With China already doubling the United State's expenditure on green research it comes at no surprise that the country is spending massive sums on developing electric cars. "China is committed to spending $15 billion on building and selling electric cars...." , which is definitely an impressive number. Decreasing the use of oil is definitely an important move for the largest country in the world. The most obvious is environmental reasons. With increasing oil prises, dwindling world wide reserves, increasing number of Chinese drivers, and increased overall demand for oil in China this move is important for economic growth and security.
This blog is meant to be a space for the Austin College community to discuss issues related to China and the Chinese language. For author permissions, please write to Dr. Jennifer Thackston Johnson: jtj.at.ac –at- gmail.com. Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
China leads the way with greener cars
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/04/20/how-china-can-take-the-wheel-on-electric-cars/
Ai Weiwei
http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2066367_2066369_2066464,00.html
The man who desecrated Pu'er tea (I don't think I will ever get over that lol), Ai Weiwei, has been put on Time's 100 most influential people list. This is undoubtedly going to be a great boost to his career. However the editorial commentary by Time only works to increase the American preconception of China as the authoritarian communist bad guy.
Chinese Farmer Swaps Crops for New Job Inventing Robots
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12418160
Chinese urbanization is continually taking people from the countryside to the cities. In this case, China is trying to support inventors, like Wu Lulu, by hosting competitions. The state is trying to take their growing economy to the next level: manufacturing to invention.
Chinese urbanization is continually taking people from the countryside to the cities. In this case, China is trying to support inventors, like Wu Lulu, by hosting competitions. The state is trying to take their growing economy to the next level: manufacturing to invention.
China's Middle Class Feels the Pinch of Rising Prices
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13239004
As the standard of living rises in China, so do the costs, and many are not feeling any better off than their parents before them, despite having apartments and cars. The article also looks indirectly at a woman working in Shanghai unofficially - while it is not stated directly, the fact that she is sending money home so her children can go to school suggests she does not have a Shanghai registration card.
As the standard of living rises in China, so do the costs, and many are not feeling any better off than their parents before them, despite having apartments and cars. The article also looks indirectly at a woman working in Shanghai unofficially - while it is not stated directly, the fact that she is sending money home so her children can go to school suggests she does not have a Shanghai registration card.
Hero
Zhang Yimou has created over a dozen films that are rich in their representation of Chinese culture and traditions. His film, Hero, is a tale about Nameless, a man who is planning to assassinate the King of Qin. It and is based on historical events that took place in 227 B.C. It is his first film in which he intertwines martial arts and the fine arts.
The use of color is a major technique Zhang Yimou employs in conveying the themes in the story. The same story is told three times in four different colors, each time from a different perspective. The first of the three versions of the story is told by Nameless and reveals how he tricked and defeated the other assassins. Black and red, the first two colors Zhang Yimou chose, are colors that represent evil. The predominant color in the beginning scene of the film is black. Lao Zi, the highly-revered mystic philosopher of ancient China, said “five colors make people blind.” Blind in this sense is equivalent to dark or black. The color black has significance in the first scene as it is used to convey deceit. Red overtones are also used to symbolize passion and danger.
In the second part of the film, the king tells his version of what happened. The king had encountered the assassins previously and created his story based on how the story would have played out according to their personalities. This sequence was shot in beautiful shades of blue which represent purity.
In the last section of the movie, the predominant color is white. This version of the story reveals events as they really happened. Therefore, white represents truth.
The thematic use of contrasting colors from black all the way to white not only effectively conveys the story’s central themes, but also results in a visually breathtaking and beautiful film.
One of the story’s central characters is the assassin, Broken Sword. He is driven by his desire for the king to create a unified country, “our land.” As the story unfolds, Broken Sword persuades Nameless to embrace his idea of “our land” and to abandon his plan to assassinate the king. The king of the state of Qin eventually became the first emperor of a unified China in 221 B.C. The movie plot builds on its concept of unity by having multiple stories that all come together at the end to form the truth. At very end of the movie, the color switches back to black and the king is pressured into killing Nameless. While this outcome is surprising, it adds a feeling of reality.
In Hero, Zhang Yimou skillfully and effectively juxtaposes fighting and art. He adds traditional Chinese music to the fighting scenes and even includes a scene in which students are doing calligraphy while the school is being penetrated and destroyed by thousands of arrows. Interestingly, while assassination is a central theme of the story, bloodshed is symbolically represented rather than overtly demonstrated. Zhang Yimou creates moments in which there should be a lot of blood and gore, but he chooses to only depict the bloodshed though droplets of blood falling off a sword to the floor. The only place in the film that shows the overt act of blood being drawn is the scene in which the assassin spares the king’s life and merely scratches his neck with a sword.
Hero is a very creative re-telling of the attempted assassination on the Qin King. It is artistically pleasing and action–packed, maintaining the viewer’s attention from beginning to end. The director’s imaginative use of color, music, and action stimulates the viewer’s imagination, resulting in a memorable film. This movie is considered a mile-stone in Chinese cinema and received international acclaim.
Facebook seeks to expand into China
http://www.themunchonline.com/business-news/facebook-seeks-to-expand-into-china-1.2214696
While Facebook may be blocked in China, that hasn't stopped it and the Chinese internet company Baidu from entering talks to expand into the market, by creating a similar social networking style website. While meetings between the two company heads have begun, no set date for the project has been announced. Such a project will also have to meet with the government's approval, and submit to it's strict internet laws.
While Facebook may be blocked in China, that hasn't stopped it and the Chinese internet company Baidu from entering talks to expand into the market, by creating a similar social networking style website. While meetings between the two company heads have begun, no set date for the project has been announced. Such a project will also have to meet with the government's approval, and submit to it's strict internet laws.
Smoking Ban In Public Places Starts Today In China
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/223855.php
Legislation banning smoking in public places goes in effect today. Health officials hope to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, as China's smoking population makes up 1/3 of the worlds smokers. Officials also cite smoking as contributing to 4 of the top 5 causes of death in China. Despite the extensiveness of the ban, some are saying it doesn't go far enough, as it does not ban smoking in offices, where it is up to managers to warn their employees of the dangers, but cannot stop them from smoking.
Legislation banning smoking in public places goes in effect today. Health officials hope to raise awareness of the dangers of smoking, as China's smoking population makes up 1/3 of the worlds smokers. Officials also cite smoking as contributing to 4 of the top 5 causes of death in China. Despite the extensiveness of the ban, some are saying it doesn't go far enough, as it does not ban smoking in offices, where it is up to managers to warn their employees of the dangers, but cannot stop them from smoking.
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