Innholdsfortegnelse for Vol.65/No.22 i Beijing Review

Asset Plan China will promote the healthy development of infrastructure real-estate investment trusts (REITs) and establish a multi-level infrastructure REIT market as part of efforts to boost effective investment and reduce government debt risks, according to a guideline released by the State Council on May 25. The mobilization of existing assets through public-private partnership projects will be encouraged, it said. Efforts will be made to promote the transformation of idle assets, developing new functions such as senior and child care, leisure tourism and community services. Policy incentives will help funnel funds raised from mobilizing existing assets to key projects such as integrated transportation and logistics hubs, large clean energy bases and environmental protection infrastructure, the document added. Software Growth The software and information technology sector sustained stable growth in the…

China’s policy of easing the academic burden on first to ninth graders has made it possible for children to spend more time on things they are actually interested in. Outdoor activities, like ice and snow sports, skateboarding and rock climbing, are gaining popularity among the nation’s youngest generation. Comments to dingying@cicgamericas.com…

Since the end of the Cold War, the world has embraced the idea of globalization with the promise of a free circulation of goods and people across borders. The emergence of the Internet as we know it and the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the 1990s were driving forces of this ideology and, above all, of the liberal economic order. China’s entry into the WTO in 2001 was an event of the utmost importance given its economic weight and population. Many Western analysts saw this as a harbinger of China’s adherence to the Western economic model. Once again, these analysts were looking at China with the wrong lens. Meeting challenges The most important thing was that multilateralism was gaining ground, regardless of each country’s political and economic…

Tomas Fuentes Benitez, a Shanghai-based Argentine entrepreneur in his 30s, has not stopped working despite the recent COVID-19 resurgence in the city. For Benitez, the pandemic brings both opportunities and challenges. With an interest in China, Benitez completed a master’s degree program at Tsinghua University in 2016. Great market demand and increasingly health conscious Chinese consumers inspired him. In 2019, he cooperated with a food plant in Shanghai to establish his own healthy snack brand Stokes, with the products ranging from beef slices to potato chips. To date, his products have been sold in more than 750 supermarkets across China. Due to the recent restrictions to curb the spread of the virus, Benitez has been working from home, while continuing to promote online group buying of Stokes products. Shanghai is…

In recent years, a growing number of urban artists have been fixated on the countryside, drawing inspiration from the vast fields and rustic life for their artistic creations. Their interest is not only enriching cultural institutions in rural areas, but is also bringing new vitality to contemporary art and expanding its frontiers. Artistic innovation With the implementation of strategies including promoting the development of a new countryside and rural revitalization in the 21st century, architects have been setting their eyes on how to integrate elements of tradition and youth into rural buildings. In the drive to develop and modernize rural areas, the modern concrete buildings typical of the city should not be blindly copied. Instead, local cultural characteristics should become part of new art spaces in rural areas. Xu Lang,…

Local women make zongzi in Zhangkou Village, Rongan County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on May 25, to welcome the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on June 3 this year. A zongzi is a traditional Chinese dish made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo or reed leaves. The festival, also known as the Duanwu Festival, is held on the fifth day of the fifth month on the Chinese calendar. It is typically celebrated by eating zongzi and racing dragon boats, which are decorated to resemble dragons and carry teams of paddlers.…

Beijing’s COVID-19 flare-ups have once again made homeschooling the “new normal.” The latest notice informing all students in the city’s primary and middle schools they would have to “go to class” online came on May 3. Family time When Zhong Beiling, mother to a 10-year-old boy in Beijing’s Haidian District, first saw the homeschooling news on WeChat, one of China’s most popular super-apps, she became instantly worried. “Homeschooling means a lot of extra work for the parents, including preparing three meals a day for my son,” Zhong told Beijing Review. “My husband and I are both civil servants. We have to take turns asking for leave to look after him.” Even though Zhong’s mother-in-law also lives with them, the couple needs to be with their son to make sure everything…

Chinese consumer electronics giant TCL Technology Group Corp. has expanded its overseas factories making televisions, display modules and photovoltaic cells in countries including India and Viet Nam. The company has also established joint ventures with local partners in Brazil to build production bases, supply chains and a research and development (R&D) system, according to Li Dongsheng, founder and chairman of the company. He made the remarks at the opening ceremony of the BRICS Forum on Development of Industrial Internet and Digital Manufacturing, which took place in Xiamen, Fujian Province, on May 23. This is one of many examples of deeper BRICS cooperation in recent years. BRICS is the acronym for an emerging-market bloc that groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. According to a report released by the China…

Starting with a pure interest in translation, Xu Derong, a translator-professor at the Ocean University of China, has gradually discovered the profound and mesmerizing world of translating children’s literature and devoted 16 years of his life to it. “The more I read and translate children’s literature, the more layers I find at which to marvel,” Xu said. Xu’s translation career started with an urge to remedy the awkwardness and lost meanings present in the Chinese versions of foreign children’s books. He was determined to do what he could to give Chinese children a better experience reading translated literary works. The effort snowballed after his first translation was published to great success, and he has since translated approximately 60 titles. Into children’s cosmos Many assume translating for children is relatively easy,…

As neither a speaker nor writer of Chinese, I might seem like a surprising candidate to occasionally translate Chinese poetry. Chinese is completely different from English in structure. Reading Chinese certainly helps you appreciate the beauty of Chinese poetry, but I’m not sure it helps translation. You also need to know the words poets use, understand the intended meaning, and find a way to deploy the best words possible to communicate the meaning while retaining the sense of poetry. While writing a book about the city of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, I was working on a section on Hanshan Temple, which was founded by a famous monk Hanshan in the Tang Dynasty (618-907). Among the reasons for its fame is that the temple is the setting of one of China’s best-known…

Agricultural Heritage China ranks first in the world in the number of Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) designated by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs said on May 24. Three sites in China—an ancient tea-producing area in Anxi County, Fujian Province, a nomadic livestock-rearing region in Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and a rain-fed stone terrace farming system in Shexian County, Hebei Province, have been recently recognized as GIAHS by the FAO, bringing the country’s total number of GIAHS to 18. The sites were designated for their unique ways of using traditional practices and knowledge while maintaining unique biodiversity and ecosystems, according to the FAO. The GIAHS program, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary in October, is…

Xu Ruobing, a first-grader at a middle school in Beijing, has seen a significant change in her schoolwork. This change came after the country adopted a series of policies to reduce the excessive burden on students, such as the guideline issued by the central authorities in late July 2021 to further reduce the burden from excessive homework and after-school tutoring for primary and middle school students, also known as the “double reduction” policy. “See, my English workbook, for example, is much thinner than last semester’s,” Xu told Beijing Review, adding she’s happy now that she has much more free time after school than before and can indulge in her interests, like drawing—which her mother approves of. “With the new government policies starting to show results, we need to push forward…

The China National Botanical Garden was officially inaugurated in Beijing on April 18. With a planned area of 600 hectares, the garden features more than 30,000 kinds of plants and 5 million plant specimens from five continents. The botanical garden, which contributes to biodiversity and harmony between humans and nature, is an epitome of the country’s sustainable development. It is part of the efforts China has made to promote ecological progress since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in 2012. “Since the 18th CPC National Congress, the CPC Central Committee has devoted greater efforts than ever before to ecological conservation. The whole Party and the entire nation have become more conscious and active in pursuing green development, and made significant progress in building a Beautiful…

Before embarking on his first trip to Asia after taking office, U.S. President Joe Biden had repeatedly stated that the visit aimed to promote stability, peace, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific region. But, whether the launch of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) or further strengthening the QUAD mechanism, a security dialogue between the U.S., Australia, India and Japan, the American strategic intention is clear: unite regional allies to contain China, both economically and militarily. The Republic of Korea (ROK) is the current focus of the U.S. Biden made the country his first stop on this Asia tour, breaking with the tradition of previous U.S. presidents visiting Japan before other East Asian allies. In response, President Yoon Seok-youl, who came into power just 11 days before Biden’s visit on May 20-22,…

Huntsman Polyurethanes, a U.S. manufacturer of chemical products, has been gradually ramping up its production capacity in Shanghai since early May as the city has largely contained the latest resurgence of COVID-19. “As of May 16, our production has returned to nearly 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels, and we expect to return to the top gear of normal production in the following weeks,” Kenny Pan, Vice President of Huntsman Polyurethanes APAC, told Xinhua News Agency. Shanghai has been fighting a hard battle against the Omicron variant since early March. Community transmission of the virus had been halted in all of the city’s 16 districts by May 17, according to the Shanghai Municipal Health Commission. With the easing of citywide closed-off management measures, foreign businesses like Huntsman Polyurethanes that have been…

What does the daily diet of Xinjiangers look like? And how did some of these dishes go on to become foodie favorites well beyond the borders of China’s westernmost region? The new documentary Tales of Xinjiang Cuisine (Xinjiang Ziwei) paints a full picture of foods from all over Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that will tease the tastebuds of gluttons. Many of its discoveries will even come as a surprise to locals, who may know the recipes by heart, but have never had the chance to explore their origins and evolution. The documentary received tens of millions of views during its first week of airing, May 12-19, both on China Central Television Channel 9, the national documentary channel, and the popular short video sharing platform Bilibili. Going by viewer comments, many…