these animal parts to China (even via Beijing airport) — it is quite amazing as an undercover film revealing how the local Chinese middlemen, as well as dealers in Fujian, actually talk about these crimes, how difficult it is to commit them, the prices, the members of the latest Chinese presidential delegation also buying these things in SA, etc.:

http://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/the-poachers-pipeline/

The network’s description:
“An Al Jazeera undercover team penetrated the network of dealers, agents and traffickers who profit from the multi-million dollar trade in Rhino horn. An illegal business that is decimating the Rhino population close to the point of extinction.” Continue reading Documentary on smuggling of rhino horns and ivory →

Confucianist outside, confused inside

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Source: SCMP (11/18/16)
China in the 21st century: Confucianist outside, confused inside
Kerry Brown and Sheng Keyi explore what Chinese people believe as their lives grow more materially rich and their country pursues its dream of national rejuvenation
By Kerry Brown and Sheng Keyi

It’s a simple question: “What do Chinese people believe?” But answering it has never been easy. Does the ringing affirmation by the ruling Communist Party at its plenum this year that the People’s Republic is on track to finally become a middle-income country in the next five years, which will be rejuvenated and powerful, finally answer this vexed question? Is this faith in the “Chinese Dream” of national destiny what, in the end, unites all Chinese people? Continue reading Confucianist outside, confused inside →

Taiwan may legalize same-sex marriage

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Source: NYT (11/18/16)
Taiwan May Be First in Asia to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage
By CHRIS HORTON

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Supporters of same-sex marriage demonstrated in Taipei, the capital, on Sunday. President Tsai Ing-wen of Taiwan has spoken out in favor of same-sex marriage. Credit: Ritchie B. Tongo/European Pressphoto Agency

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Sitting in the third row of a small chapel, Ms. Liou wiped away tears of joy as her sister exchanged wedding vows with her new husband. A few feet away, Ms. Liou’s partner stood alone, maintaining their public charade of being just friends.

Ms. Liou — who asked that her full name not be disclosed because she had yet to come out as gay — said she would feel more comfortable holding her partner’s hand or embracing her in a society that did not view their way of life as out of the ordinary. Continue reading Taiwan may legalize same-sex marriage →

The most beautiful book in China

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Source: China Daily (11/15/16)
The most beautiful book revealed in China

The most beautiful book revealed in China

The book cover of Opera in Ink and Wash. [File photo]

Twenty-five kinds of books, including Shuimo Xiju (Opera in Ink and Wash) and The Empire of the Written Symbol for Children, from 18 publishers nationwide have been called “the most beautiful book in China” on Monday, and will compete for “the most beautiful book in the world” in 2017.

The event “the most beautiful book in China” was established in 2003 and hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Press and Publication Bureau. The event invites top book designers worldwide as judges to select the most beautifully designed books which reflects the spirit and essence of Chinese culture.

The “the most beautiful book in China” selection has become a major platform leading fine Chinese book designs and designers to the world. So far, 15 kinds of Chinese books have been honored the laurel of “the most beautiful book in the world”. Continue reading The most beautiful book in China →

Farmer’s execution

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Source: NYT (11/15/16)
A Chinese Farmer’s Execution Shows the Pitfalls of Rapid Urbanization
By OWEN GUO

A construction site on the outskirts of Shijiazhuang in Hebei Province last month.CreditNomaan Merchant/Associated Press

BEIJING — The Chinese authorities said on Tuesday that they had executed a farmer convicted of killing a village official after the demolition of the farmer’s home, despite months of public outcry in sympathy with the farmer.

The execution of Jia Jinglong, 30, took place in Shijiazhuang, the capital of the northern province of Hebei. He was sentenced to death last November. On Tuesday, he was allowed a brief visit with his family, the state news agency Xinhua reported. Continue reading Farmer’s execution →

Breaking through the glass ceiling

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Source: China Real Time, WSJ (11/11/16)
Tips on Breaking Through the Glass Ceiling in China
By Josh Chin

A woman passed delivery workers sorting parcels near office buildings in Beijing on Friday.

A woman passed delivery workers sorting parcels near office buildings in Beijing on Friday. PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chinese women who want to be paid closer to what men earn should get PhDs and move to big cities, according to a new study.

The study found that Chinese women this year made an average of nearly 4,500 yuan ($660) a month. That is 22.3% less than the male average.

Women with only a high school diploma made 33% less than men in the same roles. But women with PhDs—only 16.7% less. Continue reading Breaking through the glass ceiling →