China Related TV

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

Beautiful China

Dogs from China

Here boy! Heel! Please?: The 30 Chinese dogs that arrived at Kennedy Airport Wednesday night en route to the North Shore Animal League shelter in Port Washington may present an added challenge to potential new owners -- they don't understand English.

[I offer this story as information to the China adoption community, realizing how some feel about using the term "adoption" for animals. Please don't shoot the messenger!]

Local Story

Family's loving hearts make room for one more: The Hamilton household is filled with love. And that love has grown more special as the family has welcomed another child into the fold.

The Art of Tea

Some pictures of children performing ChaYi, or the Art of Tea.

China's Malls

China, New Land of Shoppers, Builds Malls on Gigantic Scale: Already, four shopping malls in China are larger than the Mall of America. Two, including the South China Mall, are bigger than the West Edmonton Mall in Alberta, which just surrendered its status as the world's largest to an enormous retail center in Beijing. And by 2010, China is expected to be home to at least 7 of the world's 10 largest malls. [NYT]

[The article includes a narrated slide show.]

Dear Birth Mother

NPR's All Things Considered recently produced a program, "Dear Birth Mother: A Story of 'Transracial Adoption'."

About a year ago, we aired a story about Suzanne, a single Chicago woman in her forties, as she attempted to get pregnant by in vitro fertilization. The procedure did not work. Shortly thereafter, Suzanne, who is white, decided she'd like to adopt an African-American baby -- it's called a "transracial adoption."

(Thanks asa from APC!)

Postcards from China

Helen from ChinaBooks recommends Postcards from China:

I have just finished reading the book 'Postcards from China' and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone wanting to get a picture of everyday life (of one town) in China today. The book is written by Sandra Slavin who left the US to live in Xiamen for 2 years (2000 - 2002) with her husband and adopted Chinese daughter. The book is the combined emails that Sandra Slavin sent to friends and family from China. It has definitely created in me the wish to move to China some day with my adopted child(ren).

News

Hollywood Hard for Asians, Says Zhang Ziyi: Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, is happy with a supporting role in Hollywood, where Asian performers like her will always struggle to compete.

Death by a Thousand Blogs: Mr. Li travels around China with an I.B.M. laptop and a digital camera, investigating cases of official wrongdoing. Then he writes about them on his Web site and skips town before the local authorities can arrest him.

News

Ground calligraphy popular among Chinese: Participators write on the ground during a ground calligraphy contest in Xiangfan, central China's Hubei Province. Ground calligraphy, using long brush pens soaked in water writing huge Chinese characters on the ground, is a creative branch of Chinese calligraphy, along with calligraphy with fingers.

Can China build its own Silicon Valley?: "Zhongguancun" doesn't roll off the Western tongue easily, but it will soon be an address that technology investors must learn. For 25 years, locales from Singapore to the south of France have tried to create their own Silicon Valleys, but the original's remarkable spirit has never been duplicated. China, however, is putting the finishing touches on its own Silicon Valley -- and this time, they may have found the recipe.

China rushes in bird flu vaccine: China has sent three million doses of bird flu vaccine to western Qinghai province after migrating wild geese were found there killed by the virus.

Standing Panda

Lesser panda standing on two legs charms Japanese zoo: A lesser panda is proving a hit at a zoo near Tokyo as it can stand on two legs like a human being for about 10 seconds, an unusual feat for the species. The two-year-old male panda named Futa stands up several times a day when "it sees something interesting." [via BoingBoing]

China Related TV

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

Beautiful China

Picture of the Day

Quadruplets dance during the China International Expo of Articles for Women and Infants in Hangzhou, capital city of east China's Zhejiang Province, May 19, 2005. [link]

News

US-China tensions testing relations: The United States is crossing swords with China on a plethora of issues -- from human rights to currency and underwear imports to nuclear weapons -- and analysts are warning it poses a crucial test to bilateral relations.

Ready or Not, China Gets Blogged: Now the 24-year-old Chan, who has a business degree from New York University, is hoping to build a blog empire in China.

Height Limit Raised as Kids Get Taller: More Beijing pre-school children may ride buses and get into parks for free if the city changes the height restriction from 110 to 120 centimeters.

News

Demand for better toilets on rise in China: It's an image that Shanghai's aggressively modern leaders want to shed: people rinsing out their chamber pots in alleys in the shadows of ultramodern skyscrapers.

Chinese made first use of diamond: Stone age craftsmen in China were polishing jade objects using diamond 2,000 years before anyone else had the same idea, new evidence suggests.

Wal-Mart Aims For 12-15 New China Stores In 2005: Walmart, the world's largest retailer, opened its 46th store in China on Wednesday. It has more than 5,000 worldwide.

News

Once shunned in China, Western classical music comes on strong: Conservatories are bursting at the seams. Young people crowd symphony concerts. Private music schools are flourishing, and urban parents jockey to hire the best tutors, seeing music as a path to status and educational achievement.

Extent of Child Abuse Exposed: The first survey to shed light on the level of violence against and among children in China suggests it is widespread, growing and has a lasting negative impact on their lives. The findings were revealed at the National Consultation on Violence Against Children in Beijing Monday.

A Clampdown in China: The most important person in the world right now may be Hu Jintao, and we're beginning to get a better sense of what kind of a leader he is: disappointing.

China Cracks Down on Torture and Forced Confessions: China's law enforcement organs will take a series of measures to crack down on the police practice of extracting confessions through torture, after a man was found to have been wrongly imprisoned for 11 years.

Why China needs more expensive money: It's a simple decision by the Chinese government to let the nation's yuan move upward in value against the United States dollar. China would benefit from cheaper imports and more flexibility in carrying out economic policy.

Local Story

Love and its trials: Pam and Guy Moscato are pediatricians whose large family — much to the ire of their image-conscious 16-year-old daughter — is often mistaken for a celebrating soccer team when they walk into restaurants.

China Related TV

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

Beautiful China

New Baby Site

The Huggies Baby Newtork is a new website that contains quite a bit of content. For example, it has a Virtual Room Decorator (so you can see how those purple drapes work with the orange wall paper!)

A Story Book Creator allows you can share pictures with friends.

The site also contains all sorts of parenting tips, special offers, and of course, a lot of marketing for Huggies.

Lots of Pictures from China!

Flickr.com has over 1,600 pictures that people have tagged with the keyword "China." Many of the pictures are fantastic!

Basic Chinese Lessons

Tony from APC pointed out this Chinese language on-line tutorial. It is great for beginners!

Local Stories

Exchanging institutions for families: Robert Glover has brought about a mini revolution in China, one that he envisions will spill out to other parts of the world. [from China Daily]

Adoption facilitators honored at event: Lutheran Community Services of Southern New England on Thursday held an open house for Xue and Ma. The married couple help those who would be parents adopt children in their native China.

Chinese Music

AsianClassicalMP3s.org has a nice (but somewhat small) selection of music from different Asian countries, including China.

The music on these web pages is all from recordings, most often cassettes, that are either out of print, only available in the country of origin, or both. In most cases, they appear here with the gracious permission of either the artists or the recording companies.

News

In China's richest village, peasants are all shareholders now—by order of the party : Model community with spectacular industrial growth owes as much to feudalism as to communism.

Bad Lifestyles Sicken Guangzhou's Elderly: A survey in Guangzhou suggests that more than 90 percent of older people in the city are not healthy. Poor diet, smoking, drinking alcohol and eating spicy food have been blamed for the situation.

Shanghai Ferris Wheel To Top London Eye: China's wealthiest and most architecturally advanced city is planning to build the world's tallest Ferris wheel. The Shanghai Star Ferris, due to start spinning by 2008 when the Chinese capital, Beijing, hosts the Olympic Games, will stand at 200 to 230 meters (656 to 755 feet), stripping the world's tallest title from the 135-meter London Eye.

Boy's League

[Link from China Daily Online]

News

White tigers born in Harbin: The photo taken on May 10, 2005 shows a newly-born snow tiger at a Manchurian Tiger Park in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Google steps up fight for the China market: Web services leader Google Inc. has won a license to operate in China and has bought a Web address as it battles Yahoo Inc. in the world's second-largest Internet market.

Earliest states possibly in shape 5,000 years ago: Dozens of prehistoric states might have been developing in eastern China as early as 5,000 years ago,thousands of years before the birth of the first textually attested state that existed in Xia Dynasty (2100 B.C.-1600 B.C.), said a Sino-US archaeological research team.

Adoption movement comes to NU: Students hoping to facilitate the adoption of Chinese orphans are starting a Northwestern chapter of China Care, an organization founded by a Harvard student that is spreading to universities nationwide.

Diamonds in China

An article from Forbes, Wedded to the West, discusses the relatively new marketing campaign from the De Beers Group in China.

There was no such thing as a diamond wedding or engagement band in China until De Beers started marketing diamonds there in 1993. In traditional Chinese weddings the dress is red, not white, and the gift from the groom's family is jade or gold jewelry. Now many young brides wear white and often as not sport a crystalline rock. Diamond sales in China reached $1.2 billion in 2003.

News

Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in Beijing Under Renovation: According to administrative office of Temple of Heaven in Beijing, on May 7 the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest in Temple of Heaven was closed for renovation, which will be officially started on May 17.

Mum's the Word for Chinese in New Trend: Mother's Day is yet another Western occasion to become popular among Chinese people along with Christmas and Valentine's Day.

China to build giant panda museum: China plans to build a new giant panda museum which aims to be the biggest of its kind to introduce efforts to save the endangered animal and its habitat. The main theme of the 5,000 square meter (53,800 square foot) museum in Chengdu, capital of the southwest province of Sichuan, will be "man, panda and the harmony of nature."

Crime time for Chinese net users: Around 20% of the world's hijacked computers sending out spam, attacking websites and hosting unsavoury material are in China, says a report.

Chinese families become smaller: China's reform and opening up has not only brought about great changes to the economy and society, but also transformed Chinese marriages and family structure in an unprecedented way. Population expert Tang Can believes that in the last thirty years Chinese families have shown diversified patterns. The scale of family is becoming smaller and the marriage functions of families are being gradually weakened.

Labor Camps That Operate Outside the Courts: Here in a bleak stretch of eastern China, Mr. Li, 40, spent two years in a prison called Shandong No. 2 Labor Re-education Camp. Mr. Li, who spoke on condition that only his surname be used, and other followers of the banned spiritual group Falun Gong have been jailed here despite never having a lawyer or a trial—rights granted under China's criminal law.

Local Story

Young eyes help couple see life anew: "We read her (Anchee) books. I tell her she was born in China," Michelle said, smiling at the memory of her daughter's response: "She asked me, 'What part of China were you born in?'"

China Related TV

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

Happy Mother's Day

And I'll express heart-felt sympathy for those I know who have recently lost their mother. I'm truly sorry for your loss.

Local Story

Parents nurture bond between Chinese toddlers: The two dark-haired toddlers looked at each other and smiled. They held hands and played with a Fisher-Price phone together. When one walked away, the other followed.

News

Zhang Ding's masterpieces on display: Zhang Ding was born in northeast China in 1917. He established his fame for his skill of drawing caricatures, and later shifted to design. At the beginning of 1960s, Zhang Ding made innovative changes to Chinese painting by using western painting techniques as a reference.

Chinese Classes Grow in Popularity with U.S. Students: Mandarin Chinese classes are growing more popular with U.S. students. Tara Siler visits students at a public high school in Oakland, Calif., and has this report. [NPR Audio]

China Braces for a More Valuable Yuan: As speculators across Asia place ever larger bets on a revaluation of China's currency soon, investors and corporate executives alike are trying to prepare for what a more valuable yuan will mean for stocks and companies.

Local Story

Mother's Day blessings from China: Since China opened its borders less than 10 years ago to international adoptions, the United States has become the largest participant in Chinese adoptions, averaging 6,000 per year. Knox County is seeing its own population boom of families with adopted Chinese daughters. To date, there are at least a dozen families with 14 Chinese daughters, and more are on the way. Recently area mothers and their daughters gathered to discuss thier Mother's Day blessings from China.

Birth Moms

Remembering the other mother on Mother's Day: I'm not sure if they celebrate Mother's Day in China. But there is a mother somewhere in Hunan province I will be honoring this week as we approach the second Sunday in May. Actually, the woman my family calls "China Mommy" is someone I think about virtually every day, not just on the designated date each year that marketers want us to send flowers and cards with standardized sentiments. It's impossible not to wonder about her each time I dress my daughter, or brush her silky, straight black hair, or listen to her enthusiastic belly laugh. I wonder if she looks like her birth mother and if I'm seeing China Mommy's face when I gaze at my daughter's.

Blogging Baby

Blogging Baby has links to some very interesting content.

Blogging Baby is a blog -- an online magazine -- about pregnancy, baby care and parenting. We cover what we think is interesting as parents ourselves.

Local Story

Family's adoption story spans the world, Web: Just to get to China, they spent 26 hours in airplanes and airports, starting in Greensboro and ending in Beijing. Two weeks later, Larry and Rebecca Weisberg, plus sons Aaron, 14, and Cutter, 10, would repeat the same tedious routine en route home. Only this time, the Weisbergs had a new family member -- 2-year-old Lexi -- along for the ride.

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month

May is Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month. Here is a link that provides the history of the event:

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month May 2005: In 1978, a joint congressional resolution established Asian/Pacific American Heritage Week. The first 10 days of May were chosen to coincide with two important anniversaries: the arrival in the United States of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and the completion of the transcontinental railroad (May 10, 1869). In 1992, Congress expanded the 10-day observance to a month-long celebration. Per a 1997 Office of Management and Budget directive, the Asian or Pacific islander racial category was separated into two different categories: "Asian" and "native Hawaiian or other Pacific islander."

PBS is running some shows on the subject:

PBS TO OFFER SPECIAL PROGRAMMING FOR MAY 2005 ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN HERITAGE MONTH: In honor of APA Heritage Month, PBS is proud to present a number of programs on topics ranging from Filipino American soldiers who became General Douglas MacArthur's secret weapons in World War II to the dance stories of the Pacific Islands to a fascinating portrait of former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos. Reflecting the diversity of ethnicities, experiences and regions with a breadth that can't be found anywhere else, these compelling programs examine the rich history, cultural contributions and distinguished heritage of Asian Pacific Americans.

(Thanks asa from APC!)

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

Beautiful China