In Chinese, to be patriotic is to ai guo, literally “to love [one’s] country.” But what does it really mean to love your country? Does it mean unconditional support for your country’s government, warts and all? Or is there more room for nuance—can you disagree with the government's policies, but still be a patriot?
It’s a Sunday afternoon and Beijing’s biggest bookstore is preparing for a major event: the launch of a new book by a bestselling American author, who will be on hand for the occasion. Six-foot banners on the sidewalk out front announce the talk, along with posters in the windows and a big display of books in the foyer of the 170,000-square-foot store. Up on the sixth floor, a conference room filled with sixty people quietly awaits … Bill Porter.
Every workday at 7:20 a.m., colleagues pick up Yao Lifa from his second-floor apartment and drive him to the elementary school where he taught for years. This is no car pool. Yao is a prisoner, part of a China boom in outsourced police control. By day, Yao is kept in a room, not allowed to work and watched by fit, young gym teachers and other school staff. At dinner time or later, he is sent back to the apartment that he shares with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. A surveillance camera monitors the building entrance, while police sit in a hut outside.
The news out of China this year has been relentlessly bad. The political system was embarrassed in front of its own people by the Bo Xilai scandal and in front of the world by the Chen Guangcheng incident. The Chinese economy has slowed and its stock indexes have been rocked, while its neighbors have been strengthening their ties with the United States.
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After a three-year wait, China Railway Construction Corp. Ltd. (CRCC) recently won permission to launch a major copper mining project in Ecuador.
The production agreement signed April 25 by Ecuador’s government and Corriente Resources, a Canadian company jointly controlled by state-owned CRCC and the Chinese state mining giant Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. Ltd., clears the way for digging to begin at the Mirador pit.
Having just come back from a few invigorating, even exhilarating days of discussion and moviegoing at the Maryland Film Festival—which is one of the country’s leading showcases for the work of American independents—I’ve got independent filmmaking on my mind. I’ve always felt that independence is mainly a state of mind—that there’s no difference in kind between a major studio project and a movie made on video for virtually nothing. Both depend on invention and imagination; just as the studio director doesn’t deserve extra credit for the vast toolbox employed, the independent director doesn’t deserve it for the obstacles overcome in making the film. The platforms of release may be different and the bray of promotion may be vastly unequal, but no amount of money can buy good images and no admirable account of perseverance can overcome the lack of them.
The Chinese winner of architecture’s most prestigious award has criticised the wanton demolition that has left many of the nation’s cities fragmented and almost unrecognisable to their citizens. The comments from Wang Shu, who will on Friday receive the 2012 Pritzker prize in a ceremony in Beijing, highlight widespread complaints in China about urban planning amid a process of urbanisation that saw more than 20m rural dwellers move to cities last year alone.
Apple has taken China by storm. A Starbucks can be found on practically every major street corner in coastal cities and beyond. From Nike to Buick to Siemens, Chinese consumers actively prefer Western brands over their domestic competitors. The rise of microbloggers, the popularity of rock bands with names like Hutong Fist and Catcher in the Rye, and even the newfound popularity of Christmas all seem to point toward a growing Westernization.
Eleven-year-old Wang Han lives in a small factory township hidden in the mountains of Guizhou province, southern China. The year is 1975 but he is unaware of the Cultural Revolution. He only sees some of the more distant ramifications of Mao's merciless crusade when they affect his own small world. He unquestioningly accepts the harshness of his existence, for he has never known anything else.
