Debate

I was hoping for more concepts within the foreign policy debate tonight with the presidential candidates. They did mention however, one of the biggest areas of concerns would be the whole idea of how to crack down on the outsourcing to China, as well as the copyright issues in China. While certainly the whole copyright and more fair trade arguments may be a difficult argument to press, mostly due to the idea the harder we press, the more likely they will then want us to pay back our epic bail out bill. I don't want to get too much into my own personal politics here, but I'd be interested in what people think are important factors in the foreign policy with China currently.

Plans for the Tiger Years blog

Now that I'm back in the states, and not going back to China within any near foreseeable future, many of you are probably wondering what I will do with the blog. There are still many things that I read while I was in China, about China, that I am going to at least formulate proper blog posts on, and there have been a lot of current events in China that are equally worthy of posts (hence the NY Times articles that I have been posting.) At the time being, I am currently looking into at least working for Chinese NGO's and China related businesses back in the states as well. So for the time being and the foreseeable future, I will continue the blog. If there is any discussion point that you would like to see addressed here, feel free to let me know either by commenting below, or by email, or sending me a facebook message.

Another one bites the dust...

So I've had a few inquisitive propositions from friends on why I haven't been posting, especially about recent events, and now that many of you readers if not all now know that I am back in the States. Some of you readers haven't seemed to happy or enthusiastic about resorting to using NY Times articles as a cop out. I had posted that I would continue and do a proper update once the dust settled. The dust while I was over there has settled. But it's not necessarily settled in a way that I want to post publicly over social media, whether it be on this blog or through facebook. That being said, it's not something that I am completely and utterly opposed to discussing, however, like I said, I don't feel that discussing this matter is something I wanted posted publicly for EVERYONE'S business, because, frankly, it's not everyone's business. Feel free to drop me an email, or call. I'd be happy to field questions. This also being said, it is in fact important for me to at least mention a disclaimer. While living abroad, there are always going to be frustrations. If I have expressed disdain or frustrations, whether it be to you or on this blog, it wasn't in any way directed to the last place I worked. I may have asked for suggestions on how to deal with certain situations, or people, but again, most of those are usually going to be based on one's own personal experience with a place, whether it be somewhere you work, go to school, or live, but I don't have any beef with the school I now no longer work for. The standards and expectations are high, and things are fairly approached and discussed and while the dust rose at a time when the country was at unrest over various issues, which made it more difficult to ultimately choose the outcome of how the situation was going to be resolved. The last few weeks of my time there, I had a lot to consider, and it's certainly never easy choosing or developing in areas that you don't have much of your own personal experience to help make sound or proper judgements. However, with the bumps in the road, overall things were done fairly and I've come to an understanding of my own. That's all I'm going to publicly say on the issue. Like I said, feel free to contact me personally if you so choose to get further details.

In China Protests, Japanese Car Sales suffer

So towards the end of my time in China this last go around, there was a pretty large dispute with Japan and China (there always is), and within a lot of the protests, the anniversary of Japan invading Manchuria came around, which largely affected the Japanese car industry. I've included a recent NY Times article that you can read below. And the picture, is yes, from Xi'an, right where I was living.

HONG KONG — Japanese automakers suffered plunging sales in China last month and have cut manufacturing by up to half in China this month after violent anti-Japanese protests against Japanese-brand cars and even their owners. Toyota announced on Tuesday that its sales to dealerships in China dropped 49 percent in September compared with those in the month a year earlier, while Honda said that its sales had fallen 40 percent and Nissan said that sales were down 35 percent. Mazda said last week that its sales fell 35 percent last month. Industrywide sales data is not yet available for September because not all automakers have reported sales yet. Automakers’ sales to dealerships rose 7 percent for the first eight months of this year compared with those in the period a year earlier. But dealerships have complained of rapidly rising inventories of unsold cars, making it likely that automakers may need to slow shipments to dealerships at some point unless the current economic slowdown in China is suddenly reversed. Japanese automakers have sharply cut production schedules through the end of October, a sign that they see little immediate improvement on the horizon, although they have followed corporate traditions so far of refraining from layoffs. Automakers release figures only for their sales to dealerships in China because the government has halted the release of retail sales figures by dealerships to consumers for the last year. When a 51-year-old man in Xi’an made the innocent mistake on Sept. 15 of driving with his family in a Toyota Corolla past an anti-Japanese demonstration, he was so severely beaten that he remains partially paralyzed from brain injuries, while the car was destroyed. The law enforcement authorities in another province detained last week the main suspect in the beating, a spokesman for the Xi’an police said by telephone on Tuesday. The attack on the man and his car was briefly the most searched topic on Sina Weibo, a Chinese microblogging site that resembles Twitter, as many suggested that the demonstrators had gone too far. In a separate video widely circulated on the Internet within China and shown on television overseas, a mob overturned a Honda CR-V police car in Shenzhen and took turns smashing it with clubs. Protesters took to the streets over a territorial dispute involving claims by China and Japan to sovereignty over a cluster of uninhabited islands northeast of Taiwan, known as the Diaoyu in China and as the Senkaku in Japan. Anti-Japanese protests subsided during the weeklong national holiday in China last week. But the issue continues to simmer, with the Chinese government announcing that it would continue to send surveillance vessels to waters around the island that have been patrolled for decades by Japan’s Coast Guard. Chinese fishing boats may also try to reach the islands after the holiday, as it has become politically more difficult for either the Chinese or Japanese governments to stop them. Japanese automakers were struggling in China even before this autumn, said Yale Zhang, the managing director of Automotive Foresight, a consulting firm in Shanghai. “Even without this political issue, the Japanese manufacturers made a lot of mistakes in areas like product-planning,” he said. With the exception of Nissan, Japanese automakers have been much slower to introduce new models than the three market leaders in China — General Motors, Volkswagen and Hyundai. From January through July of this year, before the anti-Japanese protests started, all of the best-selling 10 models in China were produced by those three companies, Mr. Zhang noted. He added it was the first time in many years just three companies had produced all 10 top sellers. The three leaders appear to have been gaining further market share at the expense of Japanese carmakers this autumn, with Hyundai’s sales rising 9.5 percent last month from a year earlier and General Motors’ sales up 1.7 percent. Volkswagen’s sales have also risen, but the company’s practice of releasing separate figures by brand and providing year-to-date figures instead of monthly figures makes it hard to say how much. The attack that partially paralyzed the man in Xi’an coincided with reports of damage to other Japanese-brand cars in that city, although no other comparable incidents of attacks on individuals were reported. Although better known outside China for its terra cotta warriors, Xi’an, in western China, is a hub of the country’s weapons manufacturing industry and a center of nationalistic sentiment. A bar on one of the city’s biggest avenues, several blocks from the city’s main crossroads, had a large, nationalistic sign on the front door a few years ago, when anti-Japanese sentiment was less prevalent elsewhere in China. The sign read “No Japanese allowed.” By contrast, Shenzhen is in Guangdong Province, in southeastern China. The province has been the biggest market and biggest manufacturing center for Japanese cars in China in recent years and has welcomed the factories of many Japanese companies, particularly in consumer goods industries like electronics. Some political commentators have suggested that the protests in Shenzhen also reflected dissatisfaction with the Chinese government, which has allowed anti-Japanese demonstrations even while continuing to ban protests against its own policies. Toyota and Nissan each had 5 percent of the Chinese market for the first eight months of this year, while Honda had 3 percent, according to LMC Automotive, a global consulting firm. Volkswagen and General Motors each had nearly 15 percent, while Hyundai and its Kia affiliate had a little more than 9 percent.

In Organic-Hungry Hong Kong, Corn as High as an Elevator’s Climb Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse Plots like the rooftop City Farm are sprouting across Hong Kong amid fears of tainted imports. By MARY HUI Published: October 3, 2012 HONG KONG — Kimbo Chan knows all about the food scandals in China: the formaldehyde that is sometimes sprayed on Chinese cabbages, the melamine in the milk and the imitation soy sauce made from hair clippings. That is why he is growing vegetables on a rooftop high above the crowded streets of Hong Kong. “Some mainland Chinese farms even buy industrial chemicals to use on their crops,” Mr. Chan said. “Chemicals not meant for agricultural uses at all.” As millions of Hong Kong consumers grow increasingly worried about the purity and safety of the fruits, vegetables, meats and processed foods coming in from mainland China, more of them are striking out on their own by tending tiny plots on rooftops, on balconies and in far-flung, untouched corners of highly urbanized Hong Kong. “Consumers are asking, will the food poison them?” said Jonathan Wong, a professor of biology and the director of the Hong Kong Organic Resource Center. “They worry about the quality of the food. There is a lack of confidence in the food supply in China.” Organic food stores are opening across the city, and there is growing demand in the markets for organic produce despite its higher prices. There are about 100 certified organic farms in Hong Kong. Seven years ago, there were none. There is no official count of rooftop farms in Hong Kong, but they are clearly part of an international trend. New York has many commercialized rooftop farms established by companies like Gotham Greens, Bright Farms and Brooklyn Grange. In Berlin, an industrial-size rooftop vegetable and fish farm is in the pipeline. In Tokyo, a farm called Pasona O2 takes urban farming a step further: Vegetables are grown not only on roofs, but also in what was an underground bank vault. With 7.1 million people in one of the most densely populated cities on earth, Hong Kong has little farmland and almost no agricultural sector. The territory imports more than 90 percent of its food. Hong Kong is hooked on vegetables, and 92 percent of its supply comes from mainland China. On a recent morning at one of Hong Kong’s bustling and chaotic fresh produce markets, known here as “wet markets,” a woman bought three Chinese squashes for a good price. “Vegetables are expensive nowadays,” she said wearily. “Even if I cared enough about organic food and worried about chemicals, there’s nothing I can really do about it.” Land is one of Hong Kong’s problems, of course. There is not very much of it, and only 1.6 percent is farmed, most of it in the New Territories, on the city’s far northern rim. And even that acreage is under threat from developers. A government proposal to develop the New Territories threatens to remove about 242 acres of farmland, according to a joint statement issued by green groups. This accounts for about 13 percent of Hong Kong’s active farmland, they said. People trying to start small organic farms in the New Territories have been deterred by the lack of a clear agricultural policy there. Large vacant tracts held by developers can be rezoned for development almost at will, creating an uncertainty that has scared off a number of potential farmers. Then there are the typhoons, the oppressive humidity, the boiling summers. Soil is another problem. “Imported organic soil isn’t suitable for Hong Kong’s hot and humid climate, and so we had to adjust the soil,” said Osbert Lam, a commercial video director and the owner of a rooftop operation called City Farm. With a graying ponytail, Mr. Lam does not look like a typical farmer, but he is intensely dedicated to his farm. He imported soil from Denmark and Germany, but for a year he had to tinker, sift, mix and adjust before arriving at a suitable recipe. Even so, he said, the formula is tweaked for different crops: “You need to add more sand to grow potatoes, and more peat moss for strawberries. Each crop needs their own luxury home!” Another issue for rooftop gardeners is Hong Kong’s notorious bureaucracy, and many of the city’s green thumbs are turned back by red tape. “There is too much work in dealing with the government and the Housing Authority,” said Mr. Wong, the organic-food expert. Still, some urban farmers find the effort worth it. It cost Mr. Lam about 500,000 Hong Kong dollars, or roughly $65,000, to set up City Farm, including all farming materials, an office, piping and wiring. And the whole operation can be easily moved. “It’s a mobile farm,” he said. “I can have the farm here today, and move it elsewhere tomorrow.” Fourteen stories above the city’s urban din, on a rooftop the size of a couple of basketball courts, City Farm flourishes with an impressive array of organic vegetables. Black plastic planter boxes adorn the rooftop farm. Some are topped by large bamboo frames holding bitter gourds and pumpkins, while others have little signs stuck into the soil, handwritten with the names of herbs and their planting dates. Made in Taiwan and looking roughly like milk crates, the planters come in three varieties: shallow boxes for growing leafy greens and herbs; a deeper version for turnips, carrots and potatoes; and raised planters that are easier on the farmers’ backs as they tend to their plants. On a recent walk through the beds at City Farm, Mr. Chan, who works there with Mr. Lam, stopped at various plants, talking about them with the tenderness of a parent. He pointed to some Okinawa spinach that he eats raw to reduce his blood pressure. Not far away was a mini-watermelon plant, its fruit the size of Ping-Pong balls and hanging delicately from a bamboo frame, protected from insects by finely woven netting. From a bamboo frame, Mr. Chan picked off a small Spanish chili pepper. After a quick rinse under the garden hose, he eagerly offered it to a visitor. “You develop a different attitude,” he said of cultivating his garden, “and it changes your lifestyle.”

The Haps as of Late

So it's been nearly two months since I've posted anything, but now since I know people from work read this, the things that have gone down in the last two months weren't really things I wanted to post publicly. That's not to say that I haven't had my ups in addition to the many downs of the last two months, I just don't really want to advertise to everyone why I've been such a miser in my feelings and sentiments. I've discussed it at length with people I'm on good terms with (mostly not associated with the school I work for, for my own sake and sanity.) At the same time, there have been many people that I've blown off, mostly because I don't feel it's their business. And since a lot of it, I'm still in the midst of sorting out, which I want to do on my own terms, I'm at least going to hold off on the posts for possibly a bit more, until at least some of this dust settles.

Birthdays in China

I've never been in much luck for birthdays in China. Certainly having a birthday during peak season at a language school pretty much is a hit or miss that you'll have it off. If it's a weekend, the chances are a definite no. Depending on your school, if you get two days off sporadically, there's a chance. The first birthday I had in China, was July 2010. I had my birthday off. I had originally made plans, but every time I had tried to do something, things canceled. In the mean time, I probably would have been better off if I had just gone along with my original plan, and done it by myself. I had originally wanted to go to the water caves, in Benxi, a town about an hour by train from where I was living, but with only one day off a week, it was a little harder to pull off, as after 6 days of work, it's hard to squeeze in all your errands, sleep, planning, and general life. It's certainly more enjoyable if you have that short span off to do it with a friend. No one seemed to feign interest. So I thought, hmm, sleep, go to my favorite markets, a temple, a football game, and a dinner with some friends after. My roommate, who at the time, was my best friend, said she'd participate, up to the football game, and possibly join for dessert of the dinner, as she had an interview. She ended up sleeping in really late so I went ahead with my plans, however, only got to the market and went to get some cake before I went to the temple and then the football game only to realize that my wallet had been stolen. This normally wouldn't have been an overly bad thing, but it had some important cards in it, that then had to be canceled, and a police report had to be filed, in case any charges had been incurred on my cards. This took most of the afternoon, which meant I had missed the temple and the football game. As I was sitting in the police station, everyone who was supposed to go to the dinner, canceled which left me alone after a horrid afternoon. The next year, 2011, I also had the day off, and chose to plan it and just have my own day where I did whatever I wanted. However, I got really sick and was throwing up blood, and stayed in the hospital for a few days, crappy birthday #2. This year, also managed to live up to the hype, because I had managed to be released from the hospital a week before my birthday, with a system that still wasn't up to par, and classes on my birthday, as well, as a stressful weekend of multiple parent presentations, and my boss watching other classes. I had the day off before, my birthday, and tried to do a normal Chinese birthday. I was still on the sick side, so I had planned for a low energy day, especially since I had an important weekend approaching. I had gone to a painting class, which I enjoyed, and the teacher, as well as a few people that were in the area, made me some special paintings, which I'll include in pictures at the bottom. Sounds all grand and everything, and I had a false illusion that I was actually going to have a normal day before my birthday. However, as I was walking through the park near my apartment, I slipped on a wet rock, and fell into a lake, only to destroy the calligraphy scroll my teacher had given to me for my birthday, and also wrecked my ipod and phone. I ended up lacerating my leg bad enough, that I had to go back to the hospital and get 10 stitches in my leg, because I hit the underwater filtration system on the way down. Gross. So much for a simple day. To top it off the next day, I worked from 10 until 9 the next night, and I was supposed to meet a friend, only to never actually get there at a decent hour to actually manage it. All and all another frustrating round of a birthday. All I had wanted was something simple and I couldn't even get that. In the meantime, here are the photos of the scroll that no longer exists.

I'll post some other more happy and thought provoking posts later this week, hopefully.