Taking Some Time Off

I'll be taking some time off from this blog around the Thanksgiving break. Posts will resume on Dec. 1.

I hope everyone has a great holiday, and that all the little children in China stay healthy and are well fed.

News

China Market Fuels African Ivory Activity: An increase in ivory-carving workshops in China fuels the poaching of endangered elephants in central and eastern Africa, a researcher said Friday. The illegal workshops appear to make China the largest single Asian market for illegal African elephant tusks, Esmond Martin told reporters attending a presentation of his research.

China to meet new 'Friends': The Chinese state broadcaster, China Central Television, will begin broadcasting the popular U.S. sitcom "Friends" to the world's biggest potential audience next year, the Beijing Star Daily newspaper reported in Friday's editions. In Chinese, the show will be called "laoyouji" -- "Old Friends' Story."

China sacks drunken police: The Shanghai Daily said a total of 587 officers were being investigated after new rules were imposed aimed at improving police behaviour.

China's mobile phone users exceed fixed telephone users: By the end of October, the number of fixed telephone users and mobile phone users in China reached 255.139 million and 259.638 million, respectively, as China's mobile phone users exceeded fixed telephone users for the first time.

China Related TV Guide

China Sprout posts a much-appreciated weekly guide for China Related TV listings.

Beautiful China

Amy Tan's Autobiography

Amy Tan's autobiography is now available, The Opposite of Fate. A recent article about Amy and her new book states,

At the age of 16, Amy Tan thought she was going to be murdered—by her own mother. In her new book, The Opposite of Fate, Tan describes what happened after a ferocious argument with her over Tan's new boyfriend. "[My mother] slammed the door shut, latched it, then locked it with a key. I saw the flash of a meat cleaver just before she pushed me to the wall and brought the blade's edge to within an inch of my throat. Her eyes were like a wild animal's, shiny, fixated on the kill. . . She pressed the blade closer and I could feel her breath gusting."

You can also visit an unofficial website about Amy Tan.

(Thanks Laura on APC for the heads-up!)

China Adoption Store

China Heart Designs has oodles of great China-adoption-related merchandise, all with cool designs.

Webpage Spotlight

Visit the webpage of the Lacey/Senderovitz Family.

We are Frank and Heidi. Frank is Irish and Heidi is Danish. We live in Greve, south of Copenhagen, Denmark. This site is dedicated to the adoption of our two daughters, Molly and Sally. We adopted Molly in Vietnam in October 1999, at 4 months of age. We adopted Sally in China in May 2002, at 17 months of age.

News

China—Use of force may be 'unavoidable' if Taiwan pursues independence: In unusually strong language, China ratcheted up the rhetoric against Taiwan in remarks published Wednesday and threatened that "the use of force may become unavoidable" if the island's leaders pursue independence.

China announces DVD alternative: Seeking to compete on its own terms in the lucrative entertainment industry, China announced a government-funded project Tuesday to promote an alternative to DVDs and "attack the market share" of the global video format.

Measles mini-outbreak under control in Guangdong: A sudden, mini-outbreak of measles in Shanwei in Guangdong Province's east has been brought under control. A total of 13 measles patients have been discharged from hospitals and 15 others are still under care in stable conditions.

Far East Baby Crib Bedding

Dreamtimebaby.com has a nice baby crib bedding and wallpaper boarder set that includes pandas and Asian characters.

[Note the picture on the webpage show much more detail.]

(Thanks Laura Z. from APC!)

News

China plans smoking curbs: China will ban all cigarette advertising, promotion and sponsorship in the middle of next year if a global agreement on tobacco control is passed by China's top legislative body early in 2004.

China announces verdict for gang trafficking women: Two ringleaders of a large Chinese gang have been sentenced to life in jail after being convicted of kidnapping and trafficking 46 young women.

Restoring Beijing's ancient style: The Beijing Administration of Land Resources and Housing announced last week that all the flat roofs of residential buildings along the streets within the city's Third Ring Road will be changed into sloping ones.

Shanghai gears up for baby boom: Shanghai is in for a baby boom from 2006 to 2009 when the newborn population will hit 165,600 per year, double the present figure.

China Set to Act on Fuel Economy; Tougher Standards Than in U.S.: The Chinese government is preparing to impose minimum fuel economy standards on new cars for the first time, and the rules will be significantly more stringent than those in the United States, according to Chinese experts involved in drafting them. (NY Times requires registration)

China Related TV Guide

China Sprout posts a much-appreciated weekly guide for China Related TV listings.

News

Bone marrow match found for adopted Chinese girl: The family of a 6-year-old adopted Chinese girl who desperately needs a bone marrow transplant believes they have found a match in China. Kailee Wells suffers from severe aplastic anemia, which prevents bone marrow from producing new blood cells. (Also see the webpage for Kailee!)

Chinese shoppers happy to spend: China's October retail sales rose at their fastest pace in two years as the week-long National Day holiday gave consumers their first chance to flex their spending muscles since the SARS outbreak.

BBC to launch first ever Chinese comedy: Forget the ancient stereotypes about stale prawn crackers, kung fu, Chinese laundries and 19th-century opium dens. The BBC is planning to emulate the success of the award-winning Asian sketch show Goodness Gracious Me with Britain's first ever all-Oriental comedy series.

In China, It's Easier to Get Lost in the Crowd: These days, China has one currency, the renminbi, but hawking is still a national pastime, as evidenced by easy availability of the latest movies on DVD. Vendors will mutter "DVD?" to anyone who looks remotely foreign. During my recent time in Beijing, I was approached but much less frequently than I was 10 years ago, and mostly, I suspect, because the 15-minute walk between my hotel and the office, along Jian Guo Men Wai Avenue, is chockablock with hotels, embassies, imported-goods stores and even two Starbucks coffee shops.

Beautiful China

Travel Supplies

Adoption Travel Supplies:

We have made two trips for international adoptions. Through our experiences, and those of friends and acquaintances, we have assembled items that we feel are important to have with you when you are making such a special trip.

We now offer the ADOPTIVE PARENT PACK, the ADOPTIVE CHILD PACK, and the COMBINATION PACK. Each is filled with necessary and helpful items, all assembled in a large capacity backpack.

News

Some Chinese Mete Out Rat Poison Revenge: Each story is ghastlier than the last. A shop owner poisons the snacks at a rival's store, and 38 people die. A widow spikes the lunch at her husband's funeral, killing 10. A man seeks vengeance against his married lover by targeting her children. Across China, aggrieved parties are increasingly turning to an outlawed but easily available weapon: a particularly lethal form of rat poison.

Chinese Factory Caught With Child Workers: The teenagers came willingly, hoping that jobs in a leather factory would help their impoverished families stay afloat, officials said. But when their bosses withheld their wages, they ended up surviving on once-daily helpings of noodles.

The Master List of China-Adoption-Related Links . . .

. . . can be found here.

(Many thanks to Ron!)

Book in Paperback

Newly released in paperback, 1421: The Year China Discovered the World —

A former submarine commander in Britain's Royal Navy, Menzies must enjoy doing battle. The amateur historian's lightly footnoted, heavily speculative re-creation of little-known voyages made by Chinese ships in the early 1400s goes far beyond what most experts in and outside of China are willing to assert and will surely set tongues wagging. According to Menzies's brazen but dull account of the Middle Kingdom's exploits at sea, Magellan, Dias, da Gama, Cabral and Cook only "discovered" lands the Chinese had already visited, and they sailed with maps drawn from Chinese charts. Menzies alleges that the Chinese not only discovered America, but also established colonies here long before Columbus set out to sea. Because China burned the records of its historic expeditions led by Zheng He, the famed eunuch admiral and the focus of this account, Menzies is forced to defend his argument by compiling a tedious package of circumstantial evidence that ranges from reasonable to ridiculous.

While the book does contain some compelling claims-for example, that the Chinese were able to calculate longitude long before Western explorers-drawn from Menzies's experiences at sea, his overall credibility is undermined by dubious research methods. In just one instance, when confounded by the derivation of cryptic words on a Venetian map, Menzies first consults an expert at crossword puzzles rather than an etymologist. Such an approach to scholarship, along with a promise of more proof to come in the paperback edition, casts a shadow of doubt over Menzies's discoveries. (from Publishers Week)

You can also find out more information at the official 1421 website.

A Valuable Resource

Attach China is a website "devoted to educating parents of children adopted from China and other contries about Reactive Attachment Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder."

News

Shanghai in talks on Disneyland: China's biggest city Shanghai has said it is talking to Walt Disney about building a Disney theme park by 2010.

Clinton offered US$2 million to represent a small Chinese clothing firm: A small clothing manufacturer in eastern China says it hopes to sign the former US president to represent its brand, citing his "worldwide charisma."

National geographic photo exhibition opens in Beijing: An exhibition of photographs taken for America's National Geographic Society over the past 100 years has opened at Beijing's Millennium Altar. [Included photos]

China steps up tobacco warnings: China, the world's biggest maker and consumer of cigarettes, says it is planning to slap new, larger health warnings on cigarette packets.

New Yahoo Group

Siblings from China is a new e-mail group for teenagers, ages 12-18, that have Chinese siblings.

Update: Two existing groups that are similar are A-Siblings-China and Red Lady Bugs. (Thanks Ron from APC.)

News

Food factory for China's pandas: China has built a biscuit factory to cater exclusively to its captive giant pandas, giving them a more healthy choice than the usual steamed bread.

China Begins Giving Free H.I.V./AIDS Drugs to the Poor: The Chinese government has started providing free treatment for poor people with H.I.V. and AIDS and plans to expand the program next year until every poor person who has tested positive is receiving medical help.

Wizards with Chinese characters: Harry Potter and Frodo Baggins are helping to revive Chinese traditional culture.

China Related TV Guide

China Sprout posts a much-appreciated weekly guide for China Related TV listings.

Beautiful China

Beijing Launches English Language Webpage

News

China to invest in Linux-based software: The Chinese government plans to throw its financial weight behind Linux-based computer systems that could rival Microsoft Corp's Windows in one of the world's fastest-growing technology markets.

100 million Chinese inhale polluted air: Two in every five Chinese town and city dwellers, or over 100 million people, are inhaling polluted air every day. In water quality, China also faced a serious situation.

China's first lefty shop opens: China's first shop for left-handed people has been opened in Dalian, northeastern Liaoning Province, by a 56-year old right-handed man, Ma Bo.

China reports record 16 giant panda births this year: A record 16 giant pandas have been born successfully in captivity in China this year.

News

China wants space station by 2013: A leading Chinese space official, Hu Shixiang, told a news conference here Tuesday that he has three new goals for the next decade: a space station, a spacewalk and docking technology. It was the first time Chinese officials publicly announced a timeframe for their space station plans.

China to reduce 200,000 servicemen by 2005: On Tuesday, CMC (Central Military Commission) chairman Jiang Zemin said in Beijing that reform within China's military arena would continue, for the purpose of improving the army's mobility, competitiveness and combating ability.

Three Gorges shares go on sale: Although the dam has caused controversy overseas because of its environmental and social impact, analysts forecast that the share offer will be vastly over-subscribed. The massive hydroelectric project is designed to supply a tenth of China's energy needs and stop devastating floods of the Yangtze river.

China's Appeal for Cabbage Is Withering: To the Chinese capital, the dawn of November long meant one thing—the invasion of winter cabbage, the government-subsidized, not-too-tasty "patriotic vegetable'' that sustained the masses through the icy months.

New Book

Chronicle of a Blood Merchant

Xu Sanguan is a Chinese everyman—a cart-pusher in a silk mill struggling under the cruelty and hardships of Mao's leadership. His meager salary is not enough to sustain his family, so he pays regular visits to the local blood chief, followed by stops at the Victory Restaurant, where he pounds on the table and demands his ritual meal: "A plate of fried pork livers and two shots of yellow rice wine. And warm the wine up for me."

But fried pork livers and yellow rice wine are not enough to restore Xu Sanguan. With the country in the throes of the Cultural Revolution, his visits to the blood chief become lethally frequent and his obligations to his family press against him mercilessly. At the height of famine, the Xu family lies motionless in bed, rising twice a day to consume increasingly watery rations of corn gruel. Xu Sanguan's wife is forced to stand on a stool in the center of town wearing a sandwich board that reads "prostitute." Yile, his wife's bastard son, forever haunts Xu Sanguan's sense of honor. And when Xu Sanguan sells his blood so he can take his family out to a proper meal, he does not invite Yile, who paces the town, famished and in tears, offering himself as a son to any man who will buy him a bowl of noodles.

In a series of heartbreaking reversals, Xu Sanguan decides to risk his own life to save Yile and comes to understand that in a society ravaged by suspicion, hostility, and poverty, blood money not only pays debts, but forgives them as well. With rare emotional intensity, grippingly raw descriptions of place and time, and clear-eyed compassion, Yu Hua gives us a stunning tapestry of human life in the grave particulars of one man's days.

China Related TV Guide

China Sprout posts a much-appreciated weekly guide for China Related TV listings.

Local Stories

Christian music star shares his passion for helping kids: It hadn't been that long since the Christian music superstar and his wife, Mary Beth, decided to follow their hearts and adopt a second Chinese infant.

Meeting Sophie: Like most 5-year-olds, Sophie McCabe shied away from strangers and clung to her mom’s skirt when asked a question. If there is a difference between little Sophie and her peers in kindergarten it is that her mother adopted her from a Chinese orphanage and has given her a new life in America.

News

Cities Face Water Crisis: Over half of China's 668 cities are facing severe shortages of adequate underground water.

China's new rich go for golf: Most non-golfers are puzzled at the appeal of a sport often played in tartan trousers and pastel-coloured sweaters. But makers of those garments have every reason to smile. Golf is taking off in China, the world's most populous country, where its appeal rests on its image as a sport for corporate achievers.

China's high-stakes war on terror: In China's remote north-western province of Xinjiang, Muslim faithful stream into the Id Kah mosque in Kashgar, 3,500 kilometres from Beijing. But to answer the call to prayer in Xinjiang, home to 11 million Muslims, is to enter the latest battleground in China's war against terrorism.

Beautiful China