China Inc. chapter 6

[Kati Svaby]

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Hello Torsten,

If you have no quarrel with my suggestion I would like to describe some personal impressions about China. I would like to do this because I was listening to the book for about 2 or 3 hours(the book and Urs' reading out) and this has a strong influence on me as much as my China memories are fading. After I would like to latch onto the work. Is it Ok? If yes, this was the first part.

Many thanks:
Kati Svaby
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[Kati Svaby]

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Hello Torsten,

In the second part I would like to speak about the respect of traditions.

The first morning I wake up very early (about 5) and I wanted to walk in the park.
(Our hotel was a conglomerate. It used to be a Soviet colony with lot of buildings, stores, cinemas, theatre, swimming pools etc. and a gigantic park. Now this is a hotel for stranger and native persons.) After little walk I saw people who were about between 50 and 70 and they were exercising. Their exercise was very strange, it seemd to me a ballet, but it was very spectacular. My son told me this is the tai-chi what means in english: Supreme Ultimate Force.Tai chi is connected with Taoism, and the philosophy of Taoism. This is a traditional exercise involves the yoga and meditation.

In Therapy they use the 2000 year-old traditional methods: medicine practices,herbal medicines and acupuncture. These methods stayed alive under the socialism.
Home remedy exists chiefly among the poor people. This is a tradition also what is based on assembling of folk observations.

Pharmacy can replace the doctors told his colleagues to my son.(He worked at the Hungarian section of Chinese radio) When her girl-friend was ill he went a pharmacy. When he entered he gaped. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Everywhere there were beautiful porcelain and bronze old potteries,it was like a museum. When he told what was the problem they mixed up lot of things and in three days to-day my daughter-in law was healthy.

Religion, than in the USSR -was practiced in many monasteries. Though under the Cultural Revolution they were hard hit,but when we were there in the churches and monasteries performed a number of traditional ceremonies for a fee and they were crowded with believers. The religions: Chatholicizm, Protestantism,Islam, Taoism, Buddhism.

The respect of elder people.
It belongs to their tradition. On the first evening we went to a restaurant to eat Peking duck. The waiters offered to my husband the chair on the upper end of the table and gave him on a tiny plate the tiny crest of the duck. This is also an old custom.

I think really that the respect of traditions helped people to find their place in this new world.

Best regards:
Kati Svaby
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[Kati Svaby]

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Hello Torsten,

This the last part of my analysis. I was looking for the reason of this rectilinear development. As I am not an economist I had to confine myself to what I had been looking at and saw.

I wrote about elder people who were doing exercises at dawn. In that morning we went to visit Beijing. If you keep your eyes open and you can see that every Chinese people start doing a small, bigger or the biggest business.

The first what we saw when we set off, in front of the entrance of the hotel there were groups of people with carts. These people were poor entrepreneurs who prepared at home every kind of Chinese food and they sold. They didn't care about that the hotel would be a rivalry for them. They sell their food more cheaply than the hotel, it was very good and varied, the quality was controlled by a sanitary administration whether the food had been prepared in hygienic condition.If not, they didn't receive permit to sell. So everyone could be sure that he eats hygienic food.

(Anyway, they call everybody's attention: "Never drink unboiled water! "- in Beijing.Hotel rooms are supplied with flasks of boiled water or some hotels have central potable water facilities. And very important to wash the vegetable with detergent, or peel them if you cook in the hotel. Its reason that the dung over the vegetables, it is a problem.They don't use ripe dung but fresh one. Of course you have to always wash your hands. There is an old wrong custom of Chinese people that they are spitting everywhere. Even in 1994 it was very striking.)

So you can eat at every corner because you won't get ill.

I saw the rural people bent double to work on the rice fields. They were standing in the water till their knee and they wore their characteristic srtaw-hat against the sun-shine.I saw also people who had only few square-meters of field and it was planted with every kinds of vegetables, it was hoed, watered, and you can't find a weed.

The Chinese People is entrepreneur if he doesn't find a job he rises and set off abroad. I don't think that there is a country in the world where there aren't Chinese people, Chinese markets, Chinese restaurants. They sell everything more cheaply than the reception country. So they find people who buy their articles.

But they don't shrink from the smuggling. That's why they settle their account with each other. But nobody finds an eye-witness. They don't betray each other. If they go abroad, they keep together, they keep their traditions, they make in the towns a small Chinese town. Some years ago at a Chinese New Year we had just been in London. Around the Piccadilly Circus we couldn't move forward because it was full of Chinese people. At the restaurants they were standing a long line to eat authentic Chinese food in their restaurants

The bargain prices, the cheap labour and chiefly the State's politics enticed every big firms of the world to China. I told about that they didn't change ideology, so they could avoid the incidents which for exp. used to be on 5th April 1976, when
100 000 people gathered at Tienanmenn Square to protest. This was a turning point in politics. They wanted to denounce the government,the last years' rule of Mao Zedong and his widow for the Cultural revolution and the Gang of Four. The demonstrators had been dismantled. And Mao Zedong's cult live any longer among people. You can buy everything with the portray of Mao on it. They restarted the "Four Modernizations reform"- of agriculture, industry, science, and technology and national defence. In brief: China opened to the outside world. But they make sacrifices for it.( For exp: they had to swallow that Obama received the Tibetan Lama.)

Regards:
kati svaby
_________________
We always deceive ourselves twice about the people we love - first to their advantage, then to their disadvantage.

[JessicaGTC]

Hello Torsten,

Where can I find other chapters about China Inc. ? Thx.

Jess
_________________
I'd like to improve my english here and I'd very glad to help people who would like to learn chinese .

[Torsten]

Here: http://www.english-team.com/PDF/ChinaIncPart2.mp3

TOEIC listening, photographs: Table tennis

[JessicaGTC]

Dear Torsten ,

Thank you for your reply . Maybe I didn't express myself well .

I already found the two parts' mp3 (http://www.english-team.com/PDF/ChinaIncPart2.mp3

and http://www.english-team.com/PDF/ChinaIncPart1.mp3), I want to know where I can find the other chapters' (chapter 1 to chapter 5)text?

Jess
_________________
I'd like to improve my english here and I'd very glad to help people who would like to learn chinese .

[Jose]

HOW THE GENIE ESCAPED THE BOTTLE?

Hi Torsten!
I could not post for a long time. I finished listening and summurizing. Now I have to post all them but I'm busy again. I will post all the summuries when I have free time. See you! Ludger

Changhai is not the most amazing urban transformation. It has been Chan Zen that made a big change from 1980. Chan Zen was surrounded by rice field, and had no enough transportation. Things changed in 1980. The city was selected as one the thirst experimental center for market capitalism. Chan Zen became the first economic zone. It lured foreigner investors who bring goods, technology and currency. Chinese capitalism means to build socialism with Chinese characteristic, to imitate the model from outside”.
Chan Zen and Hong Kong is model of development in China. Hong Kong is like an intermediary between China and foreign countries. Hong Kong decline’s manufacturing is parallel with the economic advanced countries. It creates jobs by manufacturing.
Chan Zen is a place where people can live a new life, where they can restart their life. It is a destination. Chan Zen rising is plaid like a national drama.
THE WORKING GIRL OF CHAN ZEN -PART I-
In Chan Zen, women are far outnumbering men. Women do many jobs than men. Young woman suits to job of manufacturing. Women are praised as good workers but men are not. Older male worker are not welcome. The following is an example of job offering in China. The company is producing cell phone in Hong Kong
Recruitment requirement: XXTV Limited Company.
Female:
-260 vacancies;
-Junior High School Education;
-18-26 old years;
-Healthy, industrious;
-Having experience in electronics is an advantage;
-Daily wage: 17 Yuan.
Male:
-20 vac ncies
-2 years of working experience;
-Having basic repair in maintenance.

Conclusion:
There are many places offered to women.
Developing countries lead the worlds in clothing and textile. Young women in Chan Zen work so long, so hard and so little so price in Europe has been forced down. Categories removed from quota and lost trade such as Shri-Lanka.
THE WORKING GIRL OF CHAN ZEN PART II
The condition of the workers in private company is worse. For example, in 2002, the wage was $72 per month. They get one short vacation a year. One room is for 8-12 workers. When the workers leave or loose their jobs, the peasant arrived to replace them.
China can press down wages outside its boundaries. Western companies were under scrutiny that their facilities meet the standard for human employment.
According to Chinese, MGM Company makes the ultimate line browse. The company is affordable.
Employers say that there are no child labors, the food is good, and the pay is great, they pay above the average, and their employees live in a dormitory and are brilliant. It might be an absurd assessment. The head of the factories do not tell the truth. Actually, there is no air conditioner; the vacation is very short. Eight or more women shared cramped room. The temperature is 86°F at night and workers pay for air conditioner. They spend many long times riding the train to get home.
Most of the workers live in the dormitory. Eight to twelve women live in a room. Ten thousand of workers are in a single company. The average work week is seventy hours but the law mandates the half of that. That means extra money. Women who work in Chan Zen go home to get married. They do not want to pass their mid-twenty. They leave their work when their wage is very low. They are shocked up by the expenses. After leaving their job, the young women lead to the karaoke club. The karaoke has the size of a conventional hotel. It has hundreds rooms. The groups sing and drink. The karaoke has more than one thousand women. They seem to be bright. Young and old women mixed and got closed. After leaving the factory women go into sex worker in order to get money that they bring returning home. The sex worker girls get more money than those who work in factory but nevertheless they are less secured.
Men in China do not like using condoms. Sexual transmitted disease is a big problem. Men prefer to pay high to have sex without protection. No prevention champagne. The number of the H.I.V. Positive is very high, about one million). Sex workers bring much money home in impoverished areas. Government announced program to monitor the spread of H.I.V.; free access condom. Rural areas are the prime target.
BRIGHT FACTORIES, DARK CITY
Not all the dream in Chan Zen is bright. Bribery exists in Chan Zen, counterfeit merchandise. Dark side of the city, lots of people in Chan Zen com from elsewhere, dreaming to use money to save their life. Chan Zen is a cruel city, has no heart; no one is your friend. Chan Zen is the world biggest factories zone, the world sixth biggest port. The city becomes a center for high-tech and biotech development in Chine. Chan Zen low wage work force. High is developing. Chan Zen is so dynamic city. It builds competitive industries. Chicago is a fast growing city. Maker of house hold fan. To decrease the price of fan the factory has been implanted in Chan Zen.
WHERE THE BOYS ARE?
Chan Zen gender gap is one side of China urbanization. Girls are more valuable because of the factories’ demand. Elsewhere, the opposite is true. Host unsettle new story in china is the war on baby girls. Because confession and rural tradition cited that Chinese family prefer boys. Family name carries through the male line. Economic reason weigh on family’s choices, the Chinese system tenancy contributes. Girls are moving but boys can take care of the parents when they are old.
Chinese family gets one plot of land. Having a boy in Chinese family means a long run of allotment. Before, it was encouraged to have a big family. Now big family seems to be a threat of the future. In the countryside, it’s allowed to have a second child if the first is a girl. In the city, if the couple wants to have a child together because each other gets married the second line. In china, 118 baby boys are for every 100 baby-girls. 1 in 7 girls in China is missing. Doctors make business for detecting the unborn babies’ sex. Abortion of girl is done after the detection. After the birth they kill or abandoned the baby. Baby girls are left in the dumps then they are picked up by someone. It’s not all the family who want to get rid with the baby girls. Baby girl are adopted.
US families have adopted china’s baby girls. In China, there are more than 20 000 000 boys than girls. Next decade, there will be 60 000 000 fewer girls and women. Surplus of men in Chine is called bare branches. China imbalance makes its prone to instability according to demographer. High concentration of men can lead to violence, aggressive behavior, and sex discrimination. Women grow scarcely consequently, they become vulnerable. We see the resurrection of the evil such as kidnapping and selling of woman to provide bride for those who can pay the fee. Men who are skilled, rich, educated will marry but the poor, unskilled, illiterate will not. Marriageable women in short- supply. Poor farmer boys have to improve their chances by improving their station. They are leaving home to join construction cruise and assembly line. Young men are migrating to Chinese cities. Some return to their home countryside” but the others do not want to leave the cities. They send money back home. Only the younger and the older stay home.
GOING FOR THE GOLD
Beijing is like to Washingtong DC. The comparison may not last because Beijing is reaching up. The building boom is not new. The city wants to create a sleek image to attract investors. Foreigners architect have been enlisted to build buildings but the government preferred to employ Chinese architects for its profile high projects. The result is that all the large building in Beijing Main Street mingles Soviet era gigantism with Chinese law for decoration. Beijing’s shopping center and government offices complexes look armories converted into Chinese restaurant. Beijing enlists foreigners architect to modernize the city. New modern buildings have been constructed in Beijing. Beijing is the busiest construction zone in the world.
Old building had bee demolished and new building have been raised. Some old neighborhoods date back to 1300. Old buildings are unhygienic. Beijing wants to out modernize Shanghai. Some neighborhoods are saved but some will go.
In China, the State owns all the land. How land is used. A commercial real estate developer identifies a city block worth of remaking. People protested against the use of the land by the government. The government responded violently by sending them into jail. There was self immolation against force eviction. For example, two men jumped from the bridge inside the Forbidden City. There was a public suicide also.