October 2008 Entries
According to recent polls, if Chinese could vote in the U.S. election, Sen. Barack Obama would win by a landslide. While this opinion doesn't differ too much from citizens in most other countries, from a policy standpoint, Obama wouldn't necessarily be better for Sino-U.S. relations than Sen. John McCain.
Men in Waimehe, a small mountain village in China's Yunnan Province, are about to make a mass exodus. Since the town only has 21 women, 13 of the town's 26 men can't find girlfriends. As a result, they petitioned to county officials, and will be relocated to an area where they might have better luck with the ladies by the end of the year.
While most might think Internet dating is primarily for the tech-savvy youth, at the ripe old age of 81 Wu Jieqin is a prime example that there's no age limit on Internet love. Last weekend, he married 58-year-old Jiang Xiaohui, and the two will live together in China's Sichuan Province.
While the U.S. presidential race remains competitive, if Chinese citizens were to choose the next American president, John McCain would have an extremely tough election.
China's golden Olympic media glow has definitely worn off, largely due to the melamine-laced baby formula. Unfortunately, milk-based products aren't the only Chinese items to have soured. Over the past few weeks, several others, ranging from baby cribs to beans to dog food, and even Chinese medicines. Here are a few:
Not even our youngest consumers seem to be safe from the economic downturn these days. A Chinese toy factory was forced to shut down, laying off about 6,500 workers, due to decreased demand from the U.S.
For better or worse, China really hasn't been a central issue at any of the presidential debates this year, which has probably spared the American people from bland lines like "China is a rising power and our competitor," which both Republicans and Democrats would agree on.
China isn't generally thought of as a bastion of democracy, but according to one senior official, this perception could change by 2020. Zhou Tianyong, a senior Communist official, told London's Daily Telegraph that "by 2020, China will basically finish its political and institutional reforms," which he says will give way to the establishment of a "democratic platform," with "public democratic involvement at all government levels."
From Sarah Palin to Oprah Winfrey to Diane Sawyer, the pageant circuit can be quite the place to meet ambitious, successful women, and China is no exception. At just 22, Yuan Jing is a deputy to the National People's Congress from Jiangsu Province, an alternate member of the Chinese Communist Youth League Central Committee, and was competing for the coveted Miss Chinese International Title in Hong Kong.
Very few animals are as cherished and honored as China's Giant pandas. They're national icons, whose births are marked with nationwide celebration, and deaths mourned by over a billion people. When they're sick or stressed out, benevolent zookeepers feed them homemade chicken noodle soup, and I wouldn't be surprised if they serve it up with a bedtime story, too.
Chinese citizens who might be depressed by disappointing financial news can now drown their sorrows in glazed, doughnuty goodness, as several "Hot and Now" Krispy Kreme signs are set to light up throughout China. Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. has just signed an agreement with the Korean-based Lotte Group to open 35 Krispy Kreme locations in major cities throughout mainland China over the next five years.
The latest figures reveal that nearly 54,000 Chinese infants have been sickened by melamine milk, but this number hasn't budged in over a week. While the optimist in me would like to think that lack of change is due to the fact that they haven't found more injured babies, the realist in me is pretty confident that the numbers are probably quite a bit higher.
These days, it seems that no country is immune from the global financial mess, including China. While the current situation in the China's markets doesn't look too much better than others worldwide, the long-term outlook might be more promising.
How do you regain public trust? Right now, this fundamental question is just as relevant for American financial institutions and the U.S. Congress, as it is for the Chinese government and dairy industry.
Many Olympic visitors and Beijing residents were pleasantly surprised by the relatively low traffic congestion and cleaner air quality during the Olympics. Officials cut traffic in half, by only allowing vehicles with odd-numbered license plates on the odd days and even-numbered license plates on even days on the roads. Hundreds of thousands of high-emitting vehicles were also banned.
Recent melamine milk news doesn't differ too much from events of the previous few weeks, for the most part. There have been more recalls worldwide, including the Thai Dairy company Dutch Mill Group that will return 122 tons of milk powder back to China.
It doesn't take an economic genius to see the way that the U.S. financial markets impact the global economy. The recent collapses of several esteemed financial institutions has sent shockwaves worldwide.
With their petite frames and fresh faces, most female gymnasts appear a few years younger than they actually are, but the vast majority of Americans watching China's gold medal gymnasts remained incredulous that some of the team was old enough to compete. After uncovering some documents indicating that up to five of the team members were not old enough, officials launched an investigation determining their ages.
There are many types of music that someone might expect to be on a list of music banned by Chinese authorities, like gangsta rap, or songs advocating Tibetan independence. Musical classics like Handel's "Messiah" or Mozart's "Requiem" probably wouldn't come to mind, but these two works could be, in fact, the most recent targets of Chinese censorship.