Changing China

The Other China Stimulus

By Zhou Xin

As the world watches how Beijing’s $585 billion stimulus package can create opportunities for investors, they might be overlooking another mini-stimulus that is coming in a matter of weeks: the lavish celebration the government will be staging to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China on Oct. 1.

On top of what is expected to be a huge military parade through central Beijing, massive firework displays are expected to light up the capital and other big cities around the country.

Although overall spending figures are secret, speculation about the windfall profits that the country’s only listed fireworks firm could reap from the event have caused its share price to, well, explode over the last month or so.

Panda Fireworks shares have more than doubled in value over the past month, even amid a more than 14 percent fall in the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index over the same period. (See the chart plotting their values and relative performance.)

The company, which had revenue last year of about 173 million yuan ($25 million) and profits of 13.6 million yuan, announced on Monday that it was “engaged in some bidding” that would add 5-10 million yuan to its profits this year.

from Global News Journal:

North Korean Revolutionary Tunes Sink to Bottom of the Sea

                                              By Jon Herskovitz

North Korea says somewhere up in the sky, a satellite it launched at the weekend is beaming to earth two revolutionary paeans: "Song of General Kim Il-sung" for the founder of the reclusive state and "Song of General Kim Jong-il," for the son who succeeded him when he died.

U.S. and South Korean officials said the North Korean rockets did not send anything into space and all pieces of the rocket crashed into the sea, including the claimed satellite, which might have been North Korea's oversized attempt to replicate an iPod.

The North Korean report was a a bit of a blast from the past because North Korea made a similar claim in 1998 that it had sent a satellite into orbit playing the exact same two songs.

There is far more to North Korea's hit parade of songs than the two homilies it said were aboard its rocket. This is a country where soldiers sing, farmers sing, the hundreds of thousand gather in the centre of the capital Pyongyang to dance in special days and a refined teenage girl always has her accordion ready to play a tune.

‘Shout fewer slogans and do more practical things!’

Slogans, mottos, concepts, call them what you will, but the 2008 Beijing Olympics does not lack for pithy phrases.

Slogans, or kouhao, often sit better in the Chinese language where they are made up of fewer characters than the more cumbersome English translations.

It is a rich tradition and a potted history of Communist China could be written in the popular slogans of times. From “Serve the people” of the revolution of the 1940s, through “A hundred flowers bloom, a hundred schools of thought contend” in the more open period of the late 1950s to the “Dare to think, dare to act” of the Great Leap Forward.

“To rebel is justified” was daubed on walls when the Cultural Revolution was unleashed in 1966 and ”Smash the Gang of Four” signalled the end of the 10-year dominance of those later labelled ultra-leftists.

With such a tradition, there was little chance the “New Beijing, Great Olympics” motto that attended Beijing’s bid to host the Games would survive its success. Indeed, after considering 210,000 suggestions from around the world, the Beijing Office for the Solicitation of Mottos for the 2008 Olympic Games plumped for “One world, one dream”.

That should perhaps just be considered the headline motto because there is also the concept of the Beijing Games, “Green Olympics, High-Tech Olympics and People’s Olympics”.

In addition, any athletes falling foul of the doping authorities will have cause to remember the local Olympic Committee’s code: “Seriously banning, strictly examining and severely punishing”.

The Ju basketball dynasty

While based in China as a chief photographer in the early 1990s I had the good fortune to make the acquaintance of a sports journalist and in turn an entire family with a remarkable basketball legacy. So much so that official government film documentaries were produced highlighting their sporting achievements. Aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces have all competed at college level, professionally or on a national team.

My journalist friend’s accomplishments were impressive. Starting at the age of 2-1/2 her parents had to place her, for the next three years, in the national sports committee’s boarding kindergarten. It was a place where China’s sporting elite could leave their children while they competed for the Party and national pride.

With few options available my friend was separated from her family again at age 11 to enter into the government’s athlete mill. Gruelling workouts, stark living conditions, military-style coaching were all in a day’s work. She spent her entire teens and early 20s being honed into a world class athlete. Looking to finally wrap up her career, the sports committee eventually, but reluctantly, permitted her to leave the game. She left with five national basketball championships to her credit.

Heading this family dynasty were two towering and statuesque brothers, Ju Fen Geng and the younger Ju Fen Kang, who were members of China’s first national team formed post-1949. They were so striking in appearance that they could easily have been the inspiration for the valorous, chisel-jawed comrades overcoming adversity in the ubiquitous propaganda posters of the Communist era. The brothers criss-crossed the Soviet-bloc and socialist countries of Europe proudly representing the People’s Republic throughout the 50s. Their journals overflow with black and white photographs of the smartly dressed young men visiting and competing in places that were strictly off limits to the West during the depths of the Cold War.

In 1956 the younger brother had been selected to the Olympic basketball team to compete in Melbourne. Uniforms, jerseys and suits had already been issued – personally approved by Premier Zhou Enlai himself. The team’s roster had even been published in the press. With weeks to go and while finalising their training in Guangdong province the team were notified that China had pulled out of the Games in protest at the inclusion of the Republic of China. His Olympic dream had been dashed. Following their playing careers the two brothers went on to enjoy success as coaches at the national and professional levels.

Beijing shopping surprises

I love to shop – I’m not afraid to admit it. And I passionately believe you can never have too many T-shirts, shoes or bags (and that you should never underestimate the power of a good moisturiser either).

One of the great joys of living in China, and especially in Beijing, is the shopping.

Sure, it’s not as sophisticated as Hong Kong or as off-beat as Taipei, and very few places in Asia can trump Bangkok, but China’s smokey capital has its charms when it comes to a bit of retail therapy.

So here is a personal list of my favourite top 5 shopping destinations in Beijing, in reverse order to keep everyone in suspense.  

5) Spin. Pottery’s not sexy, right? Wrong. The master craftmen (and women) behind this store sure know how to whip up a storm with the clay. Simple, clean and understated is the order of the day. And it’s not too expensive. Word on the street is a certain well-kown European fashion designer liked the shop so much he snapped up 20,000 sets of plates during a winter swirl through the city. 

4) The cashmere sweater place. Nobody really seems to know what it’s called, but it’s quite well located near the new Dengshikou subway stop. Simply take in a jumper, hat or other top you want copied, pick a colour, and they will produce a copy for you in softest cashmere. It’s very adictive. “I can’t wear anything that’s not cashmere these days,” another cashmere junkie remarked to me recently. And it’s quite understandable. Not cheap, but then luxury never is.

3) This recommendation isn’t one shop, but the part of Beijing’s famous Panjiayuan, or antique market, where they sell old books. I can spend hours here, picking out hidden little gems printed in China’s Communist heyday. This includes glossy hardback coffee table books, sometimes with English text, on China’s provinces. The two books I’m most proud of finding, and have given me the most pleasure, are a book on the remote and rather mysterious province of Qinghai, and another entitled “New China Builds”, full of the brutalist and minimalist architecture that marked the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.