Hangzhou — The Housing Problem Become Extremely Serious in 2015

My hometown Hangzhou located in the southeast of China. It is the capital of Zhejiang province, which is the center of Zhejiang’s politics, economic and cultural. In addition, Hangzhou has been confirmed as the host of the 2022 Asian Games. As one of the most beautiful and develop city in China, Hangzhou attract the increasing number of people move to Hangzhou to live.

Discover Hangzhou, Ancient Capital of China (Video from YouTube)

Over population brought a lot of problem to Hangzhou, and the most important one is the housing problem. On the one hand, a plenty of people face the problem that they have no money to buy or rent a flat.

Hangzhou is in the southeast of China, which is the area has high population. (Picture from Baidu News)

The first reason is that, with the development of China, people in Hangzhou have better income, and they want to enjoy more of their life. The land agents are all realized this point, so they tried to build more houses than flats in Hangzhou. Of course, houses are much more expensive than flats; only a part of Hangzhou people can afford them. So in Hangzhou, there are no enough flats for those middle class people, but too much houses for high-income people.

Hangzhou has too much houses but not enough flats. (Photo from Baidu News)

Second, because the land agents spent too much money for fashion, beautiful surroundings facilities, they sell the flats or houses with too high prices that most of people cannot afford them. There is no doubt that people have increasing income, but the price of flats or houses increasing faster than people’s income. For example, in Hangzhou, a 150 square meters’ flats sell as RMB 4 million, which equal almost 640 thousand dollars. As a result, driving housing prices in Hangzhou is, however, still scaring off a significant number of people.

The prices of apartments increase so fast. (Picture from Baidu News)

Third, in recent years, speculating on real estate became more and more popular in big city, such as Hangzhou. Some rich people try to buy some flats or houses as investment. The prices of flats or houses in Hangzhou is increasing, and some people who have money want to earn more money by buying and selling flats and houses. The result is that some rich people have too much houses and flats, but the middle class or lower class people have no enough money to buy them.

Chinese rich people use apartments for earning money. (Picture from Baidu News)

On the other hand, people’s living quality is lower year by year. Because there is too many people are trying to stay in Hangzhou, the land agents built too many houses and flats for them. And then, the city became crowded. There is no enough space for that many people in Hangzhou. People spend more time in traffic jam during the time they on and off duty. In addition, we don’t have enough school recourses for so many kids, so that there are almost 50 kids in one class. To some extent, people’s living quality is lower so quick because of housing problem.

In my personal opinion, there are several ways to solve this problem.

First of all, decreasing the population in Hangzhou is one of the most important ways to solve this problem. The land agents can expend the cities, and build more apartments in the outskirts of a city. Nowadays, most of people in Hangzhou have their own cars; also, the better environment and air quality will attract young people to live there. What’ more, the housing price will be lower than the big cities.

Second, the government should control the price of the house. If the house is too expensive, many people may not be able to afford a house on their own. The government should build some special apartment for the lower class or the young people. Only those people, who have some achievements, have qualified for those apartments with cheaper prices; so that people would work harder for their apartments.

Last but not least, we should have more skyscrapers in Hangzhou. The land in Hangzhou is limited; the skyscrapers can bring more space to support people to have a good living condition, which is much better than low buildings.

Skyscrapers in Shanghai. (Photo from Baidu News)

As a high GDP city, the government in Hangzhou is already started dealing with this problem. The Government in Hangzhou also set up some new policies for keeping the flats for those middle class people, and limiting speculating on real estate. For example, the government gives those hard working people the public accumulation fund for housing construction to help them to buy their own apartments. In addition, for those people who have higher income, the government doesn’t allow them to secure a loan to purchase the second apartment; they have to pay the total bill for the second one.

A good living condition is the key to the stability city. If there are enough houses and less people in Hangzhou, the pressure of housing problem can be relieved to some degree. And then, people can have better quality in living in Hangzhou.

10. local issue

Bigbang Getting Famous All Over the World Because of M.A.D.E

In October 25, Bigbang just finished their “M.A.D.E” World Tour. They traveled around the world and made 70 really successful concerts. Their fans from different countries are all crazy about that.

The “M.A.D.E” World Tour in Newark (From Bigbang Official Facebook Site)

Bigbang – 뱅뱅뱅 (Bang Bang Bang) M/V

Bigbang is a Korean band, which is made of 5 members; they are G-Dragon, T.O.P, Taeyang, Daesung, and Seungri. Bigbang came on the scene at YG Family World Tour in Seoul Olympic arena in August 19, 2006. In December 30, 2006, Bigbang held their first solo concert “THE REAL” in Seoul; the official fan club “VIP” was established at that time. BigBang as five members return to the Korean music together in 2011, and they became the first Asian band who received the MTV Europe Music Awards “Worldwide Act”. Also, US Grammy official website posted this group in 2012, and they became the first Korean singers who were introduced Grammy.

G-Dragon (From Bigbang Official Facebook Site)

G-Dragon is the captain and lead vocal in Bigbang. Also, he is one of the main producers in YG Entertainment Company; he wrote almost all the songs of BigBang’s albums. As a top solo singer in South Korea, GD has a unique musical style. He already reached over 130 songs in Korea Composers Association, and the copyright fee is the No.1 in Korea Music, which is more than a lot of famous top professional composer in Korea. In addition, his superior tasteis made him became a fashion leader in Korea. “G-Dragon” is one of the reasons why CNN ranked Seoul as the world’s 50 greatest cities.

Taeyang (From Bigbang Official Facebook Site)

Taeyang is the vocal and main dancer in Bigbang. His voice is special because of slightly a bit nasal. In addition,Taeyang dance very well; his has such a good dance skill because he practice for more than six years. The President of YG company said: “People in YG all like Taeyang’s dance, because his body flowing blacks’ blood. He can jump out of the black dance feeling, and it made people fully integrated into the dance songs.

T.O.P (From Bigbang Official Facebook Site)

T.O.P is the main rapper in this group. TOP has a high ability in Rap and B-Box; he started to focus on rap and B-box in underground band when he was very young. For him, Rap is part of his life. His deep and slightly hoarse voice made a lot of people love his music.

Daesung (From Bigbang Official Facebook Site)

Daesung is vocal in Bigbang, and he always can lead all the people and make them crazy. His father opposed he to be a singer when Daesung was a student in YG Entertainment, but he still stuck to his dreams. Actually, his voice is the best in Bigbang. If you can hear his singing at the scene, you can feel the charm of his voice. Even when they are dancing, his singing is still stabilise. Because of that, he is the “Live King” in BigBang. In his solo albums, he tried a lot of different musical styles: musical, Korea trot, R&B, HIP-POP, lyric, rock, and so on. His beautiful voice coupled with the ability to control different types of music, attracted a lot of fans.

Seungri (From Bigbang Official Facebook Site)

Seungri is vocal and dancer in Bigbang. Even though he is the youngest member of this group, in many cases, he take care of his elder members well. His superior dancing and soft voice highlighted his performance. Whether solo activities or group events, Seungri made his own choreography. He always is the host of every Bigbang’s concert, because his well eloquence. In addition, he is very gentle to his fans, and has very good fans service.

Bigbang – Tour Report ‘맨정신(SOBER)’ In Malaysia

2015 Korean pop music, Bigbang is the most brilliant name. In this year, Bigbang won people’s love, because of their new songs and frequent activities. They used “M.A.D.E” series of albums, such a ingenious way, introduced eight songs totally from May to September. They got the No.1 in major music charts in four consecutive months. People believe that Bigbang would be the leader of Korean pop music. At the same time, each of their new song triggered a huge response; people can hear their songs everywhere during the whole summer.

In October 11, I went their M.A.D.E Tour concert in Newark. They are so popular that we start making the line from 5am at that day. By the way, the concert started at 8pm. But there were still have 50 people before us; they start to make the line at night before one day. That was a horrible experience, but it really proved that Bigbang is so popular even in America.

YG Entertainment said that it was the last whole group World Tour in around five years, because they have to join the army for mandatory South Korean military service.

(9. Art)

Online Business and Physical Store Business In China

US Eastern Time 9:30am, on the September 19^th, 2014, the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group officially announced the landing of the New York Stock Exchange. There are eight customer representatives, two of which are Taobao shop owners, one courier, one user representative, one electricity supplier service providers, one online model, one customer service, and as well as a farmer from the United States named Peter Verbrugge. Peter Verbrugge is an owner of cherry orchards in Washington, and these fruits are sold by Tmall on the other side of the world to China.

Video: Interview for Jack Ma the day Alibaba Group went Public by Bloomberg Business. (Video from YouTuBe)

According to TechWeb News, after the Alibaba Group went public, Jack Ma became the richest man in China with 29.8 billion dollars on August 27th. He became successful because of Alibaba. He created a brand new E-commerce system in China, which was named Taobao.

Photo: Alibaba went public in New York in September 19^th. (Photo from Tengxun News)

What is the Taobao Online Mall? Taobao is the first advanced personal e-commerce platform, which was founded in May 2003 by Jack Ma. It is financed by the best B2B website Alibaba, which is the biggest online retailing business in China. Taobao Mall is based on honesty, the safest and most convenient e-commerce platform. People can find everything on Taobao, such as digital equipment, make-up, clothes, furniture, books, food and so on. Also, they are lower priced and higher quality. Taobao makes the world so small; people can buy everything, even they are from other countries. What’s more, we can easily communicate with each other in WangXin Chat, and pay safely with its own payment system. So people can trust each other on this website easily.

Video: Introduce Taobao Online Mall and its ancillary products. (Video from YouTuBe)

In addition, people not only can buy stuffs in Taobao, but they can also sell stuff. Right now, it’s free to set up an online store on Taobao. It’s really helpful for those small and medium-sized enterprises, which have no money to advertise their products. They can sell products online for free and earn more money. Moreover, people also can sell stuff, which they don’t want any more in the Taobao Second-hand Mall. Sometimes people might meet some friends and discuss how to earn more in Taobao.

Picture: Click and shop! (Photo from Tengxun News)

Online shopping becomes more and more popular in China. All Chinese people know Taobao, and most of them have experience in shopping on Taobao. Why didTaobao develop so fast in these years? Convenience and cheap items are the main reasons. First, the modern pace of life make people have less and less time to physically go to stores for shopping. Traffic congestion and more shopping malls extend people’s shopping time and effort. So people urgently need a new, quick, and convenient way to shop and service. Second, the fierce market competition forced manufacturers and retailers to continue to seek cheaper commodity costs, shorten cycle times way. E-commerce catered to this demand. At the same time, consumers don’t need to go to the physical stores, so that they would not waste time in traffic. Consumers can get cheaper products and better service in online shopping mall.

Picture: Shop online or in store? That’s a good question. (Picture from Tengxun News)

But is physical store really dying? Guofu Ye, who set up the MINISO, said people just didn’t find a right way to run physical stores.

Guofu Ye has run chain stores more than ten years. Before he set up the MINISO, he founded AIYAYA brand, which focus on selling accessories. Three years ago, when he traveled in Japan, he found there are boutiques stores everywhere. Also, most of products from those 200-yen shops are made in China. “Two hundred yen equal how much in China? Just 12 Yuan.If people can buy such good quality things with 12 Yuan in China; everyone would stop and buy them. In this case I think I can do something like this in China.” Guofu Ye said.

Guofu Ye founded the first MINISO in China in November 2013. Now, in less than two years, he has more than a thousand stores in China. MINISO seizes the opportunity of the credit collapse of Chinese e-commerce, and has opened up a new area of consumption. Ye Guofu said that the secret of success of the MINISO canbe  grouped into “three high three low”, which is high quality, high efficiency, high technology, low cost, low margin and low prices.

Photo: The first store of MINISO. (Photo from Tengxun News)

Why do we have such a huge e-commerce company as Taobao in China? That’s because of the huge profits of the physical stores. For example, for one T-shirt in physical store in China, people sell it with ten times of its purchase price. So Chinese people start shopping online because that way it’s cheaper. Now, MINISO sell good quality products, but charges as cheap as the online shops. That’s the main point why MINISO attracts so many people.

Picture: The advertise in MINISO official website. (Picture from MINISO)

In China, physical stores would not die; also, e-commerce would continue to develop. The only thing to keep their development is keeping innovation. People should tap the consumer potential constantly, and find unique ways to develop business in China.

Cyber Bullying Become a Increasingly Serious National Issue as the Network Penetration

There was a guy, named Liangchen Ye, known by everyone just in one night because he bullied a college girl online. In September 29^th, a college girl who lives in Beijing, the capital of China, posted a screen shot of a conversation to Weibo (Chinese Facebook). This conversation is about a guy bullying her. Just several hours, an increasing number of people paid attention to this conversation, and blamed this guy. This guy only had about 200 followers before, and after this occurrence, he has more than 170，000 followers. It’s really not a good thing; some people found this guy in real life by flesh searches.

The Screen shot of the conversation (Photo from Weibo)

This guy was wrong because he bullied a girl online. But those people who blamed him did the same thing, which even worse than he did. They post his photos, address, and other personal information, which let that guy got a lot of trouble in his life.

The Weibo profile of this guy (Photo from Weibo)

In today’s society, almost everyone uses social media on the Internet all over the world. Along with it, here comes cyber bullying incidents, which is now a national issue, especially in teens’ age; some have even led to suicide. According to a website called Reuters, more than 10 percent of parents around the world say their child has been cyberbullied and nearly one-fourth know a youngster who has been a victim, according to a new Ipsos/Reuters poll. Cyber bullying becomes one of the most important factors to suicide, and people should try to improve this situation. There are three ways to reduce the issue of suicide caused by cyber bullying, which are identifying the danger signals, educating at a young age about Internet ethics, and limiting the age on social media sites.

Think Time: How Does Cyberbullying Affect You? – MySecureCyberspace (Video from YouTuBe)

Helping teenagers who are victims overcoming cyber bullying is a way to reduce the risk of suicide. Most of time, parents and teachers do not realize when some kids are being cyber bullied, thus they cannot take measures on time. Nine of ten teen cyber bullying victims choose facing this horrible problem alone without telling their parents or teachers or an adult (PRWeb Newswire, 2014). It has become an exigency to find out how to discover which kids are having this issue. The one signal is that child’s personality changed completely and suddenly. Young people who are cyber bullied might become sad, anxious, afraid and cannot concentrate on study. If a confident and outgoing girl became quiet within a period of time, maybe she has problems. Especially when child thinks about all things in his or her life negatively, parents and teachers should start to pay attention. In addition, children need their parents’ and friends’ company; there must be something wrong if they start looking for chances to stay alone without others. The youths, who are at risk of suicide, might isolate themselves from other people. What’s more, children changing their behaviors or habits suddenly is also an important danger signal; for instance, if a girl stopped chatting on Facebook with her friends anymore or updating her status as usual, someone should be alerted.

On the other side, banning cyber bullying of those young people who are perpetrators is also helpful. Nowadays, more teenagers start their online lives earlier. This leads to the increasing younger people starting SNS activities. They make a lot of groups, and talk about everything or everybody around them on social media for fun. But the problem is they are too young to be responsible for themselves and others. They do not know what is good or what is bad. Words are powerful when they are used as tools, and misunderstanding of language might bring disaster. To avoid cyber bullying, people should give children education about Internet ethics as early as possible. Parents are the first teachers for children. Trying to be a kind person is the first lesson they need to tell their children. Moreover, parents should set rules for their children before giving them smartphones. In addition, schools should set up a course to introduce cyber bullying, and it’s serious results. Everyone has the responsibility for his or her behaviors, even on the Internet. Adults should tell young people cyber bullying is harmful to others. A psychiatrist named Sebastain Kramer said that young people can be teased in the playground and it’s gone after a period of time, but if they have photos on Facebook, it’s there forever. (Daily Mail, 2014) People make serious mistakes because they don’t know how bad the consequences are.

With the development of Internet, increasing number of teenagers share their details of lives to others on social media sites. Adding friends on Facebook becomes a common thing when they meet new friends. It’s hard to supervise because there are too many SNS companies around the world. The photos of a 15-year-old girl’s boobs were spread on social media immediately; the perpetrator even made a Facebook page about it. She lost all her friends, and no one respected her any more. Finally, she committed suicide to end the cyber bullying (The Toronto Star, 2012). A lot of cyber bullying is spread in social media, so how about if teenagers are forbidden to set up social media accounts? If those companies can take responsibility by setting an age limitation to register, the suicides caused by cyber bullying may decrease. For example, young people below 18 years old should be prohibited from registering unless they link their parents’ social media site’s accounts when they use this social media site. Just like people can drink alcohol after they are 21 years old in America, the injunction is a really good way to avoid bad effects. When people grow up, their thinking faculty, judgment and self-control are all improved. At that time, when they face the cyber bullying in social media, they get less hurt and have better perspectives on overcoming the issue.

From a survey, over 50% of the students identify themselves as being involved in cyber bullying, as victims, perpetrators or both (Risk factors for involvement in cyber bullying: Victims, bullies and bully–victims, 2012). In the past few years, cyber bully has caused more and more teens to commit suicide. People should attach importance to this problem. Even though it cannot be solved entirely, we should do something to help relieve this issue.

References

Borland, S. (2014, November 5). Cyber bullies ‘fuel surge in childhood depression’. Daily Mail. p. 5.

Fong, P (2012). B.C. outraged over girl’s death; Cyber-bullying victim commits         suicide after she posted video of how she was depressed. The Toronto Star (Toronto, Ontario).

Mishna, F., Khoury-Kassabri, M., Gadalla, T., & Daciuk, J. (2012). Risk factors for involvement in cyber bullying: Victims, bullies and bully–victims. Children And Youth Services Review, 3463-70. doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.08.032

Unknown (2014). “Cyber Bullying Suicide, an Article Released Today by NoBullying.” PRWeb Newswire 23 July 2014. Business Insights: Essentials. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. URL: http://bi.galegroup.com/essentials/article/GALE%7CA375852782/6b58f916714141444b9e7ce1511f19d4?u=plattsbg_main 

“Cyberbullying a Problem around the Globe: Poll.” Reuters. Thomson Reuters, 11 Jan. 2012. Web. 9 Oct. 2015. URL: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/11/us-cyberbullying-poll-idUSTRE80A1FX20120111

Blog7: Opinion of National Issue

Chinese Girls Protested on the Streets in Korea Because of Failed Plastic Surgery

Starting from October 1st, a group of Chinese girls, who had failed plastic surgery in Korea, collectively protested on street in Seoul Myeong-dong in Korea for three days. Those victims, who suffered terrible plastic surgery operations, held up posters of surgical failure, and denouncing unscrupulous intermediaries and hospitals. They want those intermediaries and hospitals to be responsible to them. In addition, they hope that this collective protest will get the attention of the Korean government. They want prevent other Chinese girls from becoming victims.

Chinese girls collective protested in in Seoul Myeong-dong. (Photos from Tengxun News)

Earlier this year, this group of Chinese girls already participated in a collective protest in South Korea. There are more than a dozen victims who paid the price of time, spirit and money to go to the Korea for a collective protest, but they didn’t get any reply. What’s worse is that the protesters say that the stuff in plastic surgery hospital locked them in a small dark room, and the doctors in that hospital took hold of their passports. In addition, police arrested them because the hospital told the police that there was some people spread the rumor to slander the plastic surgery hospital.

A lot of people stopped by and looked through the poster. (Photos from Tengxun News)

One of victims had the double-jaw surgery in a plastic surgery hospital in Korea. After that, she found that some of her teeth were misplaced, and because of this reason, she cannot eat normally. This was the fourth time she came to the hospital in Korea for the negotiation. She held the poster in front of the hospital door, so that the hospital staffs feel extremely nervous. In Korean law, one-person demonstration is legitimate, but the staffs in the hospital still tried to stop her behavior. During the demonstration, she had been her phone snatched away and she had been violently scratched by the staff of the hospital. The hospital also called police to arrest her.

This Chinese girl held the poster, and stand in front of the hospital (Photo from Tengxun News)

Weikun Qin, a Chinese girl who joined a plastic surgery TV program, which was named “Wish List”. The staffs of this program told them that it’s a collaborative project with the biggest Korea TV station—KBS TV Station. So she believed this program and went to Korea for the plastic surgery in January.1, 2014. After plastic surgery, she felt so painful, but she still didn’t give up, because she thought she would be pretty after that. But after she swelled down, she found her face and nose prosthesis are awry. But the Korea plastic surgery hospital refused to take responsibility, and said the plastic surgery operation had no problems.

Weikun Qin showed the people the 3D-computed tomography photo of her face. In this photo, people can see clearly, her nose prosthesis tilt, and one of her cheekbones is narrower higher than another one. (Photo from Tengxun News)

This group of girls got a huge attention in Weibo (Chinese social media, just like Facebook). More and more girls posted the article about the trouble they met after the plastic surgery in Korea. According to Tengxun News, 70% of foreigner who go to Korea for plastic surgery is Chinese. The failed plastic surgery rate increased 10%-15% per year.

The Cost of Beauty— from Al Jazeera English (Video from YouToBe)

Why more and more people go to Korea for plastic surgery?

The biggest reason is the advertisements. I went Korea several times. I can see a lot of posters of plastic surgery ads in TV, road, subway stations, and so on. The advertisements are in everywhere. They also send those ads to other countries to attract foreigners. Those advertisements always show people the contrastive photo of a girl who did the plastic surgery. Those before after photos let people see the changes, and those people want to become more pretty too.

The plastic surgery advertisement in subway station.

What’s more, some ads used a worse way to attract people. They give people a wrong sense of worth of plastic surgery. There is one advertisement shows people the before after photos of two rings. The one named “before” is a really small, and the “after” one is huge. It tells people that, if they do the plastic surgery and become more beautiful, they can find a better man and become rich. They use this bad way to attract a lot of girls to do the plastic surgery.

The plastic surgery advertisement of two rings.

Nowadays, more and more people pursue a prettier face. They think if they have better appearance, they can get a better life. As a result, an increasing number of people choose plastic surgery. First, I do think appearance is important, and people have their right to choose to have plastic surgery performed on them. But before that, they should ask several hospitals, and find someone they can trust to do it. Don’t believe the hospital too easily. Second, even though appearance is important, this is not the only way that can make people’s life better. Inner beauty is more important than appearance beauty. People should pay more attention to their education. Appearance is not everything.

Plastic surgery, you can’t hide it forever.

The Unique Electoral System in China—We Don’t Want It.

In China, we have a really special election system. It’s different from all the other countries and China has already used it for a long time.

According to the article about China’s Election System from an official website of China, www.china.org.cn, all citizens of the People’s Republic of China have the right to vote and stand for election after they have reached 18 years old, regardless of their ethnic background, sex, religious belief, and so on. People who have been deprived of their political rights, according to law, do not have the right to vote and stand for election. One voter has only one vote in each election.

From the website named “The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China”, there are five central and local levels of people’s congresses in China. From the highest level to the lowest level, they are:

1. The National People’s Congress
2. The people’s congresses of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government
3. The people’s congresses of cities divided into districts, and autonomous prefectures
4. The people’s congresses of cities not divided into districts, municipal districts, counties and autonomous counties
5. The people’s congresses of townships, ethnic minority townships and towns

The 4th election meeting of National People’s Congress in 2012 (Photo from Xinhua Newspaper)

The people’s congresses at all levels are constituted through democratic elections. It shows that the Chinese election system is democratic, and really suitable for China, which has a large population. But it’s really not the truth.

Actually, the National People’s Congress made a decision that Xi Jinping is China’s new President. Xi Jinping got 99.86% of the vote, which is a total of 2955 people. Only 1 person opposed, and 3 people abstained from voting. How can 2959 people represent all 1.4 billion of the Chinese people?

China’s New President Xi Jinping (Video from China Uncensored)

Regarding this question, the Chinese government said that China does have direct election. Direct elections are applicable to the election of deputies to the people’s congresses of the counties, districts, townships and towns. All the Chinese people are voters who directly elect deputies to the people’s congresses by casting their votes. After the direct election, those deputies to the people’s congresses at the low level, who are chose by citizen, and they have the right to vote deputies to the people’s congresses at the next higher level. At the end, they elect deputies to the people’s congresses at the highest level. So it’s fair.

I interviewed my family and friends on phone about the direct election. In general, all of them should know it and join it at least once; but, in fact, most of them told me that they never saw the voting papers in their life. They even didn’t know when or where the election is. They only noticed after the city government posted the list of new deputies to the people’s congresses of our city. No one knows who elected the new deputies and how they elected them.

Election in China—-This animated video narrates how a Chinese boy came to the conclusion that election is of no use after reviewing elections in different countries. (Video from YouTube)

In addition, there is another situation. Some of my friend told me that their parents did participate in the election before, but it was just irregular. One of my friends said that when they wrote on the voting paper, they only could write agree or disagree, because there was only one candidate. What’s more, when the they wrote on the voting paper, the only candidate is there with them. He asked them to write agree in the voting paper and then gave them a gift card. My friend said: of course people would wrote agree, who doesn’t want the gift card? People didn’t know anything about the candidate except their name.

This is the main point that China should care about and make a change. Even the lowest elections of the people’s congresses include bribery, how can the government say that the higher congresses has no such things?

Plenty of people in China hope that they can have election meetings, just like America. In America, everyone can be a voter. The people who run for the presidency deliver a lot of speeches in different places. They try to let America people know more about them and get more support. The public can vote for their own president. Ruifeng Zhu, who is the poster of People Supervision Website, said that the president represents the Americans’ benefits, because the voters chose him on their own. But in China, we don’t have a chance to choose our own president.

US’ Election v.s. China’s Election—China Forbidden News (Video from YouTube)

Chinese people hope that the government can change the election system and improve it. Everyone hopes for democracy.

Reference

“China’s Electoral System.” The National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. Web. 28 Sept. 2015. http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/about/2007-11/20/content_1373251.htm

“IX. The Election System.” China Political System. Web. 28 Sept.          2015. http://www.china.org.cn/english/Political/26325.htm

“That’s not your Business” —– Japan against China drill for gas and oil in East China Sea

On September 16, Japan protested further against China’s drilling for gas and oil in the East China Sea. As early as July, Japan posted photos of the oil-gas field of the East China Sea without the Chinese’s explicit approval. Also, they requested China stop exploit the oil and gas in East China Sea.

Japan posted photos of the oil-gas field in East China Sea

The spokesperson voiced the Chinese Foreign Ministry’s disapproval. “East China Sea is a part of Chinese territory, Japan has no right to get into the act. That’s not Japan’s business.” Lei Hong, the spokesperson of Chinese Foreign Ministry said that. This area is absolutely Chinese territory without repudiation. Japan has no position to go against it. But Japan didn’t give up. They strongly oversaw the East China Sea by sending planes. Regarding Japan’s behavior, China expressed strong dissatisfaction.

Japan strongly oversee East China Sea

For this situation, Yujun Yang, the spokesperson of Chinese Defense Department, had his opinion. China drilling for gas and oil in East China Sea is totally legal and reasonable. But Japan criticized that these activities have military purposes. It’s out of all reason. Yujun Yang expressed the purpose of why Japan is going against China and that is because they want to make and play the “China Threat Theory”. Then they can cook up a pretext for passing through the new Security Bills. 

On September 20, Japan announced that parliament’s all-powerful lower house passed the new security bills in July. From ChinaDaily, they gave the people an explanation of the Japan New Security Bills. Under the new security bills, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, will be allowed to go into armed conflicts overseas to defend allies even if Japan itself is not attacked. The legislation will permit Japanese troops to fight abroad for the first time in 70 years.

A Japanese protester holding a placard takes part in a rally against the bills in Tokyo. [photo from Xinhua Newspaper]

The Japanese police suppressed the Japanese protesters who against Japan’s controversial national security bills. [photo from DFIC]

Joseph Matthews, director of the International Cooperation Department at the Asia Euro University in Phnom Penh, said that the legislation is an open violation of Article 9 of Post-World War Two constitution, which bars Japan from becoming a military power again and restricts it’s armed forces to purely self-defense purposes. Matthews said the laws would trigger insecurity, fear and distrust among all Asian countries, especially South East and North East Asia.

Foreign affairs with Japan is a long-term problem in China. I believe that the problem between China and Japan is because of two main reasons. The first one is the problem left over by history, and the second one is territorial dispute.

Japan invaded China during the World War II from 1937 to 1945, which brought indelible disgrace to China. Especially the Nanking Massacre, which occurred over six weeks starting in December 13, 1937. But Japan have denied this historical fact publicly and also adopted a distorted history book to teach future generations; Because of this, the people in Nanjing wanted to diffidation with the Japanese people.

The people in Nanjing wanted to diffidation with Japan. [photo from Takungpao.com]

“Only a country that respects history, takes responsibility for past history, and wins over the trust of people in Asia and the world at large can take greater responsibility in the international community.” said by the Chinese Premier Wen.

In addition, territorial dispute also gave rise to the problem of Sino-Japanese relations. The latest one is about the Diaoyu Islands, which is disputed islands between China and Japan.

Diaoyu Islands

September 7, 2010, a Chinese ship, named No. 5179 Minjin Fishing, worked near Diaoyu Islands. A Japanese ship, named Yunaguo, rammed the Chinese ship on purpose, and they also arrested the Chinese captain, named Qixiong Zhan, illegally. The captain’s grandmother died because she could not bear that she found out that her grandson was arrested by Japanese authority.

Japanese ship rammed Chinese one

In the Chinese point of view, Diaoyu Islands belong to China since 1372; China has indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Island, which is in the East China Sea between China and Japan. But Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda insisted that Diaoyu Islands is Japanese territory. The spokesperson from Chinese Government said: “Diaoyu Dao and its affiliated islands are an inseparable part of the Chinese territory. Diaoyu Dao is China’s inherent territory in all historical, geographical and legal terms, and China enjoys indisputable sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao. China is firmly opposed to Japan’s violation of China’s sovereignty over Diaoyu Dao in whatever form and has taken resolute measures to curb any such act.”

Above all, I believe that peace and development are the two main themes of the world nowadays. Moreover, a peaceful world is also the precondition of global development. Every country should keep the world at a balance and be friendly with other countries, especially the neighbor countries. Foreign affairs are important to every country.

It is Wrong Because A Chinese College Student Helped an Elder

The Hidden Trouble of Faulty Chinese Health Care

A Chinese college student stopped in front of the school gate of Huainan Shifan University in September 8 because she saw an elderly woman fall down onto the ground. No one came to help the elder, except that Chinese college girl. She went down from the bike to help the elder massaged her legs and also find her family member but, something bad happened. When the elder’s daughter-in-law came, she let the College student help her call the ambulance and go to the hospital with them. The college girl did that because she thought they might need additional help. But she was wrong.

After she arrived the hospital with the elder’s family, they said the she should be in full charge of the elder’s injury. The girl felt inculpable since she just stopped by and helped when she saw the accident. Why should she be responsible for this accident? They didn’t say thanks to her, instead of that, they want the college girl to pay for the medical care expenses. The girl didn’t know how to deal with this problem. At that time, there were a lot of people around them, and they saw what really happened. So she posted this situation on MicroBlog (like Facebook in America), and wanted to find witnesses. She posted that: “I’m a junior in Huainan Shifan University, and I helped an elder this morning in front of the school gate. Because I felt the accident is serious, I called the emergency center. But the elder’s family said I should be charged of the elder’s injury. The monitor showed that it’s impossible that I would run her down because of the distance between the elder and me. ” But the monitor didn’t show everything, because there was a blind spot. I hope someone who passed by our school this morning can provide some evidence. I need witnesses!”

The college girl posted this situation online

The screenshot of the monitor

This elder said she didn’t know who knocked her at that time, but this college girl is the first one who stopped by. The elder’s daughter-in-law said that: “If you didn’t run down her, why you helped her?” This is a ridiculous point. It means that if a person didn’t hurt another, they cannot help them.

The elder is waiting for the operation

The elder’s daughter-in-law want the college girl pay for the medical care expenses

The college girl don’t know how to deal with it

We have had a lot of these similar situations in China these years. One of my friends went back home from school by bike one day; When he made a turn, an elder fell down, but he didn’t even touch her. The elder said she felt so painful and needed to go to the hospital and that my friend should pay for everything. Luckily, the monitor worked well at that day; it showed that my friend didn’t touch her. My friend was inculpable. After the elder realized she couldn’t get money from my friend, she just went back by herself and it seemed like she didn’t feel any pain in her legs.

In my opinion, there are two main problems which are: faulty Chinese Health Care programs and poor medical education. First, in China, most people have to pay for everything when they go to hospital and it’s really expensive. Nowadays, only a little population of Chinese people have good health insurance; where the country would pay for them when they need health care. Those people, who work for government, already have the economic capability to pay for health care by themselves. Most of the Chinese people, they do have health care, but the government only pays for 10% to 20% of the cost for them; so they still need pay a large percentage of it. Some of the people, who live in the countryside, they don’t even have health insurance. So they are afraid of getting injured or getting sick, because they don’t have the money to pay for the hospital.

The Chinese government only puts 3% of their GDP into health care. Compared to America, which puts 25% of their GDP into health care, the Chinese government doesn’t pay attention or pay money to their people’s health care. Not to mention, some of Chinese hospitals do not help people even they are in an emergency situation until they pay for the bill.

Another problem is poor Medical science education. Compared with some developed countries, we should discuss the issue about why we don’t have enough outstanding doctors in the world. Doctors are one of the loftiest causes in China. If people want to be a doctor, they at least need to get a doctor’s degree of medical education. As far as I know, the medical students have almost the busiest college lives compared with other majors in China; most of them have to keep themselves on a very high standard. It’s too hard for a lot of people to become a doctor; so many of them change their majors and give up to becoming doctors. That is why we don’t have enough doctors for the Chinese people.

In addition, the medical education in China overemphasis the importance of knowledge on the medical textbooks and lose sight of the importance of practice. It results in a consequence that a medical student can receive a high score on the test, but cannot answer a simple question posed by a patient.

Above all, although health care in China has a lot of problems, health care is headed in a better direction day by day. I hope that the Chinese government would pay more attention to health care in the near future.

[3. Health Care]

Chinese Education vs British Education

Five Chinese teachers came to Bohunt School, which is one of the best schools in Liphook, Hampshire, to shake up the British education system, and they really did. This is a new documentary from BBC. Neil Strowger, head teacher of Bohunt School, said that in the international league tables, British pupils are falling behind in the international race today, especially against China. That’s the reason why they set up this experiment. They want to know if the Chinese education system really is better than the British one. If Chinese do better, they want to identify what it is in the Chinese education that makes them better, and transfer it back into U.K’s classroom.

Are Our Kids Tough Enough? Chinese School – Episode 1

In this unique experiment, five Chinese teachers set up a Chinese School in Bohunt School, and took about 50 year-nine students’ to try the traditional Chinese teaching style. After 4 weeks learning, all the pupils had final exams in math, science and Mandarin. The students in the experimental Chinese education were later tested against British counterparts. Chinese won.

The five Chinese teachers

As a Chinese student who finished middle school and high school in China and then studied abroad, I can tell there are huge differences between Chinese and western teaching styles. Moreover, I can also tell that Chinese will always win in a paper test.

From the documentary, people summarized Chinese education system as a high- pressure study system, which based on authority, discipline and ruthless competition. Chinese students usually spend every second studying. They have to arrive at school before 7:30 am every weekday, and they leave at 9 pm. After 5 pm, the students are on their own. They start self-study to review the knowledge they learned that day. But that’s still not enough. Chinese students also go to extra classes on the weekend, and make sure they acquire all the knowledge they need.

After a-half-day study, Miss Yang Jun taught students eyes exercise

Chinese style of class delivery has a huge difference with British style, and Chinese class has better discipline than British. Without discipline, students do not learn well. For instance, Chinese science classes do not use science equipment very often; Chinese teachers deliver most of the knowledge by writing it on the board. All the students would write down all the main points during the class without chatting or losing concentration. It’s all done in books and note taking. On the contrary, British students are trained to find the answers by themselves in a science laboratory because British teachers place more emphasis on self-discovery.

Chinese students also outrank British students. In China, students have a lot of exams. Teachers rank their grades for every test and show them in public. Because of it, Chinese students are much more care about their grades and want to keep on being the top. But British schools never do this.

Chinese classes are also a lot larger. They usually have 50 or more students, and so are much bigger than British classes. So Chinese students are all well-behaved, and they don’t do anything to disturb themselves or other classmates.

Furthermore, P.E. is a part of the national examination system in China. Chinese teachers do not want students to only focus on academic study, but also do well in physical exercise to keep healthy. They have morning exercise every weekday, and it not only for keeping healthy but also reminds them that they are members of a team. On the other hand, it means if Chinese students do not do well in P.E. they still cannot go to a better high school.

A Chinese style P.E. class

“Chinese education is not only delivery of the subject knowledge; Chinese education is cultivating a human being, too. We teach them how to be sensible, responsible citizens of the country, because we serve out country”, said Miss Li in the video.

Even though different education systems have different way of teaching, success all depend on if students want to learn or not. Students’ attitude towards school effects how well they study. For example, about math, Chinese students learn it as a skill, which might help their life in the future, so they are willing to learn it. But for British students, they prefer to learn how to pay their taxes, because they don’t think they would use math in their life.

British students learned Chinese traditional fan dance

Why are most Chinese students hard workers? In my opinion, basically, it’s because of the difference between the two countries. In China, students were educated that knowledge changes one’s destiny, and knowledge is the only ticket to have a better life, so students have a strong willingness to learn for their own future. As Miss Yang Jun said, Chinese students realized that they need knowledge, qualifications and the ability to survive in such a tough society. All the students use one syllabus, one standard, you survive or you die, it’s up to you. But in U.K, the situation absolutely different. British students are too comfortable, and they don’t feel any danger. They give up easily, because they still have a plan B. Even if they don’t work, they still can get money from the government, so they don’t have the absolute drive to succeed. But for Chinese people, because of the large population and high-pressure of competition, no job means no money.

Their education success is not about which education system is better, but about the students. Although, Chinese School won the exam, it still has its shortcomings. Miss Li said: “ Chinese education also have a week point. To some extent, Chinese education system kills the students’ imagination, freedom of thinking, critical thinking and creativity.” Overall, in my words, the thing we should focus on is letting students know that studying is not only right, but also a responsibility for their future.

[Topic 2. Education]

Chemical Explosion in Tianjin Tanggu, China

A chemical explosion rocked the residents of Tianjin Tanggu at 11:30pm, August 12. The dangerous, illegal chemicals caused an explosion that destroyed everything in about two miles radius and it was felt by people more than six miles away. There was a huge mushroom cloud appeared after the explosions. Two other provinces, which near Tianjin, felt the aftershocks of the explosion.

There is the video of a Tianjin citizen caught the explosion.

According to the government official data, there are 150 people died from the explosion until August 30. Among the dead, there were 92 firefighters, 10 policemen and 48 citizens. In addition, 23 people were out of touch with others, and 12 of them are firefighters. Also, there were 367 people who need hospitalization.

However, that is only the official story.

The company responsible for the explosion is Ruihai International Logistics. They were stored too many chemicals illegally without telling residents, who lived only 1,000 yards away. It seems they were only able to get away with this because the company belongs to the son of the leader of the Public Security Bureau. Civilians reported on social media sites saying that over 1,000 people have died. All the hospitals in Tianjin are completely full with injured people.

Now, the Chinese Government has taken these reports down, and claiming that the numbers are much lower than they actually are. But the area around the explosion is completely destroyed, which showed by the pictures (from http://www.news.cn).

A lot of firemen were sent in to help handle the explosion. However, they didn’t know about the conditions they were going into. They tried to put out the fires with water, which causing another explosion. The Chinese government told people there were only 10 firemen died at that time, but from social media, some citizens around there post that: “The government send more than 300 firemen in to the explosion area, but only few of them came out.” One of the firemen who survived told people that they didn’t know the fire was because of chemicals, they were told that it was a regular fire.

Tianjin is near Beijing, which is the capitol of China. The government sent a lot of new soldiers from Beijing to Tianjin to help firemen. Among the dead, the youngest one is only 18 years old; the oldest one is 26. The soldiers going in knew it was dangerous, but they had to go. There was even a screenshot from WeChat, which is an app similar to Messenger, by one soldier telling his friend that: ” if I dies, please take care of my father.”

The screenshot

Because of the fire and chemicals, the air quality in this residential province has drastically decreased. All the people, who pass by the brink of that area, can smell the chemicals. However, the government refuses to acknowledge this. They told people the air quality is fine. But a reporter tried to go there and report, but within four minutes of breathing the contaminated air, he felt he couldn’t breathe and sick.

Hundreds of tons of sodium cyanide were being stored in a warehouse very close to the residential area of Tianjin. When it exploded, it left a very toxic mess that destroyed everything. The worst part about all of this was that none of the residents of Tianjin were told or even knew anything about what was being shipped so close to their homes. Even the workers who shipped the dangerous chemicals didn’t know what cargo they were delivering. Moreover, the government keeps deleting posts about the death toll, how many have been injured, and the severity of the explosion.

While this is going on, the public has been trying to report the truth, but they are being censored. The government refuses to let any foreign reporters on the scene and have been heavily restricting the news that does come out. They even don’t allowed the reporter from CNN report it.

CNN crew harassed on live TV

The reported cause of this explosion has been ignored on the part of the workers, which is no doubt because of their lack of knowledge of what they were shipping.

This is dangerous time for everyone near Tianjin Tanggu. The government is refusing to let the full story be written. They lying to the public when they do release news, but people are dying and being injured or sick because of it. Those who are trying to tell the truth and show what happened are being silenced. Even American new stations can’t report much on it because they don’t have enough information about it. The only reason we have any video at all is because residents who were close enough from the explosion happened to be awake and decided to film it.

Unfortunately, this type of cover up is not uncommon in China. There have been huge riots and public upsets that have been quieted and brushed away. It took over fifteen days for this news to finally come out, and more keeps spilling over.

Dead, rotting fish have been turning up in the water sources nearby, but the government’s claims that the area is still safe. People have died, even more have been injured, residential areas are no longer safes and the government is still lying about it. They needs to be a change in the way things are done for the safety of the people.

People only want the truth.