America Electrified — China’s Road Map (Part 2 of 2)

May 9, 2010

In 1935, FDR issued an executive order to create the Rural Electrification Administration to bring electricity to millions of rural Americans.

The sad fact is that if President Obama were to propose doing something similar today, the issue would become devisive.  Politics might stop the process. The Tea Bag people would scream socialism, big government. They would march in the streets calling it “Obamapower” instead of the REA.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - 32 President of the United States

It took six years after the REA was launched in 1941 to help 800 rural electric cooperatives to string 350,000 miles of power lines.

Click on the America’s electrical grid and learn more about what it took to build the most extensive electric transmission system in the world.  The electrification of America took more than half a century and is still evolving.

The biggest difference between China today and America in the 1950s is the population.  America electrified a nation with a population of about 160 million people.  China has 1.3 billion—a daunting task. Since China has connected about five hundred million in less time than it took the United States to connect far less, if anyone can do it, the Chinese can.

Discover China Going Green or return to Part 1 of America Electrified

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

1 Comment | America, business, China, Chinese history | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

America Electrified — China’s Road Map (Part 1 of 2)

May 9, 2010

In 1952, China was producing 0.005 kilowatts of electricity. Now they need trillions of kilowatts. After Mao’s death and Deng Xiaoping opened China to the world, China seriously started building electrical power plants.

If you study the timeline for the growth of America’s electrical grid, you will discover that Thomas Edison designed and built the first direct current (DC) power plant in 1882. Then the first alternating current (AC) power plant opened in 1885 and transmitted power 200 miles from the plant.

By 1927, forty-five years later, the first power grid was established in Pennsylvania.  It wasn’t until 1933 that Congress passed legislation establishing the Tennessee Valley Authority, which now produces 125 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year.

Similar to China today, in the 1930s there was a huge gap between people in America’s towns and people on farms. About 10 percent of U.S. farm families had central station electricity in the mid-30s. Like China, almost all urban people had power. Source: Living History Farm

Go to Part 2 of America Electrified or discover Deng Xiaoping’s 20/20 Vision

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

Leave a Comment » | America, business, China, Chinese history, government | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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VOLTING all of China into the 21st Century

May 9, 2010

For China to match the United States, a dependable supply of electricity is needed. Besides more power plants and running more lines to carry that electricity, it also means replacing the ancient villages from feudal times with homes built to modern standards.

China at night

Then rural China would have the same opportunities to live like the spreading urban middle class. To succeed, China would be starting the largest construction project in the history of humanity.  Once completed, all 1.3 billion Chinese would be able to buy and plug in washing machines and dryers for clothing, TVs, computers, air conditioners, electric heaters, refrigerators, freezers, etc. 

What is it going to take rural China to catch up with urban populations?

It is estimated that each American uses about 11,000 kilowatts a year.  Since the United States produces 4.062 trillion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, China would have to produce almost 18 trillion kilowatts so everyone in China could plug in the same number of gadgets Americans do. Source: EIA

America at Night

For the Chinese to match the American middle class example, China’s sky would have to look like America at night. Of course, while all this construction and relocation was going on, the Western media would be reporting how horrible China’s government was to force those rural people to give up their old, feudal lifestyles.

Read more about the next super power.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

3 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese middle class, economy, environment | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Electricity is the Key

May 8, 2010

For rural Chinese, electricity is the key to a modern middle-class lifestyle.  Currently, much of China outside the urban areas does not have a dependable supply of electricity.

However, China is currently working to deliver that dream to the 800 million have-nots in rural China. According to The Economist, by 2012, China should produce more power annually than America, the current world leader.

Electrical Generation Projections for China

I have read about the wide gap in living standards between rural and urban areas of China.  The main reason for that is the lack of electricity and a fast, efficient means of transportation to get around in a country with more rugged terrain than the United States.

To improve transportation in China, a grid of electrical powered high-speed rail will soon crisscross China.  China Railways operates a network of some 86,000 kilometers, which is intended to increase to 110,000 in 2012 and a massive 120,000 by 2020.

Learn more of the urban-rural gap in China

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

6 Comments | business, China, economy, environment, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Not One Less (1999)

May 8, 2010

In the movie Not One Less, a thirteen-year-old girl is asked to be the substitute teacher in a small Chinese village.  The teacher tells her that when he returns, if he finds all the students there, he will pay her ten yuan—less than two American dollars.

Although money is involved, it isn’t much. When one student, Zhang Huike, stops coming to school, Wei Minzhim, the thirteen-year-old substitute, follows him to the city.

There are several themes in this movie. The most powerful to me were the value of an education and not losing face. If Wei loses Zhang, she will fail the responsibility the teacher gave her. To succeed, she must keep all the students and teach them.

Confucius taught the Chinese that an education was the great equalizer and the key to leaving poverty behind. Most Chinese believe this with a passion.

Zhang Yimou was the director. He says, “Chinese culture is still rooted in the countryside. If you don’t know the peasant, you don’t know China.” Because of this, there is a strong message in this movie about the urban–rural divide, which is being addressed as China sews the nation together with high-speed rail and electricity.

This a powerful movie about children, education, and poverty that shows the challenges China faces in lifting the lifestyles of almost eight hundred million Chinese, who don’t live in the cities. The challenge is to do this without losing the values that made China what it is.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel, Running with the Enemy, was awarded an honorable mention in general fiction at the 2013 San Francisco Book Festival.

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Confucianism, education, family values, Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
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