What China Wants from Obama

This is a really interesting group of folks, mostly professors and analysts, discussing their perceptions of Chinese expectations of Obama. Some excerpts below.

Chinese + Democracy= We do not know yet...
Daniel A. Bell, political scientist

Most students recognize that change must come, but democracy is now more often blamed for political instability and economic inefficiency. Hence, they and many intellectuals are turning to China’s own traditions for inspiration. Democracy with Chinese characteristics is still the slogan, with more debates centering on the Chinese characteristics.

China and The US are in the same boat, kind of.
Andy Xie, economist

What happens in Florida and Arizona can have a significant and immediate effect on jobs in Guangdong. For example, when 70 percent of the furniture sold in the United States is made in China, any downturn in the housing market (fewer buyers of new furniture) means layoffs in China. The United States lost three million jobs since the subprime-mortgage debacle. China has lost 20 million.

Respect, Save, and Modernize Traditional Dwellings
Michael Meyer, preservationist and writer

If Hillary Clinton were to step away from photo-ops at the Great Hall of the People and walk 200 yards south past the edge of Tiananmen Square, she would enter Dazhalan — a half-square mile of 114 hutong, or lanes. Home to 57,000 people, this 800-year-old neighborhood exemplifies the sort of urban planning that many American cities seek to recreate, featuring narrow, car-free streets enlivened by a tight-knit community. Mrs. Clinton should visit the area while it’s still there; wide roads are slated to pierce through the heart of this historical center, where a new boutique mall and a Wal-Mart already shadow its edges.

AND another story about imminent destruction of Qing Dynasty dwellings in Shanghai, ironically perilously located in the recreated Qibao district that showcases a (new) "old-style" neighborhood. This story also has some good links to other WSJ articles about demolition of historic properties, a video of the Liu house in Shanghai, and general dissatisfaction among property owners bought out by encroaching construction.

It seems 20 million migrant workers in China are unemployed. Maybe they are all waiting for an unlikely phone call offering a job back on the coast...

We are all from Dream City

This piece is truly amazing, thick, thoughtful writing by Zadie Smith on Obama.

Zadie Smith is usually amazing. I saw her speak once. She signed my paperback copy of White Teeth that somehow got sent on permanent loan to a former neighbor. I loved that book: a portrait of families in England, one like hers (Jamaican/British) and one Muslim-British. Now she is back writing about these identity concepts is ways that make the imagination sparkle just reading.

"The conclusions Obama draws from his own Pygmalion experience, however, are subtler than Shaw's. The tale he tells is not the old tragedy of gaining a new, false voice at the expense of a true one. The tale he tells is all about addition. His is the story of a genuinely many-voiced man. If it has a moral it is that each man must be true to his selves, plural."

Things that have been keeping me interested:

A Recycling in China Blog natural resources, recycling culture, news commentary from Shanghai. And, a doom-and-gloom look at the scrap industry recession hitting China.

China on the Wild Side, a Time Magazine photo essay of disaffected, experimenting Chinese youngsters qnd related article by Rian Dundon.

Migrant workers flooding back home over the New Year holiday starting to get nervous about shrinking employment prospects in the East and the perilous future of life back in their rural hometowns. Now that is is over... how are they faring?

And now the worst drought since 1951, before my parents were born? This is a great overview of Water in China. This has not been a great lunar year and it threatens to get worse... Global joblessness seems on track to derail so much...

My new favorite classy China writer, Evan Osnos, has jumped off the New York Times ship and aboard the New Yorker. Based in China, he travels and reads and does excellent reporting for both articles and a great new blog. I especially enjoyed his visual on the hundreds of massive hydroelectric dams that may (or may not) be contributing to the seismic instability of the entire southwest of China (where I live and freaked out when feeling tremors from the 5.12 quake north in Sichuan.) He also has a nice Blogroll that took me in some new directions.

And finally, Starbucks has launched "South of the Clouds" the first domestically-produced coffee blend from (you guessed it!) Yunnan beans. That's right. Starbucks is trying to turn Chinese coffee into the next Chinese tea. I dream of the possibilities. This is a great review of articles on Starbucks in China- from object of disdain (think Forbidden City location, now defunct) to object of pure desire, to the point of dozens of Starbucks look-alike coffeeshops actually creating a bigger market for coffee in general and expanding the caffination levels of dozens of millions of Chinese folks who need something stronger than tea.

New Year and Back to Work

As I mentioned to a friend, I have been living like it is still the holidays. A very long holiday. Say, November, December, January... and now February is threatening to be as exhilaratingly unscheduled and loose.
But no! I say.
There are pressing things to be attended to, not the least of which is writing informal thoughts that result from media and cultural exposure. I need to keep writing and I am ready to try to win back my audience, um, you.

The New Niu Year in Images