Worldcrunch
-OpEd- BEIJING — Many Chinese films are awful. Who is to blame for this objective fact? An audience typically praises a film when they think it’s good and complain when it isn’t. Yet Feng Xiaogang, a famous Chinese film director, was lambasted at the recent Shanghai Films Festival for the following statement: “The reason why […]
-Analysis- SAO PAULO — The G20, the club gathering the world’s biggest economies, is the offspring of two crises. First, the 1997 Asian financial crisis led to the creation of the group in 1999, as an annual summit for finance ministers and central bank governors. Their objective back then was to coordinate policies to stabilize […]
BEIJING — Dream or nightmare? Chinese moviegoers will now see for themselves. Starting July 1, the anniversary the Chinese Communist Party, and through its 19th national congress in the fall, all Chinese cinemas are obliged by the government to show a propaganda film,The Glory and the Dream — Our Chinese Dream. The short video is […]
Finally some serious competition for Tesla. Just days after Elon Musk said his American multi-billion dollar electric automobile startup would start producing its Model 3, the brand’s first mass-market electric car, a heavyweight automaker from the past declared “the end of the solely combustion engine-powered car.” By 2019, all new Volvo models will come with […]
Coal miners have lived off the industry for generations. Though China is still the world’s top coal producer, plans for clean energy spell the end of the mining life for many.
The U.S. has a long history of inhibiting Chinese expansion in Asia. Now, Donald Trump is handing them the keys.
European companies complain of trade hurdles in Beijing, but China presents itself as the defender of global free trade. A new study tries to provide clarity.
Hong Kong was still under British rule when we visited it. This strangely shaped building was then named the Prince of Wales Building and housed the head office of the British Army. In 1997, when the island became an autonomous territory of China, it was renamed: Chinese People’s Liberation Army Forces Hong Kong Building — […]
From shock therapy treatment to nausea pills to fake marriages, Chinese gays, lesbian and transgender are targeted by clinics and family trying to turn them straight.
BEIJING — Two events this spring, seemingly unrelated, together offer a snapshot of where China has arrived in finance-related technology, commonly referred to as “fintech.” On April 17, the Bank of Communications, one of the largest Chinese banks, launched a new “mobile credit card” product, making it the first bank to make a credit card’s […]
A decades-old argument might just have been settled: Modern “mixed martial arts’ fighter vs. Tai Chi master — who wins?” In a recently filmed fight, Xu Xiaodong, a Beijing-based mixed martial arts freestyle coach, duked it out with Wei Lei, a famous Tai Chi master from Sichuan. It took less than 20 seconds for Xu […]
BEIJING — At the just concluded Beijing International Film Festival, the hottest feature on the bill was the business battle between Chinese and American film industries. The Fate of the Furious, a Hollywood blockbuster, has grossed 2.35 billion RMB ($340 million) since its release two weeks ago in China, and it is projected to become […]
BEIJING — Authorities have carried out a series of raids on beauty salons in the Chinese capital in an effort to crack down on counterfeit Botox, The Beijing News reports. Botox is popular in China, where many young women aspire to have a thin V-shape face. But the high price of injections, which require regular […]
Wisteria was in full fragrant bloom in the gardens of Suzhou during our spring tour along the country’s east coast. The city’s many waterways has given it the nickname as the “Venice of China.” See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World here.
In Beijing parks and throughout the rest of China, “singles’ markets” are held, organized by the parents eager to marry off their children.
-Op-Ed- LAUSANNE — While plenty of attention has been paid to Donald Trump’s “America First” pledge — as troublesome or laughable as it may seem — relatively little is being said about another protectionist economic strategy, one that could have a far greater impact on Europe and the West. Unlike the U.S. president, with his well-known habit of airing every thought and whim on Twitter, authorities in Beijing have been discreet about their “Made in China 2025” initiative. Don’t be fooled though. It may not have a lot of fanfare, but this is no half-measure. Just as China has already […]
-Analysis- A planned visit by the Dalai Lama, a Tibetan spiritual leader, to a remote corner of northeast India could just have escalated tensions between nuclear-armed neighbors India and China. The Asian nations share a disputed 3,500-km border. China claims ownership of about 90,000 square meters of land run by India, which it calls South […]
GUANGZHOU — After flocking to the megalopolis by the tens of thousands, Africans seem to be going sour on Guangzhou, or “Chocolate City,” as it’s been nicknamed by the Chinese. Home to the largest African community in Asia, Guangzhou, an important global trade platform located opposite Hong Kong, attracted scores of migrants starting in the […]
More and more Japanese, South Korean and other foreign manufacturers of TCM are not even using Chinese raw materials for the ancient cures. What is left then?
BEIJING — For rich and single Chinese women who want it all, America is there to help. The Beijing-based website Tencent Finance reports that U.S. fertility clinics are increasingly catering to single Chinese women who want to have a child on their own. Annie Liu, a successful high-end real estate dealer in New York, saw […]
Islam making major inroads in the east African nation. China pumping millions into infrastructure and industry. An Italian reporter gauges changes in the former colony.
China eased its controversial one-child policy in late 2015. But there are still plenty of people, for one reason or another, who can’t have children and could benefit from surrogate woman willing to carry the pregnancy.
The Japanese diet is rich in carbohydrates, but widespread obesity has not occurred even through the country’s economic boom.
Debate continues to simmer over the threats of “fake news’ and the civic and journalistic responsibilities of the world’s largest and most powerful social media platform. What does state censorship in China have to do with all of that? We asked ourselves that very question. January 17, 2018* It was a handshake nine years in […]
BEIJING — In Xi Jinping’s China, it is again a risky proposition to openly criticize Mao Zedong. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thought it had resolved the discussion in 1981 when it decreed that the reign of Mao, the founder of the People’s Republic of China, had been 70% good and 30% bad. But since […]
-Analysis- As China opened its markets and rose to become the world’s second-largest economy, foreign media focus has shifted from tales of political repression and exotic outposts to largely a business story. Corporate chiefs and bankers unpack the meaning of hard, cold economic figures, and the latest data revealing Chinese “expansionary territory,” with the odd […]
Massive use of antibiotics in animal farming and for the treatment of common ailments is helping create incurable infections.
First with Obama and now with Trump, the U.S. is making space for a second imperialist power on the American continent, China.
Japanese and Chinese rivals battle for dominance in this billion-dollar industry, a tale of a worldwide economy drawing ever closer.
-Analysis- PARIS — For more than 70 years, the United States was the ultimate life insurance policy for Europe against the Soviet and now Russian thirst for power. The U.S. also held sway in Asia, in large part to counter China and to contain North Korea’s dangerous and eccentric drifts. The rise of China’s economic […]
There is more to folk dancing than the famous “Dragon Dance” … Feather Fan Dance, Ribbon Dance, Sword Dance — my wife and I spent an evening enjoying them all. See more slides from My Grand-Père’s World.
CHONGQING — Every day since 2014, a train leaves from the western German city of Duisburg. It winds its way across Europe and Asia to finally reach Chongqing, a megalopolis of 28 million inhabitants in southwestern China. Huge cranes there extract gigantic matchbox-like containers from the train. BMW cars made in Germany are taken from […]
CORK — On a December morning, as my plane pierces the ceiling of clouds and begins its descent toward the airport of Cork, my eyes are drawn to the flocks of sheep spread across the green fields below. It’s hard to imagine but this seemingly rural backdrop in southern Ireland houses the European headquarters of […]
If Washington cracks down on Chinese imports, Beijing is sure to respond in kind. Companies that would suffer include makers of everything from sneakers to semi-conductors.
Hong Kongers really like soup. Is that the secret to their long leases on life?
BEIJING — It’s been more than a year since China abolished the one-child policy ntroduced in 1979 to control the population. The politburo came up with a new two-child policy and simplified the government-approval process for couples seeking assisted reproductive treatment. The shift prompted older couples to use frozen semen and eggs, and test-tube babies. […]
A county in China long known for its poets and philosophers is now in the news for something far more notorious — renting out children as thieves for hire. In Dao county in the southern Chinese province of Hunan, a child can be rented for 200 yuan ($29) a day, or 50,000 yuan ($7200) a […]
-OpEd- KALAMAZOO — People from China who travel abroad are struck by the stark differences between their countries. In the U.S. and Europe, they probably envy how people live in comfort and are rich enough to engage in arts and public service. These countries in general have more honest and transparent governments, as well as […]
BEIJING — If you’ve ever had trouble ordering at Starbucks, just know you probably have plenty of company: millions of Chinese coffee lovers. When one customer recently posted an open letter online to the chief executive of Starbucks in China to complain about the way the American coffee chain calls its different size cups, the […]
Chinese business leaders should learn lessons from Japanese firms’ spending sprees of the 1980s and 1990s.