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from Photographers Blog:
Coffin therapy
By Sheng Li
After many days trying to set-up an interview at the Ruoshui Mental Health Clinic, which resides within a commercial apartment building in Shenyang, China, I finally received a call from the owner on December 12 who granted me the access and opportunity to photograph one of their “death experience therapy” patients.
An hour later, I found myself in the so-called “death experience room”, a 10-square-metre room with nothing but a coffin on the floor. On the wall there was a poster of Jesus holding a newborn baby illuminated with gloomy blue lights. My first impression? Quite intimidating.
According to 50-year-old therapist Mr. Tang Yulong, the clinic opened in 2009 and since then there have been more than a thousand people who have done the death experience therapy. The therapy costs 2000 yuan ($320) and usually lasts 4 to 5 hours, during the duration of which the patient is required to lie in a coffin while his/her relatives read “epitaphs” or give speeches nearby. The patient also needs to write down his/her feelings and share with therapists and family. Mr. Tang said that many of them burst into tears when they are “resurrected.” He believes it is an extreme but efficient method to make people realize the value of their lives.
Then I met 42-year-old Mr. Yang, who had booked his therapy appointment for that day. During the psychological preparation talk, I learned that Yang had lost his mother when he was only 11 months old. Lacking maternal love and constantly being insecure in his childhood made him unable to cope with the pressure of work and daily life, and thus he became profoundly pessimistic.
from Global Investing:
African growth if China slows
The apparent turnaround in Africa's fortunes over the past decade has been attributed to the rise of China and its insatiable appetite for African commodities. So African policymakers, like those everywhere, will have been relieved by the recent uptick in Chinese economic data.
But is Africa's dependence on China exaggerated? A hard landing in the Asian giant will be an undoubted setback for African finances but according to Fitch Ratings. it may not be a disaster.
from Breakingviews:
China Inc helps AIG streamline, at a price
By John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
Bob Benmosche is making AIG more aerodynamic - at a price. The U.S. insurer has agreed to sell its aircraft leasing business to a Chinese-led group for a valuation of $5.3 billion. AIG’s own shareholders will probably forgive their chief executive for the mean headline number and the lack of a clean exit, and focus on the fact that AIG is a step closer to independence from its government shareholder.
from Global Investing:
Corruption and business potential sometimes go together
By Alice Baghdjian
Uzbekistan, Bangladesh and Vietnam found themselves cheered and chided this week.
The Corruption Perceptions Index, compiled by Berlin-based watchdog Transparency International, measured the perceived levels of public sector corruption in 176 countries and all three found their way into the bottom half of the study.
from Global Investing:
Weekly Radar: China and Fed steal the show
Even though US cliff talks remain unresolved, many of the edges have been taken off seasonal yearend jitters elsewhere. Euro pressures have been kept under wraps since the Greek deal, the possibility of yet another Fed QE manoeuvre next Wednesday is back in play and a significant pulse has been recorded in the global economy via the latest PMIs - thanks in large part to China and the US service sector.US payrolls loom again tomorrow, but the picture is one of stabilisation if not full-scale recovery.
All this has kept markets pretty calm with a positive tilt as investors parse 2013. The Greek deal has proved to be a very important juncture for the euro zone, with Italian 10-year yields down yet another 14bp Wednesday-to-Wednesday. The parallel recentr lunge in Spanish yields backed up a few notches after this week's auction disappointed some traders. Yet even here the relative ease with which a supposedly-cornered Madrid raised more than 4 billion euros for next year’s coffers keeps the financial side of their crisis, if not the economic one, in context for now at least.
from Breakingviews:
China shadow bank shakeout would be welcome
By John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own
A wealth product goes wrong; a bank blames a rogue employee. It sounds trivial. But in China, the crisis at lender Hua Xia could be the beginning of a shadow-bank shakeout. The country’s $2 trillion off-balance sheet financing channel may not stay off the balance sheet for much longer.
from Breakingviews:
SEC learns true cost of China accounting goodwill
By John Foley
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.
China’s shaky accounting practices are a sound target for U.S. regulators. Or at least, they would have been ten years ago. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s action against China-based auditors, including affiliates of big accountants like KPMG and Deloitte who refuse to hand over files on U.S.-listed companies, comes too late. If the SEC pushes the point, it could bring a moral victory, but a financial mess.
from Unstructured Finance:
While you were sleeping (the China ISM number came out)
By Katya Wachtel
For Omega Advisors' Steve Einhorn, the window of sleep-able hours is narrowing.
"One needs to know whats going on around the world. I turn in around midnight so I can monitor what's going on in China and Japan," Einhorn, vice chairman at Leon Cooperman's $7billion fund, said at the Reuters Global Investment Summit last week. "A decade ago, did I and most others focus on what's going on in China? No. Now we wait for the November manufacturing index for China to come out. The day is longer because of that. I am up around 6 in the morning; I review what has gone on overnight in Asia and in Europe. I spend an hour in front of the machine at home, going through data and news releases" before he's out the door.
This was undoubtedly the most common refrain when we asked some of Wall Street's savviest money managers and investors how they begin their day, and with what must-read literature, during the week-long summit.
from The Great Debate UK:
How much longer can China carry on like this?
Breakneck economic growth alongside staggering (and rising) inequality, much of it attributable to blatant corruption, seems like an explosive mixture, but until very recently, I would have said that there was at least a 50-50 chance that China could stay on track for another generation (albeit with some slowing in its growth rate). In recent months, however, I have noticed one or two straws in the wind to suggest that the odds may have tilted against the maintenance of the status quo.
For the masses, the bottom billion, the Party's original promise of an end to famine, the iron rice-bowl, has turned into something like a-chicken-in-every-pot, which the Party seems well capable of delivering for the foreseeable future, so I can't see a problem there.
from Photographers Blog:
China’s next “top” model?
Guangzhou, China
By Tyrone Siu
It was hard to imagine that Liu Qianpina was related to the word “model” when I first met him. To me, the 72-year-old former farmer looked no different from those typical types of grandfathers you see sitting in the park every day, usually playing chess with a group of friends or dozing off on a bench. Except that Liu has a very cool name, MaDiGaGa, and is now in the spotlight among the modeling world.
One hand on his hip, lower legs crossed, with his head looking up in the air - posing in front of the camera was no difficulty for Liu. He did not need any instructions from the photographer before he changed his pose to present his figure. It was not hard to notice that, when compared to other models who pose for a living, Lui did not appear natural and smooth. But for a model who started styling at the age of 72, he's made a very good start that most would envy.
