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.

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.

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.

798 - Warehouses in Beijing

In the last entry I reviewed the warehouses in Melbourne (click here to read more). In Beijing, where deindustrialization also takes places, there is a similar spot.

The place is called 798. It is a factory with dozens of warehouses. The name doesn't mean anything but only a series number in the Red Days when 'the whole nation is a chessboard' of Mao Zedong. You can even find Factory 797 or something similar nearby. In those days China tend to have a preference of name public facilities in series numbers. In Beijing they have No.1 No.2 high school and the order didn't stop even it knocked No.101. (No.101 High School is actually a good one. It locates at the corner of the site of the Old Summer Palace, which is burned by British and French troops during the Second Opium War.)

Factory 798 or 798 Art Zone is what this place is famous as. Wikipedia told me technically 798 only refers to one of the complex within this factory. It became so famous that even the most conservative English text books in China from People's Education Press contained an artical about it.

I don't want to go through the history about this place because Wikipedia provides more information than you need. I've been to 798 only twice, not much compared to thousands of artists who live there and hundreds of thousands of Artsy Youth (文艺青年，简称文青) who consider 798 as their Mecca (no offending to muslims). However I'd love to share some experience of my visit.

So the ideal time to visit 798 is a dusted and polluted weekend in Beijing which is dusted and polluted as any other usual weekend. The Beijing Bus Company apparently didn't appeal to the popularity of 798 therefore only less than 3 bus lines were operated in that areas. Or maybe they are in a secret treaty with 798 authority which encourages more people arrive there by car or taxi, in this way they can purify their audience by how much they earn and want to spend.Otherwise you have to spend hours in transiting metros, lightrails and buses.

798 contains of graffiti and sculptures, most of which are political pop themed. They reflecte the crazy old days and examine the spirit and soul of the captilism-lized communism China. There was a painting in 798. The background was Tiananmen square, the policital centre of Red China. There were a group of figures, eyes covered, dreamwalked randomly on the square under the portait of Mao Zedong. The meaning was obviously. There was a sculpture. A naked kid was standing, with eyes covered by a pair of red palms.

Critics complained that such artistic were created in favour of 'International anti-China Sentiment. However government didn't ban them at all.

There are also several permanent exhibitions in 798. The famous one is the Nike Factory. Nike is the top sports brand in China and is the symbol of the youth lifestyle. The young Chinese city kids are proud of their Nike sneakers and other outfits. Nike launched in China with the help of the image of Michael Jordan. When I went to 798 there was a special exhibition in Nike Factory about the all the Jordan basketball shoes Nike made. A typical pair Jordan basketball shoes costs about ￥1,000, while the average income in China nationwide is ￥2435.75/month in 2008. （Data from National Bureau of Statistics of China) You now know why Nike is pursued by Chinese city kids.

Another one is UCCA Ullens Center for Contemporary Art. I don't know much about it.

 Nike Factory

In China toilets are called WC.

Warehouses in Melbourne: Rebirth after Deindustrialization

If Melbourne has nine souls, then warehouse is one of them.

They spread around all over the city. And the suburbs. What they were designed for is never a concern of the customers who enjoy the coolness of the atmosphere. I guess they were used as factories which were each moved to Dandenong or China. Or as storehouses which stored things people don't need anymore (cassettes maybe). Then with the deindustrialization of inner Melbourne, these warehouses became abandoned. Some of them were demolished, while some survived under several waves of urban redevelopment.

Warehouses are bigger than normal business premises with better lightnings and less obstacles when it comes to decoration. Therefore it is perfect for galleries, cafes, cool restaurants and other similar stuff you can image. Today I even went to a warehouse sales for a well-known clothes brand in Collingwood, the centre of coolness. To me it looks more like a theatre with all the seats upstairs and a big stage in front where the changing rooms were set up. Jeans and tops are displayed on long tables in the hall and cool people just walk around.

Then we went to another place called Litter Creatures Dining Hall on Brunswick st, Fitzroy. It is surrounded by the Brunswick st neighbourhood and still stands out among the awesome. The menus are printed on rough paper. Bill folders are just children reading books like Donald the Duck, etc. Btw the waiters/waitresses were too cool that the bill should have been requested for at least three time before it was delivered. The lighting is supreme and background music is wonderful.

Another place I really recommend is called 1000 Pound Bend, locating on Little Lonsdale st. I don't it has a website. Nor a phone. Nor a name card. It just doesn't need any. The waiters are so casual that even if you forgot to pay nobody would bother you. There are several review about this place. Click here and here. My friend Dan even did a video review, which it is Chinese and English bilingual. Dan was little bit concerned about the way how this place will make money. While I don't really worry about it. They have now an Asaki exhibition and they hold functions every now and then.

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Melbourne is soooo sunny today that I had to take some photos.

1000 Pound Bend Cafe

ADMIRAL Movie Review: A Rehabilitation of White Russian

Admiral, a blockbuster of Russia in 2008, tells a story about the rise and fall of Kolchak, a leader of white russian movement. He went to the Russo-Japanese War, WWI, then became the commander of the white russian army in the russian civil war. After 'liberating' several major cities, his army was not several hundred kilometres from Moscow, the red capital. Lenin then started his propaganda to launch a counterattack of some 200,000 people, most of which are workers and peasants. Then Kolchak was defeated and sentenced to death.

A movie about a civil war is always sad. Especially this one. The Red army fought so hard against the alliance of former upper classes. But what for? Ten years later, most of them were wiped out by Stalin.

The movie, of course, didn't say anything good about the Red army. It seems that they were a group of bogans wanting the power. While the White army represents the elegancy, the beauty, the order and the courage. There was one scene in the movie that when all the ammunition run out, the White army just march to the fierce gun powers with their bayonets.

The movie, however, didn't say a work about the dictatorship and brutal about this commandar. It didn't say anything about the strategy he used at all.

Kolchak was never rehabilitated in Russia. Two requests have been denied by court.


I'll talk more about the White Russians. After russian revolution, the people who were 'revoluted', who were normally military officers, nobility, the rich, fled overseas. Some of them went to China. Harbin, a major city near China-Russian border, once was full of Russians. These russians then had difficult times in the Japanese occupation time in the puppet state Manchukuo. Many left China and went back to Russia, only to be arrest in the Great Purge. Others who remained then found them to be sent back after WWII when Russian army won the war and liberated that city.

Russians in Shanghai was a different story. Days were tough in this big city so some women ended up with being prostitutes. Others who were well-educated joined Ballet groups or orchestra. After WWII however, red China forced them to leave. Some of them fled to Australia and other countries.


In addition, the movie shows how wonderful the Russian rail network was. Simply there was train from every major city to every major city. Taking trains in winter is an extragvagance. The whole world was covered by snow while the carriage is warm as spring.

image: here

 The love story, I have to say, is pretty boring. The last scene apparently was set to dedicate to the Titanic. However it seems the director failed to develop the love story further and I don't see any relationship between the love story and the main story line.

Trip to Charlton

Charlton is a small country town in northeast Victoria. Perhaps halfway between Melbourne and Mildura. It was so small that the Shire of Charlton was abolished and merged into the Shire of Buloke.

What makes Charlton famous is its the Charlton Feedlot, a huge feedlot with some 23,000 cattles which is the largest one in Victoria. It is the reason I came to Charlton: we have a research project in Melbourne University ragarding the greenhouse gases emission from feedlot.

Campared to its size, Charlton has a few motels. One of which even was fully booked that we had to change to another one. It was a motel at the fringe of the town, making it the first stop from the farm. The backyard of the motel connected to a big farm and the paddocks runnning all the way up to the horizon.

I generally don't enjoy work. But working on field is so much pleasure, except for the flies and exposure to the sun. I feel so close to the sky which is right there around me, reaching to the very verge of the land. Clouds stretch out in the sky from all directions effortlessly. Birds glide over the water surface, which reflects rays of sunlight into goldness.

The night is a magic gift. Especially at twilight, the last drop of sun lingers at the far reach of the horizon, colouring the strips of clouds into sunset glows, purple, blue, orange. Looking above, it's alright dark, sapphire sky embedded with stars. When sunlight becomes invisible, the Milky Way reveals with all the constellations. The land, the houses and ourselves are enfolded into the sphere of twinkling eternities, and dreams, embrace us.

(Image from http://charlton.vic.au/)