24 November 2014

Gentlefolk,

As you know, I try to do a post each week, usually on the weekends.  I started working on exam papers and just ran out of time last weekend.

I have started to compile the Western Culture exam papers for the final exams on 4 January 2015. I have to prepare a Paper A and a Paper B (Paper B is held in reserve in case Paper A 'leaks' in which case they can quickly substitute the reserve paper).

We normally need to get the exam papers in a month before the exam, so I am early, but they always take longer than expected to compile.  At least I I broken its back, and will finish the job next weekend.

Today's post is about left-handedness in China ... read on ...

Left-handedness

During the recent G20 meeting in Brisbane some journalists noted that several of country leaders were left-handed, especially President Obama and Prime Ministers Cameron and Abbott.

Our son is left-handed and this subject has been of interest to me.

From my research on google it appears that 9% - 10% of Americans / Westerners are left-handed. 

Some articles suggested that the brains of left-handed people process information in a slightly different way: “wider scope of thinking”; “more visual”; “more complex reasoning”.  The articles said that a disproportionate number of left-handed people are high-achievers, Nobel Prize winners, and creative (such as writers and artists).

Left-handed people are also above-average communicators and negotiators, if their success in American politics is anything to go by.

A remarkable 7 of the last 14 American Presidents have been left-handed or ambidextrous.  Furthermore, in the 1992 and 1996 Presidential Elections, all the serious candidates were left-handed: Bush, Clinton, Perot, and Dole (Note: Dole’s right hand was injured when young and he had to learn to use his left hand – so perhaps he wasn’t a real ‘southpaw’). 

In the 2008 US Presidential Election, both major candidates, Obama and McCain, were left-handed.

I checked Britain, Canada and Australia and found that the preponderance of left-handed political leaders in America was not replicated in those countries. In Britain there have only been three left-handed Prime Minsters since 1940 (Winston Churchill, James Callaghan and now David Cameron).  

Regarding Canada, I could not find evidence of any left-handed Prime Ministers for at least the last 30 years. 

Australia’s current Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, is left-handed.  I contacted the Australian Prime Ministers Centre (part of the Museum of Australian Democracy located in Old Parliament House, Canberra) for information on past Prime Ministers. 

The APMC had to go back more than 70 years to find an Australian Prime Minister who was left handed.  Arthur (Artie) Fadden was PM for just 40 days, from 29 August to 7 October 1941.  He was an accomplished boxer and records show that he was a ‘southpaw’ which means he was probably left handed.  

From top left: Barack Obama; John McCain; Ronald Reagan; Albert Einstein; Al Gore; Bill Gates; Lee Hsien Long of Singapore; George W H Bush; Bill Clinton.

Five of the last seven American Presidents were left-handed.  From left: Gerald Ford; Jimmy Carter; Ronald Reagan; George W H Bush; Bill Clinton; George W Bush; Barack Obama.

Barack Obama and David Cameron, playing ping-pong left handed.

Tony Abbott, Australia's first left-handed Prime Minister is more than 70 years.

Scarlett Johansson signing autographs.  Other famous lefties: Marilyn Monroe; Nicole Kidman; Angelina Jolie; Oprah.

Rafa Nadal in action.

What’s the situation in China?

Actually, it is much more difficult to identify left-handed people in China.  Everyone here writes using their right hand.  In four years here, I have only come across two students, both foreign (one Iranian, the other Brazilian), who write Chinese characters using their left hands.

Occasionally I have seen students eat holding chopsticks in their left hands. Many left-handed students told me that their parents preferred them to hold chopsticks in their right hands and they had done so since an early age.  I was also told that a book on etiquette published in the Zhou Dynasty stipulated that eating with the right hand was ‘proper’, so this tradition is centuries old.

The best way is to watch them play a racquet sport such as table tennis or badminton.  Then a person’s handedness quickly becomes obvious.

Each semester I ask my students how many are left-handed.  The samples are small, usually between 200 and 300.  From these little surveys, it appears that 4% - 5% of students are left-handed (about half the incidence in Western countries). This semester of the 267 students in my classes, only 6 said they were left-handed (2%), but the previous semester the proportion was close to 5%.

Students assured me that there is no social stigma attached to being left-handed in China or using the left hand (as is the case in some Moslem countries).

In fact, students commented that in China left-handed people are generally regarded as ‘clever’, based on the belief that they used the right side of their brains (language & logic) more than right-handed people.

The most famous left-handed Chinese sports person is Lin Dan who is probably the best badminton player ever.  He is a national hero in China and of course everyone knows that he plays left-handed.

The only Chinese leader I have been able to identify as left-handed was ex-Premier Wen Jia Bao.  The China Daily had a picture of him playing badminton with Korean students, and he held the racquet in his left hand. 

Badminton champion Lin Dan in action at the recent Asian Games in Incheon,  5 times World Champion; 5 times All England Champion; Olympic Gold in 2008 & 2012.

  

Wen Jiao Bao, ex-Premier of China (2002 - 2012), playing badminton.

So, where does all that leave us?

Left-handed people certainly exist in China, but they are not as obvious as in Western countries because they all use their right hands when writing and most also use their right hands when eating. 

Based on my limited research, the incidence of lefties in the Chinese population appears to be about half the incidence in the West (4-5% compared to 9–10%), although that needs to be verified by proper scientific research.

Postscript  

A couple of other bits of trivia I picked up while researching ‘handedness’. 

Famous lefties have included:  Alexander the Great; Julius Caesar; Leonardo da Vinci; Michelangelo; Benjamin Franklin; Napoleon Bonaparte; Gandhi; Albert Einstein; Buzz Aldrin; Paul McCartney; Osama bin Laden; Bart Simpson.

There is a Left-handed Club, and August 13 is promoted as “International left-handed day”.

In 1946 the Government of China decreed that all cars drive on the right side of the road.  Prior to that, cars in Southern China drove on the left side, influenced by the British system in Hong Kong.  In fact, even now traffic in Hong Kong and Macau drives on the left, while the rest of China drives on the right.

Traditionally, writing in China was vertical, from right to left.  Following the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the new Republic of China instituted a ‘cultural modernisation program’ part of which included adopting the Western style of writing - horizontally, from left to right.

...

Well, folks, that's all for this post.

Keep well, and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Monday, 24 November 2014

16 November 2014

Gentlefolk,

This post starts with APEC, but then memories of Bob Hawke kicked in, and the Embassy's involvement in bringing the Channar Joint Venture to fruition ... a walk down memory lane ... good old days ...

APEC

Local media has been full of stories related to the APEC meetings held in Beijing last week.  All very positive of course.  But hard to know what to make of it all.  If you peel away the platitudes and buzzwords (FTAAP; regional connectivity; Asia Pacific dream; etc, etc) real achievements are hard to find.

Apart from being a wonderful make-work boon for hundreds of public servants, the substantive outcomes seem to be from meetings "on the sidelines" where bilateral issues are discussed by Leaders and Ministers (such as the excruciatingly drawn-out Sino-Australia Free Trade negotiations).

Who could have come up with such an idea and such an awkward name - Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation?  What: meeting, summit, conference, wank?

Well, it all started with Bob Hawke, when he was Prime Minister of Australia.  In 1989 he had a vision of greater cooperation on economic issues by Pacific Rim countries.  Australia's then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Gareth Evans, hosted the inaugural meeting of APEC in Canberra in November 1989, which was attended by representatives from 12 countries (membership has since increased to 21 countries, with a permanent APEC Secretariat based in Singapore).

The USA was the APEC host country in 1993.  President Bill Clinton expanded the invitation to country leaders (as well as the usual economic and trade ministers) and the annual Leaders Meetings have been the key focus ever since.

APEC Ministers and Leaders meetings were held in Beijing 5 - 12 November 2014.

It has become a tradition that APEC leaders wear a 'local' shirt or coat.  The much-anticipated confrontation between Abbott and Putin was a fizzer.

Bob Hawke

Bob Hawke, now a sprightly 84, attended APEC in Beijing.  This was reported to be his 100th visit to China (his first was in 1978).  Remarkable - hope that I am as fit and active at his age!

In his keynote speech at the China Day High Level Summit on 7 November 2014 he said "As China's wealth and power have grown, its expectations and aspirations for a bigger regional role have grown too.  We must accept that any sustainable new order in Asia must accord China a substantially greater position than it has exercised hitherto." He acknowledged the role of the USA in maintaining regional stability, but said that it would have to adjust its approach to accommodate the rise of China.

Bob Hawke in Beijing for APEC, November 2014.

Bob Hawke's presence in China brought back memories of his visits to Beijing when I was at the Australian Embassy there.

Australian Embassy, Beijing 1983 - 86

I was Counselor Commercial (Trade Commissioner) in the Australian Embassy, Beijing, from December 1983 to December 1986. The head of the Trade Section (Minister Commercial) was Jocelyn Chey, a fluent Mandarin speaker and a wonderful boss. Colleagues included Roger James, Michael Tjoeng, Bing Chen, and Jonathan Scott.

Back in the Department of Trade in Canberra, our main contacts on China were Deputy Secretary Paul Barratt and Assistant Secretary Denis Gastin.  They were a bright, energetic team, full of ideas including a strategic vision of what an emerging China could mean for Australia in terms of trade and investment.

Dennis Argyle was the Ambassador when I arrived; in 1985 he was replaced by Ross Garnaut.

My contacts in the Political Section of the Embassy included, at various times, David Ambrose, Colin Heseltine, Richard Rigby, Kevin Rudd, and Geoff Raby.

After a hiatus of 30 years, China was opening up to the world which meant a myriad of new trade opportunities.  Labor was in government and Ministers lined up to visit this ancient yet mysterious land. It was an exciting, hectic time.  Everyone in the Embassy worked hard - there was a tremendous sense of cameraderie and involvement - I had 3 or 4 days off in the first three months, such was the pressure of work.

The mining industry was part of my responsibility in the Trade Section.  Australian companies were interested in selling mining equipment and services to China, particularly to the enormous, but antiquated, coal industry.

But the big bucks for Australia would be in supplying a range of ferrous and non-ferrous minerals to feed China's growing industries.  If we could only persuade China to invest in our mines, wouldn't that guarantee us a market?

It seemed a very long shot - to get hard-bitten, committed marxists to invest in a foreign private venture.  Today Chinese government companies invest billions of dollars overseas every year, but 30 years ago it was a revolutionary idea, a fanciful notion.

To cut a long story short, an all-of-government effort was launched to 'sell' the Channar iron ore deposit in Western Australia as a joint venture opportunity between CRA (now Rio Tinto) and the Chinese.  As the Embassy's 'point man' on this project I attended countless meetings in smoke-filled rooms, countless banquets - consumed mountains of sea cucumber & rivers of moutai - all in the service of my country! The reports which I sent back to Canberra must have totaled a million words (all hand written in those days).

By the time my posting ended in December 1986 the erstwhile 'absurd notion' had gained traction. Finally, in November 1987 the Channar Joint Venture was signed, sealed and delivered.  Eureka!

Channar was the first major overseas investment by the Chinese government, and served as a model for the many thousands which followed in future years.

Beijing 30 years ago

Today Beijing is one of the world's great cities, but it was not always so.

Beijing was a very different place 30 years ago.  While the dramatic changes arising from Deng Xiao Ping's 1978 'reform & opening' were taking hold in the southern provinces of China, change came more slowly to northern China, especially Beijing which was the centre of government.  The locals had suffered through many years of fluctuating government policies, and they kept their heads down and adopted a wait and see attitude.

Here are some examples of what life was like in Beijing 30 years ago.

Beijing was a city of 8 or 9 million at that time (it has more than doubled since) but it only had about 100 restaurants.  Can you imagine that?  During the long years of the Cultural Revolution the locals stopped eating out.  Publicly indulging oneself was dangerous - could be criticised - so everyone kept a very low profile.  The restaurants which existed catered for foreign delegations and visitors.

Now there are many thousands of good restaurants and shops in Beijing.

Almost everyone traveled by bus or bicycle at that time.  The few cars which existed belonged to 'danwei' (organisations). I recall the excitment when the first private individual bought a car in 1984 - it was front page news.

Now there are over 100 million privately-owned cars in China.

It took 6 weeks for a phone to be installed in our apartment in Beijing.  In those days private phones were rare - people had to use office phones or public phone boxes on the street.

Now there are over 1 billion mobile phones in China; almost half are 'smart phones'.

There was virtually no entertainment. We had to make our own fun.  The foreign community was very small - the fledgling International School of Beijing which our young children attended had less than 100 students - but the shared hardships brought the expats together.

We are still in contact with many friends we met at that time, such as Embassy staff Art Kobler & Mai (USA), Willi Meier & Gihane (Switzerland), Wilfried Losem & Maria (Germany). Roger Banville & Isabel (Canada); and company people such as Kaare & Alice Ronsberg, George & Cola Fowler, and Kerry Jelbart.

By 1985 Beijing was fully in change-mode.  Small restaurants and shops were opening, new hotels too, citizens started wearing more colorful clothes. When we left at the end of 1986 we marvelled at the sight of about 50 tower cranes which we could see from our balcony at Jiang Guo Men Wai.  Little did we know that was just the start of a sustained boom which would change this city and country forever.

Here are some pictures related to the Channar project.

Hamersley's Channar iron ore deposit in Western Australia, located between Tom Price and Newman.  Hamersley was a subsidiary of CRA which later became Rio Tinto.  In 1983 Ian Bauert established the CRA representative office in Beijing.

Bob Hawke showed Hu Yao Bang the Channar deposit in 1985.  Hu was the head of the Communist Party and it was vital to get his support for the proposed joint venture.  A young, bearded, Ross Garnaut, then Australian Ambassador to China, accompanied Hu Yao Bang around Australia.  

In 1986 Bob Hawke met supreme leader Deng Xiao Ping in Beijing, which was a very positive sign for bilateral relations.  From the Embassy, bearded duo Ross Garnaut (left) and Richard Rigby (right) were in attendance.  

November 1987 Bob Hawke witnessed the signing ceremony of the $420 million Channar Joint Venture between Hamersley  (60%) and China Metallurgical Import Export Corporation (now Sinosteel, 40%).  It was China's very first overseas investment by a State Owned Enterprise and the culmination of years of effort by Rio Tinto and the Embassy.  A huge leap of faith by China's leadership at that time, and fortunately one which turned out to be 'win-win' for both sides.

Bob Hawke on the hustings during the 1987 general election; a formidable opponent in his prime.   He was Prime Minister from 1983 to 1991, Australia's longest serving Labor PM.

Bob Hawke loved sport, especially cricket, and still enjoys a round of golf.  I was assigned to play tennis with him when he visited Beijing in 1984.  He only had an hour to spare in his busy schedule, so we played one extended set which he won 10 games to 8.

Where are these actors now, who had leading roles in the "Dreaming of Channar" play so long ago?

Well, we know the whereabouts of Bob Hawke - he has just been in Beijing - and is still very much involved with China.

Paul Barratt had a distinguished career which included a spell running the Department of Defence. Among many interests, he is the Chairman of the Board of Australia 21 (www.australia21.org.au). He often appears on TV and radio as an expert commentator on a range of social and defence issues. A thinker, a man of integrity, still contributing.

Kevin Rudd went into politics, and was the 26th and 28th Prime Minister of Australia.   I know many of you won't agree, but I regret that he didn't have longer in The Lodge.  He fell foul of the powerful mining lobby over the introduction of a "Super Profits Tax" and they crucified him in the media; finally his own Party dumped him.  He certainly had his faults (don't we all?) but he is a man of rare intellect and vision.  He is now at Harvard University, working on China-related issues.

What about others, such as Ross Garnaut, Richard Rigby, Denis Gastin and Jocelyn Chey?

Ross Garnaut is considered one of Australia's preeminent economists. Although best known for his recent work on climate change, he is also an expert on China.  His output is prolific: he has authored or co-authored 47 books (including 2013 "China: new engine of world growth" and "Dog days: Australia after the boom") and many articles.   He predicted the end of the "China Boom" and said that Australia would only get through the following hard times by having "a radically lower exchange rate".  He doesn't mince words.  When asked last week where the US-China announcement on the environment left Australia, he replied "Still up shit creek!" 

On 2 September 2014 Vera & I caught up with Richard and Tai Fang Rigby in Canberra.  Richard attained Ambassadorial rank before leaving DFAT to become the inaugural Director of  the impressive China Centre at the Australian National University.  In August I attended an interesting lecture there on the great Chinese admiral  Zheng He.

Denis Gastin drove the China Action Plan from the Canberra end - a man of  vigor and vision. When he left the public service, Denis turned his passion for wine into a viable business.  He is a respected wine writer and commentator,  His special interest is new wine making regions; he has toured wine regions in China.   

Jocelyn Chey completed her diplomatic career as Australia's Consul General in Hong Kong.  She then returned to academia and is now  Visiting Professor at the University of Sydney.  Her latest book is titled "Humor in Chinese life" (2013).  She was an inspired choice to head up the Trade Section in the Beijing Embassy during the mid-1980s.  She understands China and the Chinese - I have never seen anyone who could make them feel so at ease, so quickly. 

...

Well, that's it for this post.

It certainly didn't turn out as planned ... but once I started thinking about Mr Hawke and his visits to Beijing, memories came flooding back.

Achieving the Channar joint venture was the #1 priority of most of my posting in Beijing.  Looking back now, after almost 30 years, I am still surprised that it came together.  It took a combined effort over four years from the Embassy, Canberra, the WA government, and CRA.  Still, I marvel that the Chinese officials took the plunge.  At the end of the day, Chinese are pragmatists and the ultimate value of the deal was obvious.  We had something they needed, they had things we needed (capital, and a market) and we were able to give them the confidence to join together.

Isn't it interesting that many of the participants in this little drama 30 years ago are still actively involved with China today? China, seductress!

Best wishes, and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Sunday 16 November 2014

8 November 2014

Gentlefolk,

This post is a mix of stories. Read on ...

Gough Whitlam, a remarkable man, farewelled

Gough Whitlam 1916 - 2014.  In December 1973 he was ridiculed (Whitlam's Folly) for approving the purchase by the National Gallery of Australia of  Jackson Pollock's  "Blue Poles" for $1.3 million. But he was ahead of his time and had the last laugh - some experts say it is now worth close to $100m!

Thousands filled the Sydney Town Hall and public spaces around Australia on 5 November 2014 to farewell Gough Whitlam.  Seven Prime Ministers attended the memorial service; from left (seems an inappropriate word): Malcolm Fraser, Julia Gillard, Bob Hawke, Tony Abbott, John Howard, Kevin Rudd, Paul Keating.  

Noel Pearson spoke eloquently about Gough's vision of  equal opportunity for all Australians.

Multi-award winner (including 2 Oscars) actress Cate Blanchett also spoke at the memorial service. Although she is a generation behind me, I was surprised how her words resonated with me. Gough had a wide impact.

Seven Prime Ministers in the 40 years since 'The Dismissal'.

Name	Date of birth (age in Nov 2014)	Elections contested
Malcolm Fraser	21 May 1930 (84)	1975, 1977, 1980, 1983 (lost)
Bob Hawke	9 December 1929 (84)	1983, 1984, 1987, 1990 (Keating replaced Hawke as ALP leader & PM in 1991)
Paul Keating	18 January 1944 (70)	1993, 1996 (lost)
John Howard	26 July 1939 (75)	1987 (lost), 1996, 1998, 2001, 2004, 2007 (lost)
Kevin Rudd	21 September 1957 (57)	2007, 2013 (lost)
Julia Gillard	29 September 1961 (53)	2010 (Gillard replaced Rudd as ALP leader & PM in June 2010. The following election resulted in a hung Parliament, but she was able to form a minority government. In June 2013 Rudd replaced Gillard as ALP leader & PM)
Tony Abbott	4 November 1957 (57)	2013

Western Sydney Wanderers, ACL champions

A fairy tale: from establishment just 3 short years ago, the Wanderers scaled the summit of Asian football.  Without doubt Australia's greatest sporting achievement of 2014.

47 countries belong to the Asian Football Confederation.  In 2002 it started a re-vamped Asian Champions League (ACL, similar to UEFA in Europe). 32 clubs compete in the group stage. The winner gets $1.5 million and goes on to compete in FIFA's world club championship in December.

The most successful clubs have been Pohong Steelers of South Korea (3x winners) and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia (2x winners, 3x runners-up).

Adelaide United reached the final in 2008, but were beaten by Gamba Osaka.

To great acclaim here, Guangzhou Evergrande won the championship last year, the first Chinese club to win the ACL.

Congratulations on an amazing effort, Wanderers.  Aussie, Aussie, Oi Oi Oi.

Crowned Champions after beating Al Hilal in Riyadh; first Australian club to win the Asian Champions League. 

Winners are grinners. 

Wonderous coach, Tony Popovic

The A-League seems to be going from strength to strength in Australia. A record 106,000 fans attended matches last weekend. In our travels it is obvious that soccer really is "The World Game"  - it is played and enjoyed all over the world - good to see it catching on in Australia too.

...

Visit to Bin Hai University

Last weekend fellow Aussie Graham Kendall showed us around Bin Hai University (青岛滨海学院; pinyin: Qīngdǎo Bīnhǎi Xuéyuàn) located about 6 km from our campus.    It started as a Vocational College in 1992, and was upgraded to university in 2004; now has an enrollment of close to 20,000 students.

Unusually, Bin Hai is privately owned, but of course accredited by the government. Generally, kids who don't do well in the National College Entrance Exam, but whose parents are well-off and can afford the relatively high fees, end up at such private colleges.

Graham described Bin Hai's strict regime - for example, students are only allowed off-campus on Sundays.  Can you imagine that?  He said the students hate it, but their parents love it!

The Administration Building at Bin Hai, with its big dome, is a landmark around Huangdao.

Graham showing us his "4 wheeler" which he uses to get around Bin Hai campus. The campus covers 64 hectares, and is quite hilly in parts.

Some of the student residential buildings on campus.

Bin Hai's founder has established an impressive museum on campus, featuring a wide range of stuffed animals as well as a collection of semi-precious stones and fossilised wood.  Two students (English Majors) showed us around the museum.

One of the monkey displays.

...

We caught up with Fu Xiao, who was my first Liaison Teacher when we started teaching at the China University of Petroleum in August 2009. She spent a year in Minnesota on a teacher-exchange program.

...

How are our offspring faring? Very well indeed.

The Roberts Family, after experiencing some car trouble, is back on the road and meandering down the coast of Western Australia.  They should arrive in Perth next week.  Check their amazing adventure travelling around Australia HERE   (robertstour2014.wordpress.com)

Turquoise Bay, Cape Range National Park, offered great snorkeling. From left: Sid, Tom, Nate and Kurt. 

Jen captured the famous "Staircase to the Moon" at the beach in Broome.

In mid-October Andrew, Caroline and little Eddie moved from Kuala Lumpur to Hong Kong.  They are enjoying the vibrant atmosphere of The Big Dumpling.

Fast Eddie at 7.5 months.

Can only imagine what Hong Kong subway commuters thought of this Halloween apparition!

Eddie inspecting one of the Occupy Central protest sites.

Vera visited Hong Kong in November to catch up with our latest grandson.

Andrew met Eric Schmidt at Google's Hong Kong office 7 November 2014.  Pink is in?
Eric Schmidt was born in Washington DC on 27 April 1955. He went to Princeton and then UC Berkeley (MSc & PhD).  He was CEO of Google from 2001-2011 and is now Executive Chairman.  Co-authored best seller "How Google Works". The Schmidt Foundation supports various environmental causes. He is an advisor to President Obama on science & technology.

A student filmed this in one of my Western Culture classes yesterday.  Isn't this 'motion-picture' effect amazing?  

...

Well, folks, that's it for this post.

Keep well, and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Saturday, 8 November 2014

1 November 2014

Gentlefolk,

Today's post includes comments on House of Cards, my students from the Great Wall Drilling Company, and the news summary from the China Daily for October 2014.

House of Cards

Wow!

That was my reaction when I watched the first episode of Season One of House of Cards last week. It blew me away.

I've always been interested in politics, and was able to witness some of the machinations when I worked for different Committees in Parliament House, Canberra (2001 - 05).  But this series is raw, raw, raw.  It strips away the genteel veneer to reveal the ruthlessness of unbridled ambition.

The acting and story-lines are first class.  Kevin Spacey is perfect as Frank Underwood, southern charmer, Democratic Congressman from South Caroline, Majority Whip in the US House of Representatives, master politician, deal-maker extraordinaire, ruthless, manipulative, clever.

The President reneges on a promise to make Frank the Secretary of State and Frank swears revenge.

Robin Wright is very good as Frank's wife, Claire.  Cold, calculating, tough as nails.  They are a perfect match.

We are now up to Episode #7.  Vera wants to race ahead, but I can only take one episode at a time.  I sit there engrossed, squirming, not quite knowing whether to laugh or cry at the calculated manipulation and venal self-interest.

The American political system features in my Western Culture class. Previously I painted a fairly rosy picture of American democracy.  The show certainly comes across as plausible, but how close to reality is it?  We all know that TV and movies dramatise and exaggerate to entertain, but if this show is anywhere near the reality of what goes on in Washington DC, how do I reconcile that with all the positive-sounding theory?

House of Cards has developed a big following in China.  Wonder what they make of it?  I suspect the Communist Party of China is not unhappy at this expose of the underbelly of American politics.  The shenanigans of the CPC look positively tame in comparison.

Excuse me, it's time for my nightly drama fix  .....

Great Wall Drilling Company

For the last 3 weeks I have been teaching a group of 30 staff from the Great Wall Drilling Company (GWDC). It is a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), a State-owned enterprise and the largest oil company in China.

The GWDC has about 30,000 employees.  Apart from its China operations, it also provides drilling services in about 20 countries, mainly in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America.

An intensive English course is part of assessment and preparation before they are assigned for duty overseas.

The group comprised all men.  15 were below 30 years of age, and 15 above 30 (the youngest was 24, the oldest 45).  The younger guys certainly found this intensive English course easier.

Most of them were Tool Pushers and Drilling Engineers.  Three were Petroleum Engineering graduates of this university, others studied elsewhere.

I learnt a little of their work conditions. You've got to be tough to work on a drill rig - stuck out in the boondocks for months at a time, usually very hot in summer and freezing in winter, very basic facilities, 12 hour shifts, no entertainment, etc etc.  Several described a 'love-hate' attitude to their jobs.

One of the guys told me he works 3 weeks 'on' and then gets one week 'off'.  I don't know if that is the norm, but it sounds right. Another guy told me that he was devastated when his wife asked for a divorce because she didn't like the frequent separation.

Thursday was their last day here and they put on a banquet that night for teachers and admin staff.  Boy, can they drink.  And sing.  It was a fun night.

The group from GWDC.

From left: Cong Zi Huai (Vincent); teacher Cui Xin Yuan; Huang Shuai (Tom); Bu Wen Yang (Bruce); Li Wen Hua (from GWDC head office)

From left: Qin Tao (Jack); Wang He (Alex); coordinator Yang Yuan Yuan (Lucy); Chen Zhuo Dong (Phil); and Wu Xiao Chuan (Luther).

News October 2014

As you know, I like to include a summary of interesting news events which take place each month, and reported in the China Daily newspaper.

We live in an age of information overload – there is so much happening all over the world.  

If someone asked you to describe 3 significant things that happened just two weeks ago, could you do it?  We are served news in short bites, and every day another thing takes over.

When I look at this list for October, it brings home to me how quickly news changes - every day there are new headlines and issues - it is difficult to remember what happened even a week earlier.    

I am hoping that these monthly summaries will help me recall the key events (or at least those which caught my eye in the China Daily) which took place in China and internationally.

Events which made the news in China in October 2014.

Note: these news items were sourced from The China Daily newspaper in October 2014.  Actual events usually occurred a day or two before the date shown.  Currency is US$, and the exchange rate I used this month is US$1 = Yuan 6.1.

International

4 Oct	Closing ceremony of the 17th Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.  China topped the medal count for the 9th consecutive Asiad.
8 Oct	China’s Anbang Insurance Group bought the Waldrof Astoria Hotel in New York City for $1.9 billion.
	The Nobel Prize for physics awarded to three Japanese scientists who discovered LED lighting 20 years ago.  About 30% of electricity is used for lighting.
	The new NBA season commences on 28 October 2014 and will include 101 foreign players: 12 from Canada, 10 from France, 8 from Australia, etc. Current champion San Antonia Spurs has 9 foreign players, and the Minnesota Timberwolves and Brooklyn Nets have 6 each. The NBA has re-negotiated TV rights with ABC & ESPN, to $2.6 billion pa.
11 Oct	US Supreme Court upheld same-sex marriage in 5 US States: Virginia, Utah, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Oklahoma.
	African-American Konderrit Myers (18) shot by an off-duty white policeman in St Louis (Michael Brown 19 was shot in Ferguson in August).  Big demonstrations.
	Premier Li Ke Qiang visited Germany and Russia.  Many trade deals signed.
13 Oct	On GDP/PPP basis International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes China’s economy ($17.6 trillion) will surpass USA’s ($17.4 trillion) by the end of this year (other economic forecasters say later). USA has been the world’s biggest economy since 1872. President Obama supports proposals to reform and restructure the IMF, but Congress refuses to approve.
14 Oct	Turkey permits the use of airbases in fight against Islamic State.
	Bolivia’s President Evo Morales won a 3rd term with 60% of vote.
18 Oct	Price of Brent crude oil has fallen 25% in last 3 months, to below $90 per barrel.
	Lionel Messi’s 10th anniversary with Barcelona. He has scored 249 goals in ‘La Liga’, two short of Telmo Zarra’s record.
	The All Blacks beat the Wallabies, scoring a converted try right on full time, to win the third Bledisloe Cup rugby game 29 – 28. Ewen Mckenzie resigned as coach.
	Ebola: death count reaches 4,546 in West Africa (Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone).  A health worker in Texas diagnosed with ebola. China increased aid to $122 million, including the construction of a 100-bed treatment facility in Liberia.
21 Oct	Joko Widodo was sworn in as Indonesia’s new President.
	Peyton Manning, quarterback of the Denver Broncos, broke Brett Favre’s NFL record of 508 touch-down passes.
	Gough Whitlam, Prime Minster of Australia 1972-75, died aged 98. Great Aussie.
	Oscar Pistorius sentenced to 5 years in prison for culpable homicide.
24 Oct	Chinese at the helm of international organisations: Margaret Chan – Director General of the World Health Organisation Zhang Hai Di – President of Rehabilitation International Hao Ping – President of 37th General Conference of UNESCO Li Yong – Director General of UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) Zhai Hou Lin – Secretary General of the Int. Telecommunications Union (ITU).
25 Oct	21 countries signed an MOU to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), to be headquartered in Beijing, with initial capital of $50 billion. Notable absences: Australia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank welcomed the AIIB “there’s lots to do and room for everyone”.
27 Oct	Brazil election: President Dilma Rouseff, with 51.6% of votes, was re-elected for a second term. The Workers Party has been in power for 12 years – an estimated 40 million Brazilians have been lifted out of poverty in that time.
29 Oct	In 2013, 2.08 million Americans visited China and spent an estimated $6.3 billion ($3,036 each). The same year 1.97 Chinese visited the USA, spending an estimated $9.8 billion ($5,414 each).
30 Oct	Apple CEO Tim Cook declared “I’m proud to be gay.”  Became a hot topic on Chinese social media sites, with over 20 million comments on Weibo in 24 hours. Cook is the first CEO of a Fortune 500 company to ‘come out’.  Apple’s revenue last quarter was $42 billion.
	New Zealand Prime Minister John Key announced that a referendum will be held in 2016 to decide on a new flag.  Polls show strong support for current flag, but Key says “NZ needs a flag which reflects our status as a modern, independent country”.
	The United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution, for the 23rd time, asking the USA to lift its trade embargo on Cuba.  188 in favour, 2 against (US & Israel), 3 abstentions (Palau, Marshall Islands, & Micronesia).

Domestic (in China)

1 Oct	China’s National Day, commemorating the proclamation of the Peoples Republic of China by Mao Ze Dong on 1 October 1949 (65th anniversary). Seven day public holiday, 1 – 7 October. According to the China Daily, more than 100 million people will make train and plane trips during “golden week” (Vera & I visited Dalian in Liaoning Province).
	The role of Kuomintang soldiers in the War Against the Japanese has finally been recognised by the Chinese government.
3 Oct	General Motors will invest $14 billion in China over the next 5 years.
6 Oct	The ‘Occupy Central’ movement in Hong Kong is entering its 2nd week.  So far 165 injured (including 21 police); 30 arrested.  Singaporean leaders comment on bias of western media; they note that HK now has relatively more democracy than in 156 years of British rule.
	The World Bank revised its GDP growth forecast for China to 7.4% in 2014 and 7.1% in 2015.  Major problems: local govt debt; shadow banking; excess capacity in many industries; environmental issues.
	23,146 cases of dengue fever in Guangdong Province (most in Guangzhou city).
8 Oct	A 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit Jinggu County in Yunnan.  1 dead, 300 injured.
	Doctors per 1,000 population: China 1.4; US 2.4; UK 2.8.
9 Oct	Chinese Government’s new English language website: http://english.gov.cn
	Chinese govt has banned the broadcast of movies or TV shows starring actors who have been caught with drugs ( eg Jaycee Chan; Kai Ko; Zhang Mo; Ning Cai Shen) and/or prostitutes (eg Huang Hai Bo; Wang Quan’an).
	Launch of book “The governance of China” containing 79 speeches by President Xi Jin Ping
	Actress Tang Wei married South Korean director Kim Tae Yong; Actress Li Bing Bing appointed Goodwill Ambassador for UN Environmental Program.
10 Oct	Beijing announced measures to minimise pollution during APEC meetings. Cars permitted based on odds & evens; trucks restricted; construction stopped; govt employees get special holiday 7 – 12 November.
	Following several scandals, Ministry of Education issued guidelines regarding the sexual harassment of students, taking of bribes, misuse of research funds, etc by university lecturers and professors.
11 Oct	Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China in 2013 totalled $118 billion.
14 Oct	Minimum subway (now 30 cents) and bus (15 cents) fares in Beijing are expected to double, and will change from fixed fares to fares based on distance travelled.
	China’s international trade in September 2014: exports $214 billion; imports $183 billion.  Trade in services estimated: exports $12.8 billion; imports $34.6 billion. Exports of steel in September totalled 8.5 million tonnes (up 73% on Sept 2013).
	Average monthly incomes in major cities: Beijing $950; Guangzhou $975; Hong Kong $1,700; New York $4,800.
	China has 6.2 deaths per 10,000 vehicle accidents, much higher than developed countries.  In a bid to increase the use of seat belts, Beijing has introduced fines for non-use: $8.20 for drivers, $3.30 for passengers.
	Universal announced investment of $3.2 billion in a theme park near Beijing.
18 Oct	Pfizer’s patent on Viagra apparently expired in May 2014. Several local companies have applied to produce erectile dysfunction medicines. Price expected to tumble.
	Apple released the iPhone 6 (retail $860) and 6+ ($960) on mainland China.
20 Oct	Only 26,000 runners in the Beijing Marathon this year; many wore masks because of heavy smog. Beijing’s air quality was 344 = hazardous.
	Barricades erected by “Occupy Central” movement in Hong Kong dismantled by police.  A poll showed 27% of adults support the protests, 68% oppose. Talks started between govt & protesters.  Taxi & Mini-bus Drivers Association went to HK High Court, which ordered the protest to end, but order ignored by protesters. The protests are continuing, but on a small scale.
	Meeting of the 4th Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of the CPC in Beijing (20 – 23 October). Theme: “Rule of law”. 363 members and alternates attended.
24 Oct	Tim Cook (Apple) and Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook), were in Beijing for a meeting of the Advisory Board of Tsinghua University’s School of Management.   Zuckerberg has been learning Chinese for 4 years and was widely praised when he conducted a 30 minute meeting with students in Chinese.
	Impact of the government’s anti-graft and anti-extravagance campaigns in the last 15 months: 27,000 overseas trips by officials cancelled; 7,162 officials punished for gambling activities; construction of 2,580 new government offices shelved.
	Over 1 million candidates sat the Public Service Entrance Exam called Guo Kao (competing for 20,200 vacancies).
25 Oct	Cooling property market.  Number of residential sales in the first 9 months of 2014 declined by 11%, compared to a year earlier.  In September prices of residential property fell in 69 of the top 70 cities.  But well-located property still in demand – for example, 100 apartments sold on the first day in a new development in Beijing at a price of $150 per square meter. Most local governments have loosened restrictions on buying property (for example, down-payments on purchases of 2nd apartment reduced from 70% to 30%; and buyers who have paid off their first apartment can get favourable “first home buyer” mortgage terms on their second apartment).
29 Oct	Forbes Magazine listed 242 billionaires in China (up from 168 in 2013). Jack Ma, Founder and Chairman of Alibaba Group, is the richest (net worth estimated at $19.5 billion after the successful IPO in New York).
	China’s coal production will be capped at 4.1 billion tonnes per annum. No new mines will be permitted in eastern China.  Mines with production of less than 300,000 tpa will be phased out. Many local coal mines are said to be struggling due to falling prices. Imports of coal in the first 9 months of 2014 totalled 22 million tonnes (down 6% on same period last year).
30 Oct	November 2013 the one-child policy was relaxed, allowing couples in which one parent is an only child to have 2 children.  It was estimated that 11 million couples would be eligible for a second child, but so far only 700,000 applications have been received (of which 620,000 have been approved).
	The owners of SOHO Real Estate Group, Pan Shi Yi and his wife Zhang Xin, have donated $15 million to Harvard and $10 million to Yale to be used as financial support for needy Chinese students who are admitted to those prestigious universities.
	16 year old tennis star Xu Shi Lin from Guangdong Province has achieved ranking of World #1  Female Junior.  Great expectations.

...

Well folks, that's it for this post.

Keep well, and keep smiling.

Alex & Vera Olah
English teachers at the China University of Petroleum, Qingdao
www.upc.edu.cn
Saturday, 1 November 2014