More than Money

March 16, 2010

The S’ung dynasty cautiously issued true-paper money in 1023, in small amounts in a limited area good for a specific time period. The notes would be redeemed after three years, to be replaced by new notes for a 3% service charge. source

Chinese money – Yuan

With the United States wanting (source) China to devalue their currency, China finds itself between a rock (1.3 billion Chinese) and a hard place (America). If China caves in and does as America wants, products manufactured in China would cost more. If that happened, demand for Chinese products from other countries would decline and Chinese people would lose jobs.

Labor unrest in China is already increasing. source People want jobs and higher pay so they can join the growing middle class and buy more things like Americans do. To get ready, China’s police  are undergoing special training to deal with expected social unrest over factory closings that have left millions of migrant workers out of jobs.

What’s happening in China today is similar to what happened in America during the 1860s and ’80s. source

It’s the same old story—the rich want to keep the money while workers want to earn more.

Discover Deng Xiaoping’s 20-20 Vision

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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 third book is Crazy is Normal, a classroom exposé, a memoir. “Lofthouse presents us with grungy classrooms, kids who don’t want to be in school, and the consequences of growing up in a hardscrabble world. While some parents support his efforts, many sabotage them—and isolated administrators make the work of Lofthouse and his peers even more difficult.” – Bruce Reeves.

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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

3 Comments | America, business, China, Chinese history, economy, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Hitting Endless Home Runs

March 15, 2010

First home run—China is becoming the world leader in green energy. You may read about it in China Going Green.

Second home run—Although America has ample supplies of rare earth elements (in the ground) needed for high-tech products, China is the only country processing these elements. The cost to build a processing plant in the United States runs between 500 million and one billion. Source: Holding a Vital Key to Humanity’s Future

“U.S. Rare Earths’ Chief Executive Officer Edward Cowle explained that rare earth elements have become increasingly common in high technology equipment including:

  • computer hard drives and cellular phones
  • MRI machines
  • environmental products such as electric cars, wind turbines and solar panels
  • military weapons, including the electronic controls and electric motors used in missiles

“U.S.-based production for these important manufacturing and military applications may be in jeopardy because China currently supplies the majority of rare earth elements that are used in these applications.” Source: Technology Metals Research

High speed rail in China

Third home run—Now, using French, German and Japanese technology, China plans to bid for contracts to build high-speed rail for the U.S. market and is already exporting this technology to Europe and Latin America. The White House recently announced $8 billion in grants for rail projects including the high-speed systems in California, Florida and Illinois. Source: The Huffington Post

See China’s Fast Track Growth

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of The Concubine Saga. 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.

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions

 

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International Women’s Day

March 12, 2010

March 8, marks the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day. Nations that officially honor women, range from China and Russia to Macedonia and Vietnam.

In Imperial China, women could not hold positions of power. They were considered “objects” to be sold into marriage or to serve men as concubines or prostitutes. However, while men ruled the world outside, women ruled the home. The head wife dictated who went where, how much money was spent on household needs, what education the children received, and ultimately the fate of the lives of the other wives and concubines beneath her.

When the Kuomintang ruled China, rural women were expected to stay home and care for the family, while women in the major cities were given a chance to have a formal education. When Mao came to power, he eliminated these differences between men and women. Afterwards, many women marched beside their fellow comrades in the same uniforms. They went to school and worked at jobs.

Today, Chinese women can be seen in all aspects of life. They are famous actors, accomplished musicians and skilled scientists. They are award-winning writers and politicians. Two successful Chinese women will be speaking at the Women in the World Summit  (starting the evening of March 12 to 14). The schedule of speakers and events shows that these two notable Chinese women will be speaking Saturday afternoon, March 13.

Wei Sun Christianson

Wei Sun Christianson, head of Morgan Stanley China manages all aspects of the firm’s China business. She has helped start many of the landmark privatizations critical to China’s economic progress.

Anchee Min

 Anchee Min is the author of the bestselling memoir Red Azalea, the story of her childhood in communist China. At age 17, Min was sent to a labor camp during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. In 1984, with help from a friend, Min went to America. At the time, she spoke no English, but within six months taught herself the language. Her next novel, Pearl of China, is a fictional account covering the 40 years Pearl S. Buck lived in China. The novel will be released in April by Bloomsbury.

Hillary Clinton will also appear. She said, the world “can’t solve problems of financial crisis, climate change, disease and poverty if half of the population is left behind.” The International Women’s Day doesn’t get much attention in the United States.

Discover China’s Modern Women

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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. 

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Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Health Care, Urban Real Estate and Renewable Energy Update

March 9, 2010

Rural citizens of China have been protesting the lack of quality health care outside the cities where eight hundred million Chinese live. This topic was also a subject for debate in China’s legislature, known as the National People’s Congress. (see Basic Health Care in China (http://wp.me/pN4pY-bO)

Another complaint China’s government wants to deal with is the shocking price increases to buy a home in one of China’s cities. Housing costs in seventy Chinese cities jumped 9.5% from a year earlier. The government wants to bring those prices down to make housing more affordable.

During the Copenhagen Climate Summit, China was criticized for not signing a pledge to reduce carbon emissions. China recently announced that it is planning to reduce its carbon footprint by 40-45% (from 2005 levels) and generate 15% of its electricity from renewable technologies by 2020. Over the next ten years, we should see these changes taking place. Since most of China’s leaders are engineers, they often set long-term goals.

Chinese Wind Farms

By comparison, President Obama said at Copenhagen that the United States intended to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions “in the range of” 17% by 2020.  Since the Chinese government doesn’t have to deal with American conservatives, who do not believe carbon emissions are causing global warming and block legislation and spew confusion at every chance, I’d place my bet on China achieving their goals first.

1 Comment | business, China, economy, environment, government, health care, politics | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Shanghai Huangpu River Tour

March 6, 2010

Shanghai is considered the Paris of Asia.  There’s a reason for this and I hope these five pictures and video will show that.

 

Notice the Chinese middle-class tourists on the boat.  Study how they dress. See the cameras. And ask yourself this—if these people are so brainwashed and downtrodden, why are they out taking a cruise on the Huangpu River taking pictures as if they were visiting the Grand Canyon or New York?

Pudong side of Huangpu River

 See the city skyline along the river. 

This is only a small portion of Shanghai.

Shanghai side of Huangpu River - the croweded Bund

East of the Huangpu River is Shanghai. On the west bank is Pudong–fifty years ago, this land was farm land.

A close up of the crowded Bund on the Shanghai side of the river

Check out the number of Chinese tourists visiting the Bund in this photograph.  I’ve waded through these crowds.  These people are laughing, smiling, eating, taking pictures of each other, clowning around.  They are having more fun than I see from most American tourists when I travel in America.

Look at the signs-Nikon, LG, Nestle

China has almost five hundred million people living in its cities. Another eight hundred million live in the country.  If it hasn’t already happened, there will be more Chinese on the Internet than the population of the United States and there are ways to get around the censors.  Fifteen to seventeen million people live in Shanghai.

 

To discover more about Shanghai visit:
Shanghai
Shanghai Huxinting Teahouse
Eating Gourmet in Shanghai
Shanghai’s History & Culture
Chinese Pavilion, Shanghai World Expo

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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, economy, environment, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

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