One-Eyed Panda’s Journal

According to this piece in Time magazine, Facebook is becoming a hot spot on the web for the 35+ set. I wrote a while back that the elitism of Facebook’s invitation-only registration service is a good thing for marketing in China because it separates the rich from the poor. I wonder if Facebook — or the appropriate Chinese equivalent social networking site — could also provide a space for older Chinese to meet online and therefore a new space for marketers to reach them.

J.

I thought the blog roll was getting too long for this site’s gutter, so I’ve added a link to my new del.icio.us page. Now you can click there to see all my recommend websites such as the Meditations on Meaning Blog.

J.

There’s an update on Time’s China blog about kidnapped detained dissident Yuan Weijing. According Simon Elegent, she was taken back to Shandong province by her local village police force who has again put her under house arrest. Score another point for the local corrupt officials.

J.

China Herald has a post on Reebok’s failed attempt at a union at one of its suppliers in Fujian, Shun Da Shoes. They started out with good intentions and to build up its CSR. But five years later and union hasn’t made things better, they’re much worse. The report seems to indicate the union leaders are corrupt and the workers make less than they did before and with less benefits.  Now that Adidas purchase Reebok, the workers’ workload has increased and the human rights monitor has left the factory.

A pretty bad situation. Since Adidas and Reebox sponsor the Olympics, I wonder if their supplier will get investigated by the Beijing Olympic Committee.

J

According to the China Law Blog, the China Inspection Quarintine Bureau is redesigning products that have been recalled in the US and insisting on exporters to implement these changes to their designs unless the exporters can guarantee they will not be recalled in the US.

This is new information to Dan Harris of China Law Blog and to myself as well, so there doesn’t seem to be much more information than that available at the moment. It’d be interesting to see what sort of designs the CIQ is asking for and as Dan says what happens if the guarantee is violated who is responsible? I’d like to ask what happens if the products that have the design changes made to them are still recalled?

Anyone have any thoughts or have any updated information?

J.

This week’s Economist has a great article on the main issue preventing foreign companies from growing their China business: staffing. There is a shortage of skilled Chinese workers that are able to fulfill the requirements of foreign companies to work in China. This makes them a very desirable commodity — and the Chinese know this and using to their advantage. They’ll hop between jobs for more money, but most importantly they’ll hop between jobs for career advancement. Graeme Maxton does a great job of outlining all the factors involved with this issue and even mentions some of the ways to businesses can lower staff turnover (Disclosure: I work for one of the consulting firms mentioned in the article. That isn’t why I am recommending this piece it really is an informative article).

And since Maxton does such a great job outlining China’s staffing problem, the piece has got some coverage at other blogs on the web. Managing the Dragon did a great post on it and over at ThinkChina some of us had a short discussion on it.

J.

I just listened to a really good episode of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time. It focused on China’s Opium Wars that lead to the British seizing Hong Kong and treaty ports in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou and other coastal cities The theory of the three historians on the program was that the Chinese really didn’t view the treaty ports as a bad thing at first because it made trade with foreign countries easier and at the same time it helped to modernize China. Only in the 20th century when nationalism started to appear as part of the Republican movement did China really start to consider the British takeover of Hong Kong and the treaty ports as a “humiliation”. This view was used by the Communists as well and is really ingrained in Chinese culture at the moment. So much so that when foreign governments come to talk to the Chinese about human rights, the Chinese ask “What right do you have to tell me about human rights? You didn’t respect our human rights during the Opium Wars and the century of unequal treaties (the treaty ports).”

I tend to agree with the first view that there was some positive things to come out of the Opium Wars and the treaty ports. I know it’s controversial, but I can see the effects of the treaty ports all around me in Shanghai. The way people do business, the fact that they are open to new foreign goods and ideas (a trend that really took off during the Opium wars) not to mention the architecture. Shanghai is in fact a city that most foreigners who live here say is not a part of China, because it is so modern and different compared to the interior of China.

The biggest effect of the treaty ports though can be seen in their location. All the ports were in Eastern and Southern China. Today those areas are where China’s economic boom started and were it is currently booming the biggest.

J.

I hadn’t planned to update this space until tomorrow, but this piece at Time’s China blog got me writing early. Yuan Weijing, the wife of jailed blind activist Chen Guangcheng, who is jail for four years for protesting the application of China’s one-child policy in his village in Shangdong province was “detained” yesterday at the Beijing airport as she was trying to fly to the Phillipines to receive a human rights award on behalf of her husband. According to Simon Elegent of Time’s Beijing Bureau she had a valid passport and visa.

I’ve never really trusted the application of human rights laws by officials in China, but kidnapping detaining somebody at a customs checkpoint takes away whatever faith I have left.

Very disturbing thoughts for the weekend.

J.

To the anonymous police officer who posted a comment to my previous post, thanks for the advice. I definitely reacted out of fear. When a group of angry people surround you, you tend to get scared. If I could have kept my wits about me a bit longer or got up the courage to leave maybe things would have turned out different. Maybe not for the better I don’t know.  I’ve put most of it behind me now. I’m just glad I didn’t have the week that Ben Ross did his last week in Fuzhou.

Winnie & I had a great weekend with her aunt. We traveled around the city, did some shopping and ate lots. The rest of the week for me has been busy. I’m working on a number of projects at work and Winnie and I just finished planning a trip to visit her parents in Guangzhou at the beginning of October. These things have left me pretty drained in the evening, so I’ve been avoiding blogging.

What I have been doing is downloading some Chinese rock and punk bands that I like using eMule and reading my favourite blogs with Netvibes. I’m hoping to go see the Subs on Saturday at 4Live, so I’ve been trying to download any of their music so far. That’s kind of disappointing. I like the fact that I don’t know what I’m going to see and I could be surprised, but I don’t like the fact I could be disappointed especially when I am shelling out RMB50 for admission.

I probably won’t post again until Sunday — hopefully with a review of the Subs show. Until then you can keep track of me on my Twitter page.

J.

Today, something really embaressing happened to me. I was going to the hospital to get my eye checked, when I walked through the lobby to the lift to get to the foreigners’ clinic a woman bumped in to me. The women bumped on me on my right side and since I don’t see out of that eye, I didn’t see her. I just felt the bump and saw the woman roll across the floor.

She immediately got up and started yelling at me and demanding why I didn’t see her and demanding that I take her to a doctor.  I told her I was sorry and that it was an accident but she said that wasn’t good enough. I explained to her that I don’t see out my right eye and there was no way I could have seen her. She told me that wasn’t good enough and that I still should’ve seen with my other eye even though that wasn’t possible as I was looking in the other direction and not even moving.

By this time a crowd had formed around us and they automatically sided with the woman.  She had a small bruise under her eye and demanded I take her to a doctor and began pointing to the Chinese wing of the hospital. I said I had an appointment in the foreigners’ clinic and she could come with me and I would pay for the hospital bill. They agreed and that was the end of it. They separated from me as soon as we got to the clinic and I didn’t see them again I just paid the bill when I left.

It’s embaressing enough to have been involved in an accident like that, but it’s even worse to have a crowd form. I am embarassed enough that I can’t see out of my right eye and tend to bump into things a lot, but it’s even harder to try and to describe this to Chinese people is even worse. I’ve found after four years of being here that most people don’t tend to be able to look beyond the obvious when they are in a situation such as an accident. They just get really selfish and only want the best things for themselves. I guess everybody gets like this when they’re in an accident, but I sure don’t like being in the centre of it.

J.

P.S. My eye is fine.