Migrant Workers | Wandering China

June 10, 2013 • 7:32 am 0

This is Shanghai [Rob Whitworth/Vimeo] #RisingChina #Timelapse

0-4000 skyscrapers in three decades: no mean feat.

Timelapse of Shanghai’s skyscrapers from that many angles and vantage points – no mean feat either.

That this was accomplished with local Shanghainese synergy – bonus feat!

A wonderful example of cross-pollination significant in painting the narrative that it’s not all just us and them.

To understand the city, the team carried out rigorous urban exploration. In the words of JT “we walked, walked and walked, the Jane Jacobs way”. Weibo, China’s main social media platform was used to ask local Shanghainese people to share ideas of different vantage points and what they thought were the over-riding characteristics of the city. Stealth and curiosity were required to find and gain access to rooftops and locations. It became addictive for the team discovering breath-taking vantage points of the city. There was always an adrenaline rush upon reaching the top of a different building to see the vast urban jungle of Shanghai….

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This is Shanghai
by Rob Whitworth
Source - Vimeo, published April 2013

In 1980 Shanghai had no skyscrapers. It now has at least 4,000 — more than twice as many as New York. ‘This is Shanghai’ explores the diversities and eccentricities of the metropolis that is Shanghai going beyond the famous skyline.

Photographer Rob Whitworth and urban identity expert JT Singh joined forces combining deep city exploration and pioneering filmmaking. ‘This is Shanghai’ is a roller coaster ride seamlessly weaving between the iconic, sparkling and mismatched buildings of the financial district travelling by boat and taxi touring Shanghai’s impressive infrastructure whilst glimpsing some of the lesser-known aspects of Shanghai life such as the lower stratum areas or the stunning graffiti of Moganshan road. And of course there is the opportunity to try some of the vast variety of street food and Shanghai’s most popular homegrown delicacy, the pan-fried pork dumplings, the shengjian bao. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Culture, Migrant Workers, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Mapping Feelings, Economics, Video, Finance, Communications, Charm Offensive, Domestic Growth, Climate Change, Nationalism, Soft Power, Population, Chinese Model, Beijing Consensus, People, Civil Engineering, Infrastructure

May 21, 2013 • 11:40 am 0

China’s 20 year plan to pay 8 trillion to urbanize 500 million people by 2034 [Next Big Future] #RisingChina #Urbanisation

For more on the macroeconomics agency of the Chinese State Council, go to the National Development and Reform Commission of the People’s Republic of China’s (中华人民共和国国家发展和改革委员会) English online presence.

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China’s 20 year plan to urbanize 500 million people by 2034
Posted by Brian Wang
Source – Big Next Future, published May 19, 2013

After extensive consultation, co-ordinated by the National Development and Reform Commission, the long-term plan for China’s urbanisation is being finalised. Behind all the complex issues is one fundamental question: how will it be paid for?

Here the ballpark costs of $400 billion per year are suggested to use increased taxes and temporarily increasing the budget deficit from 2% of GDP to 5% and redirecting funds from rural land acquisition.

The costs of urbanization could be reduced by leveraging the factory mass produced skyscraper technology of Broad Group. China’s Broad Group is building the Sky City One using factory mass production. It is to likely completed after 90 days of assembly late in 2013 and the projected cost for the building is RMB 4 billion (US$628 million). Sky City will boast 220 floors, 1 million square meters (11 million square feet) of floor space and 104 elevators, according to the preliminary plans. It will cost $63 per square foot and house 30000 people in 4500 apartments. Five hundred Skycities would cost $314 billion (and costs could go down by having the follow on buildings being learned to be built for less). They would house the 15 million people each year that are urbanized. They would also have all of the schools, offices, hospitals and other facilities that were needed.

Please click here to read the full article at Next Big Future

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Uncategorized, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Culture, Politics, Migrant Workers, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Mapping Feelings, Strategy, Economics, Social, Finance, Charm Offensive, Domestic Growth, Soft Power, Influence, Population, Chinese Model, Public Diplomacy, Beijing Consensus, Migration (Internal), Government & Policy, Reform, New Leadership, Infrastructure, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Ideology

March 2, 2013 • 10:11 pm 0

Chinese bus drivers sentenced after going on strike in Singapore [Channel News Asia] #Simgapore #China

It is the first strike in living memory for many Gen X and after Singaporeans… the first in close to three decades. The full force of law was really only going to be the one outcome, whether this was a strike by migrant workers, or by locals despite its long running history as Chinese-majority satellite for cross-pollination. Objectively, industrial action is virtually unheard of in the island state, and it was really until I lived overseas in recent years that i understood and experienced what it meant.

Nevertheless, this evokes questions on the narrative of a cohesive Greater China.

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Chinese bus drivers sentenced after going on strike in Singapore
By Liz Neisloss, CNN
Source – CNN, published February 26, 2013

Activists demonstrate against the bid to punish striking drivers at the Singaporean consulate in Hong Kong on December 5, 2012.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Four Chinese nationals are sentenced in Singapore to several weeks in prison
They were protesting low wages and poor living conditions
They did not follow Singapore’s law requiring a 14-day notice before a strike

Singapore (CNN) — In a case that brought to light issues of unfair pay and poor living conditions among foreign workers in Singapore, a court sentenced four Chinese nationals to several weeks in prison for instigating an “illegal” strike in late November.

The four, who had pleaded guilty, were led from court in handcuffs to begin their terms in Changi prison immediately.

In announcing their sentence, Judge See Kee Oon said it was necessary so as “not to embolden others.”

Please click here to read the rest of the article at its source.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Channel News Asia, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Chinese overseas, Collectivism, Communications, Culture, Economics, Government & Policy, Greater China, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Migrant Workers, Overseas Chinese, Peaceful Development, Public Diplomacy, Singapore, Social, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

February 26, 2013 • 12:00 am 0

Int’l shortage sees Chinese nurses in high demand [Global Times] #China #Health #CharmOffensive

Chinese nurses as a next phase in the Chinese public diplomacy toolbox as global interdependence increases.

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Int’l shortage sees Chinese nurses in high demand
By Lin Meilian
Source – Global Times, published February 25, 2012

Source – Global Times An instructor inspects nurses’ outfits during a training session at a training base of the PLA General Hospital in Beijing. Photo: CFP

In the near future, maybe as soon as September, elderly people in Germany will be treated by the first batch of foreign nurses sent from China, greeting them in German with a Chinese accent.

German labor authorities and the Chinese Ministry of Commerce signed an agreement at the end of last year to send about 150 Chinese nurses to work in German care homes, aiming to help plug a shortfall of medical personnel in the country.

“It is an exception to our usual recruitment as our partner in such a specific field this time, China, is not a European country,” said Beate Raabe, press officer of the Federal Employment Agency, the largest service provider in the German labor market.

Please click here to read the rest of the article at its source.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Chinese overseas, Economics, Education, Germany, Health, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Migrant Workers, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

January 26, 2013 • 10:50 pm 0

Throwing open the doors #GlobalTimes #China #MigrantWorkers #Hukou

In some ways, this is an example of China feeling for the stones to cross the river. The elite are aware it needed to improve its compact with the bedrock of the Chinese revolution, its resilient and often vocal rural peasants. They are after all, a massive part of China’s 180,000 or so mass incidents.

That they are given a direct and growing semblance of contribution toward policy making, is a step forward. How this is enhanced by the new leadership remains to be seen.

Hukou restrictions have become less of a barrier when moving around China for work. Its impact on the wider socio-economic net at popular host cities is also significant though. Access to quality healthcare, welfare is a matter of application; given limited trained human resources, not infrastructure nor intention. I learnt this from a well travelled migrant worker from Yunnan.

Together rapidly growing cities have the propensity to grow out of hand as I saw on my visits. The pollution generated by the sum total of all that growth, has generally not been well managed. Clean water is increasingly hard to find. To compound that, China’s empty forts of ghost cities will be filled soon enough. after all it only just passed the mark of 50% urbanisation. A positive however, is its pervasive use of solar power all around.

The rise of public opinion as agent for change cannot be understated. The alternative voice online is now a rather powerful force. The government is learning to respond. As its consciousness as the fourth estate takes hold, its increasingly self reflexive and critical domestic media, should not be overlooked either.

As China rises it may be rather important to keep an eye on how it rejuvenates itself internally. Standing up rather quickly from a long slumber, what it does to keep its internal qi healthily flowing will make all the difference in its ability to pull off the China Dream.

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Throwing open the doors
By Liu Linlin
Source – Global Times, published January 25, 2013

Source – Global Times: Deputies to the Xi’an People’s Congress, Shaanxi Province, raise their hands Wednesday to approve the reports including the work report presented by the city government. Photo: CFP

Cheng Junrong has come a long way since his peers, mostly migrant workers, voted for him into the National People’s Congress (NPC) as a deputy five years ago. Over the last five years he has analyzed amendments to laws and proposals to various government agencies, but at the end of last year he retired, having reached the mandatory five-year limit.As a migrant worker, he has lived through the difficulties imposed by the household registration, or hukou system, and he’s witnessed what it’s like to receive unfair payments caused by problems with labor laws.

When he saw his suggestions included as amendments to the Labor Law, he was encouraged and handed over more proposals to improve the working conditions of migrant workers, one of the most disadvantaged groups in the country.

“The construction of modern society needs a huge amount of migrant labor. But if their welfare or payments can’t be settled, there will be huge crisis in the future,” Cheng said.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Collectivism, Communications, Culture, Domestic Growth, Environment, Government & Policy, Green China, Human Rights, Influence, Infrastructure, Internet, Mapping Feelings, Migrant Workers, Migration (Internal), Modernisation, Nationalism, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, People, Politics, Population, Public Diplomacy, Social, Strategy, The Chinese Identity

December 12, 2012 • 10:27 am 2

George Yeo: #Singapore is ‘only one bonsai that #China looks at’ [Straits Times]

Singapore’s former foreign minister George Yeo puts it best – Bonsai is the word.

On why Singapore, a young nation of just over five million people, is of interest to China, an ancient civilisation with 1.3billion people, he says: “For China, Singapore is sometimes seen as a bonsai, but one with genetic similarities… We must not have too fanciful a notion of ourselves, that we can teach China… They don’t study just Singapore. They study many other countries as well. Singapore is only one bonsai they look at; they study a whole nursery!”

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S’pore is ‘only one bonsai that China looks at’
by Li Xueying
Source – Straits Times, published November 1, 2012

HONG KONG – Singapore, so long as it stays “creative”, will continue to hold both positive and negative lessons for China.

Beijing is studying the island-nation’s political system, the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP), and how it is responding to the general election in May last year, says Mr George Yeo.

Meanwhile, there is also scope for the PAP to look to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for lessons, such as how the latter prepares promising leaders to take on more responsibilities, he adds.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Chinese overseas, Communications, Culture, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Ethnicity, Government & Policy, Greater China, History, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Migrant Workers, Nationalism, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Singapore, Social, Straits Times, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, Uncategorized, China's Rise

November 24, 2012 • 1:58 pm 0

#China Bashing Bears Fruit: Apple Moves Bring Manufacturing Home [Huffington Post]

Navarro and Autry: ‘You just can’t stay in a deal where only one side is required to follow rules or behave in a civilized manner. It is time for Washington to take off the gloves and fight for American jobs like the 700,000 other ones Apple has left in China.’

In open support of the encirclement and containment of China, alluded when Syria, Iran, and North Korea are propped up in the conversation. This to me, interestingly suggests that the logic of domestic protectionism over global production networks is good business for a global marketplace of cyclical consumption and planned obsolescence.

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China Bashing Bears Fruit: Apple Moves Bring Manufacturing Home
by Greg Autry
Source – Huffington Post, published July 7, 2012

Navarro and Autry in a global call to action against China: looking back when Apple was made in the US.

I’m going to take a little (very little) victory lap here. Several times in this space, I’ve suggested that Apple needs to move manufacturing back home. Each time I’ve gotten comments like “that’s not going to happen” or “they will just move to Vietnam or the next cheapest labor market.” However, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced on Thursday that he is going to manufacture a line of Macintosh computers in the U.S. Firstly, good work Tim, and thanks for finally listening to the vocal minority of us who have been complaining about this situation for years.

I still have my first Macintosh, with its anemic 128k of RAM. When that plucky little beige beastie greeted the public it was assembled at a state-of-the-art plant in Fremont, Calif. Yes, that California, the one with the high taxes, tough labor laws and the environmental crazies. To be fair, Apple moved Mac production out of the state within a couple of years and out of the country not long after. Apple production was done in various places including Cork, Ireland, before finally settling in China about a decade ago.

Now, the specifics of the Apple plan were light and the statement that the capital investment will be a mere $100 million suggests this first foray back into American manufacturing won’t be a big deal for a firm that keeps about 1,000 times that in the bank. However, that is a fine start. Frankly, re-shoring can’t happen over night, because America’s manufacturing infrastructure and workforce will need years to recover. When I interviewed executives at Foxconn City a couple years ago, they told me they didn’t think most of what they built in Shenzhen could be built in the U.S. at all. The fact is, that many segments of the electronic product assembly supply chain and production engineers experienced with the latest hardware are hard to find in the U.S. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Finance, Foxconn Suicides 2010, Government & Policy, Human Rights, Influence, Intellectual Property, International Relations, Media, Migrant Workers, Politics, Population, Soft Power, Strategy, Technology, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S., China's Rise, culture, Human rights, International Relations, Politics, Propaganda, Public Diplomacy, Strategy, Trade, Transportation, U.S.

October 18, 2012 • 11:10 pm 0

Viewpoint: Fear and loneliness in China [BBC]

From 26% in 1990 to 51.3% urbanised by end 2011, but at what cost? A British sociologist known for researching the urban and housing policy sums up his field work on the fragmentation of collective community in China.

..[t]his way of life is disappearing, in the cities and in the countryside. For many in China isolation is a new experience brought on by economic transformation. In the neighbourhoods where I worked in Chongqing and Beijing, loneliness was spreading like pollution.

Gerard Lemos was a visiting professor at Chongqing Technology and Business University from 2006 to 2010 and author of The End of the Chinese Dream: Why Chinese People fear the Future. Whilst he makes many pertinent observations, his book has a rather polarizing title I must say. It is not in the method of academic inquiry to apply one’s results as self-assertive blanket, in this case, over the entire Chinese spectrum.

Perhaps this study also completely discounts the transition where community, like in many places in developing Asia, is shifting quickly, in other cases, augmented from public to virtual space. In a way, it really is a decade in, figuring out how to balance the two, in the midst of the reality of intense domestic and foreign competition.

An Op-Ed titled What Keeps the Chinese up at Night for the New York Times on his book can be found here.

Here’s a WSJ review of his book with a further interview here. Further check out reviews from America: The National Catholic Weekly or the Financial Times here.

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Viewpoint: Fear and loneliness in China
by Gerard Lemos
Source – BBC, published October 16, 2012

Source – Getty Images

What kind of society will China’s new leaders inherit? China has developed at unimaginable pace, lifting millions out of poverty. But as part of a series of viewpoints on challenges for China’s new leadership, Gerard Lemos, who conducted research in the mega-city of Chongqing, says it is easy to overlook its lonely underbelly.

An old man was hanging upside down in the public square. His feet in traditional cloth shoes were over the parallel bars from which he had suspended himself, for what were presumably his morning exercises. He was fully clothed and in a padded overcoat to combat the spring chill.

I saw this when visiting a factory community in Beijing in 2008. On the face of it, this was a peculiar act to perform in a public space, but people walked past taking no notice. In such traditional Chinese communities, this public square served as a communal living room; most of the people around are friends and neighbours. Not being surprised by the unusual behaviour of your neighbours is an aspect of intimate community life. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: BBC, Beijing Consensus, Chinese Model, Collectivism, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Environment, Government & Policy, Human Rights, Infrastructure, Mapping Feelings, Migrant Workers, Migration (Internal), New Leadership, Peaceful Development, People, Politics, Pollution, Population, Poverty, Reform, Social, The Chinese Identity, China's Rise, Corruption, culture, Economics, Education, Environment, Human rights, Identity, Politics, Social

October 17, 2012 • 12:01 am 1

101 East – China: Broken Dreams [Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera ponders the problem of Chinese social equality in its rising ant tribe class. Running time: 24minutes.

Uniquely Chinese problem or problem with paradigms meeting? Just one generation of growing pains into this new paradigm shift from absolute monolithic collectivism to deliberative authoritarian capitalism, the cross-pollination is far from complete.

Especially so perhaps, when it has to mesh with embedded familial values and long-running notions of state in a hyper compressed time/space of just 30 years of modernisation, reform and breaking out of its Great Wall mentality. Only one generation into this new paradigm shift, China has accelerated into an immensely competitive environment domestically. Paying fees to attend job fairs, and competing with over 9 to 10 million peers for the college examinations yearly. There are explicit teething problems such as the antiquated Hukou (reform under way), but therein perhaps – lies implicit opportunity for a grand redesign.

Perhaps a more useful takeaway is – what will the rise of this ant tribe 蚁族 (click for New York Times report) amount to?

How will they evolve into a new muscle in China’s consciousness? Ant tribes could very well be the foundation for the nucleus of the future Chinese work force.

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101 East – China: Broken Dreams
by Fauziah Ibrahim
Source – Al Jazeera, published August 24, 2012

Many young Chinese are losing faith in China’s economic miracle. Even though the country is poised to overtake the US in the next decade as the world’s largest, fewer Chinese feel they share the prosperity. 101 East explores the disillusionment. Al Jazeera, August 24, 2012

Filed under: Al Jazeera, Ant Tribe, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Collectivism, Confucius, Culture, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Economics, Education, Government & Policy, Human Rights, Influence, Infrastructure, Lifestyle, Mapping Feelings, Migrant Workers, Migration (Internal), New Leadership, Peaceful Development, People, Politics, Population, Reform, Resources, Social, The Chinese Identity, Trade, China's Rise, Democracy, Economics, Education, Human rights, Identity, Politics, Social

October 7, 2012 • 7:30 am 0

China’s tourism industry reaps golden harvest [Xinhua]

Xinhua: A peek into China’s domestic well-being.

Its Golden Week (黄金周) is a semi-annual 7-day national holiday, implemented in 2000. Designed so that three days of paid holidays are wrapped around surrounding weekends to boost its domestic tourism market and improve standard of living across the board, this measure underlies the importance the Chinese attribute to allowing people to make long-distance family visits.

That said however, China still boasts one of the lowest statutory minimum employment leave allowances in the world pegged to work experience- 5 working days (from 1 to 9 years seniority), 10 working days (from 10 to 19 years), 15 working days (from 20 years and beyond).

Australia where I am is generous in comparison with 4 weeks standard, plus 10 public holidays, and 5 weeks for shift-workers. Singapore where I was born saw 14 as a standard.

Underscoring this of outward symphony of movement of course, is its extensive and still-expanding affordable transport network boosting its arterial push outwards from the East coast. It’s not quite there yet (see China Golden Week Chaos on Global Voices), as the Chinese flock en-masse to favoured spots coveted in collective cultural memory – but at least this is an inside look at what China is doing, with a look at efficacy, in its desire for equitable wealth for this five-year plan.

Back in 1999 when it was first mooted, an estimated 28 million Chinese travelled. Eight years later in 2007, the number jumped five-fold to about 120 million. This year, thanks to the longest ever Golden Week due to the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday, the numbers are booming in this second half a semi-annual covenant between the central government and its populace. Interesting food for thought on what is largely perceived as an authoritarian top-down structure – allowing its 1.3 billion citizens to take two blocks of 7 days of continuous leave annually.

For a self-reflexive piece on the woes caused by such a huge volume of movement and in particular that long-lasting economic incentives remain absent to sustain the world’s second biggest economy, check out Holiday travel reveals weal and woe in China’s consumption(Xinhua, October 7, 2012).

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China’s tourism industry reaps golden harvest
No author indicated
Source – Xinhua, published October 7, 2012

Tourists visit the Confucius Temple in Nanjing, capital of east China’s Jiangsu Province, Oct. 1, 2012. China’s “Golden Week” holiday justified its title with a rise in tourism revenue, National Tourism Administration (NTA) statistics showed Sunday. The country’s 119 major scenic spots received a total of 34.25 million visitors during the eight-day holiday, up 20.96 percent from the corresponding period last year. Tourism income surged by nearly a quarter from 2011 to 1.77 billion yuan (278.39 million U.S. dollars), the NTA said. Photo – Xinhua, Wang Xin

Story Highlights -
• China’s 119 major scenic spots received a total of 34.25 million visitors during the eight-day holiday.
• Tourism income surged by nearly a quarter from 2011 to 1.77 billion yuan.
• Many scenic spots, including the Forbidden City, attracted record volumes of visitors.

BEIJING, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) — China’s “Golden Week” holiday justified its title with a rise in tourism revenue, National Tourism Administration (NTA) statistics showed Sunday.

The country’s 119 major scenic spots received a total of 34.25 million visitors during the eight-day holiday, up 20.96 percent from the corresponding period last year. Tourism income surged by nearly a quarter from 2011 to 1.77 billion yuan (278.39 million U.S. dollars), the NTA said.

The administration said many scenic spots, including the Forbidden City, attracted record volumes of visitors during the longest-ever “Golden Week” bridging the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Environment, Government & Policy, Human Rights, Influence, Infrastructure, Mapping Feelings, Migrant Workers, Migration (Internal), Peaceful Development, People, Politics, Population, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Social, Soft Power, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, China's Rise, culture, Democracy, Economics, Environment, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Social

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This is Shanghai [Rob Whitworth/Vimeo] #RisingChina #Timelapse

#China Bashing Bears Fruit: Apple Moves Bring Manufacturing Home [Huffington Post]

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