China
by from Beijing
In 1949, when Mao Ze Dong and his followers established the People’s Republic of China, one of the major principles of the new regime was self-sufficiency. Not until the late 1970’s and early 80’s did China begin to open its doors to the outside world. In Chinese, China is pronounced, “Zhong Guo” and is literally translated to “middle kingdom.” Throughout history, China has always thought of itself as the center of the world. However, due to slow technological development from 1949 to the early 1980’s, China found itself behind in a world being driven by technological advances.
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by from Beijing
I have been living in China for almost two years now. Although my studies in Chinese are progressing well, I still don’t have quite enough command of the dialogue to get the full benefit of Chinese TV programming. As a result, a lot of my free time is spent using the internet for communication, news and entertainment purposes.
After I’ve read my email and reviewed the news online, one thing I enjoy checking out is what’s new on the popular video site, YouTube. I know it is popular in the U.S., but it is also popular in China. The site enables anyone to post a video about almost anything. Last year, Motorola China launched a campaign for a new model of cell phone. Their way to market this new product: Internet video. Motorola thoughtfully signed on a pair of college students from southwest China’s Guangdong province whose popularity was growing due to homemade lip-sync videos they posted on YouTube. The duo is now known as the “Back Dorm Boys” due to their habit of performing Backstreet Boys songs.
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by from Beijing
The entrepreneurial spirit is very much alive in China! On Saturday, I went to a popular shopping area in Beijing called Xidan (pronounced “She-don”). It consisted of sidewalks lined with vendors selling anything from corn-on-the-cob to cell phones. This area of Beijing reminded me a lot of state fairs back home. Chinese street merchants often use a “carnival vendor” approach when selling or advertising their products—they simply yell and scream the name of their product at the top of their lungs. Although this method would not fly in most shopping malls or even at street fairs in the US, in China, this is what people are accustomed to and it usually works. The vendors are relentless. They sweet-talk and even grab customers until some deal has been struck and the customer agrees to purchase their product.
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by from Beijing
When you exit the baggage claim area at Capital International Airport in Beijing, the Chinese language characters immediately make you realize that you are in a foreign land and culture shock sets in. However, you also quickly notice two very familiar signs of home—KFC and Starbucks.
Throughout the past 20 years, foreign products (and companies) have been entering the Chinese market at an ever-increasing rate. As China continues to develop, so does the demand and market for these international goods. More than ever, educated young Chinese are eating, drinking, watching and wearing products marketed by the world’s multinational companies. They don’t necessarily aspire to be westernized, but rather modern. The youth in China will buy just about anything if it has something to do with the West.
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by from Beijing
In 1999, the Chinese government established three “Golden Weeks” in China as a way to boost domestic demand, stimulate consumption, and restructure the economy. Since long holidays are usually “golden” for the economy, thus the name. The first Golden Week of each year is the Spring Festival and it starts on the Chinese Lunar New Year—which falls in late January or early February each year. The second Golden Week starts on May 1st, the Labor Day holiday in China. The last Golden Week falls on October 1st, Chinese National Day and the anniversary of Mao Ze Dong’s establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
During these Golden Weeks people have seven continuous days off of work. What’s interesting is though people are given the entire week off, they are still required to work on Saturday and Sunday before the Golden Week. This harkens back to the days in China when most people worked six days a week, with a long weekend or two only every now and then.
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