Today I went to field work on a project in Western Victoria. On the way back, I was mobile Internet surfing and found a post from renren.com. In the post there were a lot of classic Chinese literatures. Then I complained to Helen, my colleague, about how intensive my high school in China was that we went to school from 7.20am to 9.00pm.
Then I got back home and read the news. I realized today is the day for National College Entrance Exam of China, or GaoKao (高考).
I hate GaoKao. I firmly believe it ruined my life. In high school I believed the only way to success is to go to a good university. In order to go to a good university I need to do better in GaoKao. So I study and study but I just hate to do all that homework and exams but I just had to.
Everyboy is crazy in those days. They do nothing else except for preparing for the exam. The teaching usually finishes almost a year before the GaoKao, which means most of the Year 12 is exam preparation. The teachers take students all over around the text books. Students do hundreds of sample exams. I remember we had a book of five years past exams and three years sample exams. It was a nightmare.
I can also remember I was so stressful that I was almost sick in bed one month before the exam. I was always thinking if I did bad in the exam I would be a failure for all my life. Those days were just suffering.
And then luckily I did not bad and I went to a university in Beijing. Then I realized even I went to a key university it didn't mean anything. People were already planning to go to graduate schools in 1 year of their uni.
Now I am thinking all the time in high school I was wasting on that exam preparation that I had no other things to do. It is all because of this GaoKao. So GaoKao please die.
8 June 2010
5 June 2010
Visa vs Union Pay: win China or win the world
We live on credit cards. Or debit cards. We hold one or more those plastic keys to deal with our daily transactions. Going overseas? No problem. The multinational credit card organisations can settle all the currency issues for you, with only 1% - 2% currency conversion fees of course. The logos on the right bottom of your card gurantee everything, no matter it's Visa or MaterCard. Easy. Quick. Safe.
While I was talking about how the major international credit organastaions deal with foreign exchange, there is a domestic credic card organisation in China called UnionPay, or 银联 in Chinese. This generous organisation does not charge a cent for foreign exchange commission. Isn't that sweet? However this organisation only issues cards in China and a limited number of international banks. This is a strategy of its global expansion, especially most of the transcation systems around the world is controlled by Visa and MasterCard. (Yeah they don't even accept American Express and JCB!)
Domestic credit card transcation with China is a different story. Foreign card organisations are not permitted to issue credit cards in China by themselves. They have to affiliate with UnionPay, which is the only legal transcation system in China. Therefore, most credit cards issued in China, if not issued by UnionPay alone, are co-branded card with two logos on.
The only exemption is the 2008 Olympics credit cards issued by Bank of China, which had only the logo of Visa on them. It was because UnionPay was not spousor of International Olympics Committee, whose logo then is not permitted to be printed on commercial products with the five circles.
(Images from the website of Bank of China. Copyright remains to BOC and other parties)
So both Visa and MasterCard, (Yes I did try to include JCB and American Express) issued a lot of those kinds of credit cards in China. Holders need to pay through UnionPay system if it is a domestic transaction in China. They could choose whether to use UnionPay or the other system when they were making an international payment.
Not anymore.
June 2010, Visa International regulated the international transcation for Chinese co-branded cards. It told the banks and merchants to use the Visa system (VisaNet) rather than UnionPay system in the transaction. Failure to do so will result a fine of $50,000 for the first violation and $25,000/ month for further violations.
The spokesperson of Visa China denied their attempt of banning UnionPay international transaction. They say every card starting with 4 is the property of Visa Inc. and they are not banning the usage of credit cards starting with 62, which are solo-branded cards from UnionPay. 'We are concerned about the safety of our customers.' They said.
Observers pointed out that the aim of Visa is to seek for a more open Chinese card market. Therefore they are threatening UnionPay and Chinese authority behind it. MasterCard and JCB will not follow on.
While I was talking about how the major international credit organastaions deal with foreign exchange, there is a domestic credic card organisation in China called UnionPay, or 银联 in Chinese. This generous organisation does not charge a cent for foreign exchange commission. Isn't that sweet? However this organisation only issues cards in China and a limited number of international banks. This is a strategy of its global expansion, especially most of the transcation systems around the world is controlled by Visa and MasterCard. (Yeah they don't even accept American Express and JCB!)
Domestic credit card transcation with China is a different story. Foreign card organisations are not permitted to issue credit cards in China by themselves. They have to affiliate with UnionPay, which is the only legal transcation system in China. Therefore, most credit cards issued in China, if not issued by UnionPay alone, are co-branded card with two logos on.
The only exemption is the 2008 Olympics credit cards issued by Bank of China, which had only the logo of Visa on them. It was because UnionPay was not spousor of International Olympics Committee, whose logo then is not permitted to be printed on commercial products with the five circles.
So both Visa and MasterCard, (Yes I did try to include JCB and American Express) issued a lot of those kinds of credit cards in China. Holders need to pay through UnionPay system if it is a domestic transaction in China. They could choose whether to use UnionPay or the other system when they were making an international payment.
Not anymore.
June 2010, Visa International regulated the international transcation for Chinese co-branded cards. It told the banks and merchants to use the Visa system (VisaNet) rather than UnionPay system in the transaction. Failure to do so will result a fine of $50,000 for the first violation and $25,000/ month for further violations.
The spokesperson of Visa China denied their attempt of banning UnionPay international transaction. They say every card starting with 4 is the property of Visa Inc. and they are not banning the usage of credit cards starting with 62, which are solo-branded cards from UnionPay. 'We are concerned about the safety of our customers.' They said.
Observers pointed out that the aim of Visa is to seek for a more open Chinese card market. Therefore they are threatening UnionPay and Chinese authority behind it. MasterCard and JCB will not follow on.
4 June 2010
MakerBot: Prelude of the Matrix
So the latest issue of NewScientist has an article about a new kind of robot, MakerBot. It is a kind of machine that is able to make anything, if material and methods are given, including itself. They even have a website selling cheap kits of different models. The famous one is a CupCake machine making delicious cup cakes.
Yeah the whole idea sounds cool. Finally after thousands years of struggling we are free from labour works. The machine can even replicate themselves! In fact the machines on sale are offsprings of some earlier made machines. So they are having a family tree already!
However the creators say there will be some errors when a new machine is born. The errors will be accumulated generation by generation. But they don't think it will be a problem.
Wait... what's the definition of life again? Self-replicable? Having tiny errors every generation? The reason why computers haven't rule the world, (somebody argues they already are, think about how many hours we need to work for computers! the energy we feed them and information we provide them) is because they are not on a stage of self-replication. Once they are, things will change, slightly. And slightly.
So now we are doing something to help the process. It's probably only a butterfly, flapping its wings, people are amazed at its beauty and not aware of the tornado ahead it brings with.
Or probably the butterfly has already flapped, and this MakerBot is Hermes, delivering the message on the eve of the catastrophe.
Well I am generally not conservative about science. But still I am a little bit concerned because the inventors sometimes love their stuff so much that they spoil them.
Yeah the whole idea sounds cool. Finally after thousands years of struggling we are free from labour works. The machine can even replicate themselves! In fact the machines on sale are offsprings of some earlier made machines. So they are having a family tree already!
However the creators say there will be some errors when a new machine is born. The errors will be accumulated generation by generation. But they don't think it will be a problem.
Wait... what's the definition of life again? Self-replicable? Having tiny errors every generation? The reason why computers haven't rule the world, (somebody argues they already are, think about how many hours we need to work for computers! the energy we feed them and information we provide them) is because they are not on a stage of self-replication. Once they are, things will change, slightly. And slightly.
So now we are doing something to help the process. It's probably only a butterfly, flapping its wings, people are amazed at its beauty and not aware of the tornado ahead it brings with.
Or probably the butterfly has already flapped, and this MakerBot is Hermes, delivering the message on the eve of the catastrophe.
Well I am generally not conservative about science. But still I am a little bit concerned because the inventors sometimes love their stuff so much that they spoil them.
2 June 2010
Nanjing: Compulsory Pay Rise
If you hava a business in Nanjing, the ex-capital city of China, you now have to increase your employees' salary by at least 6% annually. If you are not, you are faced with a fine from ￥1,000 to ￥10,000!
Let's first look at how strict the new regulation is. Wow you will be fined if you don't do so! So how much is ￥1,000?
Well, as an average indicator, 1 AUD = 6 RMB.
So, if I have a business, I will pay the fine rather pay more to my employees. Who cares!
You know, as Chinese Consitution indicates, everyone is equal, including working class and peasant farmers. Their rights do not need to be protected because it is THEIR country. Who would offend? What the Chinese law did say is, somebody is more equal than others. Every enterprise is owned by the PEOPLE. Why would we have laws against our own enterprises? We need to become rich to liberate the whole world.
So the union of workers, which is a compulsory organisation in each enterprise, stands for the interest of the PEOPLE, I mean, PEOPLE who own them. Salary negotiation? WHY? Don't be selfish comrades.
Let's first look at how strict the new regulation is. Wow you will be fined if you don't do so! So how much is ￥1,000?
Well, as an average indicator, 1 AUD = 6 RMB.
So, if I have a business, I will pay the fine rather pay more to my employees. Who cares!
You know, as Chinese Consitution indicates, everyone is equal, including working class and peasant farmers. Their rights do not need to be protected because it is THEIR country. Who would offend? What the Chinese law did say is, somebody is more equal than others. Every enterprise is owned by the PEOPLE. Why would we have laws against our own enterprises? We need to become rich to liberate the whole world.
So the union of workers, which is a compulsory organisation in each enterprise, stands for the interest of the PEOPLE, I mean, PEOPLE who own them. Salary negotiation? WHY? Don't be selfish comrades.
28 May 2010
Communism comes to China?
A recent strike in China is unexpectedly reported as front page news in China's state-controlled media. Thousands of workers from Honda's factories are now on strike for higher wages. The factories, perhaps 4 of them, are then forced to halt production. Two leaders of this strike were fired by Honda, only to burn the fires among the workers.
China, as a communism country, does not really guarantee its citizens the rights of strike. Strike was considered as a very 'unharmony' component of this fragile society. They are not allowed to appear on media. The organisers of strikes were often questioned or even arrested by the police. A famous case was a proposed Taxi driver strike. The organiser was located by the police through an online IM software and then sent to jail.
However this time, the state media put the strike of Honda factories workers on the front pages, on the top of Korean crisis and chain-subsiding in Foxconn. The report said Chinese workers earn only 1/50 of their Japanese colleagues in Honda's factories, only are able to live on basic standards.
The salary discrimination in China has been a long unwritten rule among foreign-owned companies. Employees holding foreign passports or residencies generally earn more than Chinese local employees and enjoy more privileges. One explanation of this phenomenon is those foreign employees having higher basic salary rates in their home countries. This may not be a reason, but states the truth. Legal minimum wage in China is so low that it can barely cover basic living expenses. The high inflation rate in China brings a tougher life for those living on basic wages.
And the workers union in China is only a department distributing free condoms (implementing one child policy) and movie tickets (propaganda). They are usually controlled by either government or even employers. It does not stand for the interest of workers, not to mention in salary bargaining. The workers have no position in negotiating their pay. Because they are always find people willing to do the same work with less wage demand.
That's the secret of China's export-leading economy. That's why people in western countries can buy cheap Made in China goods.
However the era of cheap labour in China is about to come to an end, at least in South China. Governments are more strict about regulations of minimal wages, which is increasing more frequently than before. People are more aware their rights and know how to ask for it. So today, they are on strike. Perhaps this is how communism comes to China, for real, this time.
China, as a communism country, does not really guarantee its citizens the rights of strike. Strike was considered as a very 'unharmony' component of this fragile society. They are not allowed to appear on media. The organisers of strikes were often questioned or even arrested by the police. A famous case was a proposed Taxi driver strike. The organiser was located by the police through an online IM software and then sent to jail.
However this time, the state media put the strike of Honda factories workers on the front pages, on the top of Korean crisis and chain-subsiding in Foxconn. The report said Chinese workers earn only 1/50 of their Japanese colleagues in Honda's factories, only are able to live on basic standards.
The salary discrimination in China has been a long unwritten rule among foreign-owned companies. Employees holding foreign passports or residencies generally earn more than Chinese local employees and enjoy more privileges. One explanation of this phenomenon is those foreign employees having higher basic salary rates in their home countries. This may not be a reason, but states the truth. Legal minimum wage in China is so low that it can barely cover basic living expenses. The high inflation rate in China brings a tougher life for those living on basic wages.
That's the secret of China's export-leading economy. That's why people in western countries can buy cheap Made in China goods.
However the era of cheap labour in China is about to come to an end, at least in South China. Governments are more strict about regulations of minimal wages, which is increasing more frequently than before. People are more aware their rights and know how to ask for it. So today, they are on strike. Perhaps this is how communism comes to China, for real, this time.
27 May 2010
A factory with 12 lives
A cat will die after losing its 9 lives. How many lives does a factory have?
2010, Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, witnessed 12 of its employees jumping off their high-rise dormitory buildings to finish their lives.
Foxconn, aka Hon Hai, is a Taiwanese-owned group having some 800,000 employees. It is owned by a Taiwanese tycoon Gou Tai-Ming (郭台銘). The group operates several manufacturing factories in China, being suppliers for international customers like Apple.
Troubled by accuses of its abusive employment practices, Foxconn is still a popular employer among young workers in South China. It has higher pay rates than most of its counterparts and provides after-hour work opportunities for those who want extra money. They have clean dormitories, canteens, etc. In fact, the living area of the factory is like a community.
Except people barely know each other. They have no time to socialize. People working in Foxconn complain about they have no chance to even speak to their roommates, who may work on different shifts. No such things as clubs or associations among workers in Foxconn exists.
The suicide cases in Foxconn shocked China. Gou believed there was such curse to doom his factory. He was about to invite some Buddhist monks to prey for the factory, before more cases followed up. The executive board of Foxconn then implemented other measures to stop more people from suicide, such as opening hotlines to solve physiological pressures of its employers, delivering physiological lectures, etc. And then more cases happened.
26 May 2010, Gou went to the factory himself and delivered a speech to the workers. He apologized for everything happened in his factory and promised no one will be forced to work extra hours.
Less than 12 hours after the speech, a young man jumped off and died in Foxconn.
2010, Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, China, witnessed 12 of its employees jumping off their high-rise dormitory buildings to finish their lives.
Foxconn, aka Hon Hai, is a Taiwanese-owned group having some 800,000 employees. It is owned by a Taiwanese tycoon Gou Tai-Ming (郭台銘). The group operates several manufacturing factories in China, being suppliers for international customers like Apple.
Troubled by accuses of its abusive employment practices, Foxconn is still a popular employer among young workers in South China. It has higher pay rates than most of its counterparts and provides after-hour work opportunities for those who want extra money. They have clean dormitories, canteens, etc. In fact, the living area of the factory is like a community.
Except people barely know each other. They have no time to socialize. People working in Foxconn complain about they have no chance to even speak to their roommates, who may work on different shifts. No such things as clubs or associations among workers in Foxconn exists.
The suicide cases in Foxconn shocked China. Gou believed there was such curse to doom his factory. He was about to invite some Buddhist monks to prey for the factory, before more cases followed up. The executive board of Foxconn then implemented other measures to stop more people from suicide, such as opening hotlines to solve physiological pressures of its employers, delivering physiological lectures, etc. And then more cases happened.
26 May 2010, Gou went to the factory himself and delivered a speech to the workers. He apologized for everything happened in his factory and promised no one will be forced to work extra hours.
Less than 12 hours after the speech, a young man jumped off and died in Foxconn.
23 May 2010
Volunteer Teacher Forced to Leave China
Eckart Loewe, or better known as his Chinese name, 卢安克, is a German volunteer teacher in remote South China country village. Having been teaching in China for almost 10 years, he was interviewed by the Chinese state-owned CCTV and became known to the public. The people in China admired his contributions to the education of kids in villages and described him as a hero of the nation. He can speak fluent Mandarin, which is described ‘like poem’ by some people. He operated a blog in Chinese focusing the Education in China and problems of ‘left behind children’, rural kids whose parents migrate to city to make money.
However Mr Loewe is forced to leave China due to his visa expiry soon. China has very strict immigration laws. It issues visa with short stay length and renew times limitation. Mr Loewe obtained his visa four years ago. Now he is not able to renew or obtain a new visa onshore, which means he has to arrange his visa offshore, perhaps in Germany. He also tried to apply for a Chinese citizenship but failed. China only allows naturalization when a person makes ‘special contribution’ to China or has close relatives as Chinese citizens. Apparently the government was not convinced that what Mr Loewe did was a ‘special contribution’ to the whole nation. Mr Loewe was forced to remove all the entries from his blog and leave a message stating that he is neither a credentialed teacher nor a volunteer.
The Chinese Internet community has a very strong reaction toward this news. The story was interpreted as; Mr Loewe’s blog touched a sensitive issue in China (left behind children) and annoyed the authority so he was forced to leave. People blame the government for this decision and wrote hundreds of articles online to criticise the government. Then these articles were shared on SNS websites so more people believed it was the government which to blame. (Click here)
I admire what Mr Loewe did to the Chinese kids and his contribution to local community. However I believe this time it is not the government which should be blamed. The immigration law is very clear about visas and citizenships. The government has no position to change or break the law just to appeal some interest of some people. (However I believe the law should be modified under proper procedures.) Moreover, the government should regulate the education system by issuing credentials to qualified teachers. Kids in primary school should not be taught by teachers without credentials. In this case, Mr Loewe is not holding any form of credential which allows him to teach in China. His teaching activities have breached the law and regulations.
Can you image a Chinese citizen coming to Australia, volunteer for the community for four years without any kind of certificates, and then asked for a citizenship? Go home. Out of question. Then why should people blame Chinese government for doing same things?
It should be pointed out, that Chinese government should put more money into education system. Moreover, the whole exam-directed system should be changed. I think they are why people are so angry in Mr Loewe’s case. Only by achieving those, kids in rural communities can enjoy the same rights with kids in the city.
However Mr Loewe is forced to leave China due to his visa expiry soon. China has very strict immigration laws. It issues visa with short stay length and renew times limitation. Mr Loewe obtained his visa four years ago. Now he is not able to renew or obtain a new visa onshore, which means he has to arrange his visa offshore, perhaps in Germany. He also tried to apply for a Chinese citizenship but failed. China only allows naturalization when a person makes ‘special contribution’ to China or has close relatives as Chinese citizens. Apparently the government was not convinced that what Mr Loewe did was a ‘special contribution’ to the whole nation. Mr Loewe was forced to remove all the entries from his blog and leave a message stating that he is neither a credentialed teacher nor a volunteer.
The Chinese Internet community has a very strong reaction toward this news. The story was interpreted as; Mr Loewe’s blog touched a sensitive issue in China (left behind children) and annoyed the authority so he was forced to leave. People blame the government for this decision and wrote hundreds of articles online to criticise the government. Then these articles were shared on SNS websites so more people believed it was the government which to blame. (Click here)
I admire what Mr Loewe did to the Chinese kids and his contribution to local community. However I believe this time it is not the government which should be blamed. The immigration law is very clear about visas and citizenships. The government has no position to change or break the law just to appeal some interest of some people. (However I believe the law should be modified under proper procedures.) Moreover, the government should regulate the education system by issuing credentials to qualified teachers. Kids in primary school should not be taught by teachers without credentials. In this case, Mr Loewe is not holding any form of credential which allows him to teach in China. His teaching activities have breached the law and regulations.
Can you image a Chinese citizen coming to Australia, volunteer for the community for four years without any kind of certificates, and then asked for a citizenship? Go home. Out of question. Then why should people blame Chinese government for doing same things?
It should be pointed out, that Chinese government should put more money into education system. Moreover, the whole exam-directed system should be changed. I think they are why people are so angry in Mr Loewe’s case. Only by achieving those, kids in rural communities can enjoy the same rights with kids in the city.
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