This Friday, May 10, watch the movie “Back to 1942,” set during the Henan Famine in which hundreds of thousands died. After the film author Liu Zhenyun will speak about his book, which inspired the movie. The talk will be translated and the film has English subtitles.
Date: Friday, May 10
Time: 6:30-10pm
Place: 19 West 4th St., Room 101
Admission: Free
Relations between India and China have become more fraught, especially after the People’s Liberation Army stepped into Ladakh in the Depsang Valley (Kashmir) without notification. Specifically, the Chinese army has allegedly trespassed on the Daulat Beg Oldi (DBO) sector part of Ladakh, a historic trade route connecting Ladakh to Yarkand in Xinjiang, China. This incursion has occurred approximately one month before new Premier Li Keqiang’s first formal to India, foreshadowing possible difficult ties going forward.
This has occurred as a result of “differences in perception of the Line of Actual Control,” also showing that this is not the first time such incursions have occurred. The Line of Actual Control was drawn in the Aksai Chin region, formerly part of the India/Pakistan Kashmir conflict, but the Chinese have claimed it as their own. In the meantime, the Ladakh Scouts, an infantry regiment specializing in mountain warfare, is preparing for a face-off.
On the Indian diplomatic side of things, India has asked Beijing to maintain the status quo from before the April 15th incursion. Unfortunately, the LAC is not demarcated in most regions, making such a request even more difficult to process. Yesterday, the Chinese government released a statement refusing to acknowledge the incursion but has expressed an interest to cooperate with India regarding these border issues, which could potentially increase tension.
India and China are two of the world’s fastest growing economies with the largest populations. However, they are lagging behind on becoming “developed” countries. Once both countries define their borders on acceptable terms, they can take the world stage and legitimize their presence.
Read more about the latest developments in China-India relations after the Ladakh incursion.
Saturday morning, just at 8 AM, a magnitude 7 earthquake shook Sichuan province, the same region of China hit by the Great Sichuan Earthquake in May 2008 that killed almost 70,000 people.
As of 9 PM, China’s Ministry of Civil Affairs website listed that the current death toll was 157 while 5,700 people were injured. The cause was the Longmenshan fault line, the same one that led to the devastating 2008 quake.
Read more about the relief efforts here.
American director Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, “Django Unchained”, was suddenly pulled from Chinese theaters on opening day. The movie was heavily advertised in the weeks leading up to the Thursday premiere. China represents the second largest movie-market, coming in after the United States.
Theaters in Beijing claimed it was removed due to technical problems with movie, however, most think it was because of issues with the censoring. Movies that are played in China must go through a censoring process, making edits like changing the color of blood to a darker shade and decreasing the “splatter”. Part of the reason for such intense editing is due to the fact that China does not have a rating system for the movies shown, unlike the US and Europe. Movies must be shown with the assumption that children can also see it, meaning that violence and nudity need to be removed.
Connie Lee is a writer for Generasian. Here she shares her experiences from studying abroad in Shanghai this spring.
The first memorable sight I had of Shanghai was on the shuttle from the airport to the apartment that I will call home for the next four months. We were driving down the highway and I looked to the left and saw newly developed apartment complexes and then I looked to the right and saw rundown houses that families call home. The striking contrast separated by the highway we were driving on made me realize that although Shanghai may be the world’s largest city by population, it is still new and developing.
(This house has no roof, windows, or doors. It is surrounded by broken concrete bits and bricks. If you look closely, you can see the lights on in this home.)
There I was, propped on the back of a dusty, cackling moped, thrusting my hands into the air like some kid on a rollercoaster ride. I was speeding down the roads of Ho Chi Minh City at night with my cousin, feeling the wind crash against my face, watching storefronts blur into lights and colors. It was the most unexpected form of harmony: the unified circling of the mopeds, the sweet smells of grilled sticky rice, and the dazzling flower-shaped lights together shared a story of Vietnam that was equally exhilarating and comforting. At that moment, nothing else mattered but this great sense of euphoria. I knew that when I returned to New York City and sat down to record this very moment, this memory would be my connection to Vietnam, a place that once felt distant, mysterious, and foreign.
Last Thursday, pig carcasses were discovered floating down the Huangpu River, a major river that flows through Shanghai. Since then, the count has found its way up to almost 6,000 pigs.
This gruesome discovery led to an urgent attempt at fishing all of the dead animals out. If they rot in the water, it can lead to widespread water pollution. The water has already shown evidence of porcine circovirus, a virus that kills pigs but cannot be spread to humans.
However, this is nothing new to the area. Although this was definitely the highest amount of pigs found in the river, there have been previous cases of locals disposing of pigs in the Huangpu.
The crowd at one of Shanghai’s real estate centers after the news of the property tax.
Recent news of a national 20% tax on the profit of a sold home has driven thousands to property bureaus to put up their homes for sale before the tax goes into effect. The State Council, fearing that rising housing prices will cause inequality and a housing bubble, has ordered a property tax for all secondary homeowners.
Some couples are even filing divorces to avoid the tax by claiming one home each. By selling them independently, they are able to bypass the capital gains tax for selling second homes. Divorcing would not only give couples a pass on the 20% tax, but a lower interest rate and down payment for purchasing a new home afterwards. (Re)Marriage will have to wait.
Read the New York Times’ full report.
Today, the UN Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions against North Korea in response to the nuclear test from last month. China and the US drafted the resolution. South Korea’s banking, travel, and trade will all be affected. The quick vote (15-0) came after North Korea threatened, for the first time, to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and neighbor South Korea.
The sanctions are meant to “bite and bite hard”, as put by US Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice. Even China’s ambassador, Li Baodong, came out saying that the long-term goal is to denuclearize the Korean peninsula.
Sometimes when I miss the unorthodox ways of the Chinese that made living in Shanghai unpredictable, I get on ChinaSmack and indulge in the site’s mix of official news stories, gossip and cheap scandal. With titles like “Chinese Man Rents Girlfriend for Holiday, Gets Her Pregnant”, you definitely won’t be bored. Besides, the site is a great way to familiarize yourself with local Chinese opinion and media if you don’t want to, or can’t, read Chinese. It’s worth a read, and maybe you’ll be back for more.
“127” by Michael Steverson on 500px
Luo Meizhen may be the oldest living person ever. A native of Bamai Village in rural Guangxi Province, Luo has no birth certificate as they were not common until after the 1949 Communist revolution. The only evidence of her 1885 birth date is an old state-issued ID card.
Following the recent 100th self-immolation reported in Tibet, there continue to be reports of death from the area. Last Tuesday, two teenagers committed a rare act of joint self-immolation. Rinchen, just 17, and Sonam Dargye, only 18, had been friends since elementary school in Sichuan Province of Western China. They killed themselves in Ngaba, an area known for its self-immolation protests and also the epicenter of the deadly 2008 Sichuan earthquake that devastated the area, killing over 20,000 residents.
The two brought the number of people to set themselves on fire to 104 since 2009 when the acts began. People ranging from monks to women to nomads have shown their clear dislike for Chinese rule in the Tibetan region. However, China has only come out blaming the Dalai Lama.
