ZGBriefs | May 19, 2016

ZGBriefs is a compilation of news items gathered from published online sources. ChinaSource is not responsible for the content, and inclusion in ZGBriefs does not equal endorsement. Please go here to support ZGBriefs.

Featured Article

Top 5 Best VPN for China **May 2016 Update** – Ultimate Guide (May 2, 2016, Start Up Living China)
VPNs can help you get around internet censorship — but not all VPNs work well in China. Our Best VPN for China Ultimate Guide is constantly updated from here in China to let you know what works and what doesn’t.

---

Sponsored Link

Allied Passport & Visa, Washington, D.C.
Allied Passport & Visa can process 10-year tourist or business visas to China for US citizens in any jurisdiction. Mention that you heard about them from ChinaSource to receive a $5.00 discount on processing.

If you or your company/organization would like to sponsor a link in ZGBriefs, please contact info@chinasource.org for more information.

---

Government / Politics / Foreign Affairs

China’s New NGO Law: Navigating the Restrictions and Application Procedures (May 12, 2016, China Briefing)
It is estimated that around 7000 foreign groups and organizations with existing operations in China will be affected, and that the incorporation process for new NGOs will be significantly more difficult.

The Foreigner Advising Beijing on Propaganda (May 13, 2016, China Real Time)
When China’s top propaganda and media operatives gather in Beijing, an erstwhile Egyptian often stands out from the crowd of suits, thanks to his towering frame and voluminous afro.

China charges Hu Jintao aide Ling Jihua with corruption (May 13, 2016, BBC)
Mr Ling had taken bribes, stolen state secrets and abused his power, state prosecutors said. He was in effect chief-of-staff to President Hu, but was demoted in a surprise move in 2012.

Pentagon Report Aims to Lay Out Chinese Military Goals (May 15, 2016, China Real Time)
With things heating up in the South China Sea and across the Taiwan Strait, Washington just attempted to shine some badly needed light on Beijing’s military efforts.

China's Great Leap Backwards: Xi Jinping and the cult of Mao (May 15, 2016, Sydney Morning Herald)
But 40 years on from his death, Mao remains central to the Communist Party's narrative of ruling legitimacy. His embalmed body lies in state in a mausoleum overlooking Tiananmen Square, while his portrait smiles over the Forbidden City and graces every Chinese banknote.

Chinese jets intercept US spy plane over South China Sea, Pentagon says (May 18, 2016, BBC)
Two Chinese fighters have carried out an "unsafe" intercept of a US military aircraft over the South China Sea, the Pentagon says. The incident happened in international airspace on 17 May as the US maritime reconnaissance aircraft carried out a routine patrol in the area, it added.

A Subversive Message in Hong Kong Goes Up in Lights (May 18, 2016, The New York Times)
The animation is a countdown of the seconds until when the “one country, two systems” framework — a guarantee that Hong Kong, a former British colony, would keep its civil liberties and a high degree of autonomy for 50 years after its return to Chinese sovereignty in 1997 — is set to expire.

Above or Below the Line: Facing China’s New Foreign NGO Law (May 18, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
Adapting to the “new normal” for foreign NGOs will likely require a portfolio of approaches depending on the nature of the work, where it is being done, and the degree to which one is willing and able to work with officials at various levels.

Religion

Is China Moving to Restrict Religious Freedom for the Hui Muslims? (May 13, 2016, China Change)
Recently a video of a 5-year-old Hui Muslim kindergarten pupil from Gansu province reciting verses from the Qur’an went viral on China’s social media, attracting almost unanimous condemnation from presumably Han Chinese netizens. At a discussion forum, for example, several comments labelled the preaching of religion to children as “evil cult” behavior.

Success—Our Generation’s Greatest Spiritual Disaster, Part 1: The Transformation of a Millennial (May 17, 2016, Chinese Church Voices)
In this two-part series, Si Wei shares her journey and explains why she sees success as the greatest spiritual disaster for those born in the 80s.

Society / Life

Photos: Shanghai’s nail neighborhood (The Big Picture)
In a corner of Shanghai, surrounded by a cement wall, lies one of the world’s most valuable fields of debris and garbage. On paper, the Guangfuli neighborhood is a real estate investor’s dream: a plot in the middle of one of the world’s most expensive and fast-rising property markets. But the reality is more like a developer’s nightmare, thanks to hundreds of people living there who have refused to budge from their ramshackle homes for nearly 16 years as the local authority sought to clear the land for new construction.

Toxic talk: Trying to lip read in China (May 12, 2016, BBC)
There are many challenges to overcome when moving to another country. Laura Gillhespy reveals the sometimes unexpected hurdles she faced as a law intern with a hearing impairment when she moved to China's capital, Beijing.

Wendy Blazes a Trail (May 13, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
With nearly five million orphans, China is faced with a problem that is simply too large to handle. To help alleviate this situation, the Philip Hayden Foundation established Shepherd’s Field Children’s Village (SFCV) in Tianjin, China.

Beijing Vows ‘Urgency’ in Battling Crowds, Pollution (May 13, 2016, China Real Time)
That’s the message from Lu Yan, the city’s top planning official. In a briefing with several foreign media organizations this week, Mr. Lu highlighted something in Beijing’s new economic and development plan that the city had never done in years past: set specific targets restricting growth in population and usage of land, water and other resources.

The Rise Of China Vs. The Rise Of The Chinese (may 13, 2016, US-China Perception Monitor)
China’s domestic and social transformations are ongoing, as are the resulting issues and problems. Thus, as a part of China’s grand emergence, the “rise of the Chinese” — how China’s overall rise has ensured positive outputs and far-reaching changes among its whole population, for example in social governance — deserves more attention.

Video: 'The land where women rule' (May 14, 2016, BBC)
It is one of the world's last surviving matriarchies, in which there is no traditional father role and inheritance is matrilineal, passed from mother to the oldest daughter. Filmmaker Milene Larsson spent time with the tribe to tell the story of three generations of Mosuo women.

British and Chinese: Divided by culture? (May 14, 2016, BBC)
The Queen caused an international stir when she was caught on camera describing a Chinese delegation as "rude". But was she merely echoing a common perception?

Photos: Being seventy in China (May 15, 2016, China Underground)
China’s aging population is expanding fast. However, lifestyles of the elderly living in cities and rural areas are nowadays completely different.

The Farmer Girl and the City: The Rootless Women of Rural China (May 15, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
Recently, a new novel by the famous Chinese author Jia Pingwa has brought the problems of China’s countryside women to the public’s attention. Women from China’s small villages are caught in a Catch 22: no matter if they stay on the countryside or enter the city’s labor market, they are at a disadvantage either way.

Why China’s Street Protests Do Not a Revolution Make (May 16, 2016, China Real Time)
The standard narrative about China is that common people are seeking change and it’s the government that’s standing in their way.

Skeptics Jeer After Chinese Couple Bring Party Into the Bridal Suite (May 18, 2016, The New York Times)
Needless to say, many people have been agog that the couple took time off from their big night to dwell on the virtues of the party. The Chinese Internet has been alive with debate and skepticism about the photos, as well as some pity for the couple, turned into props for propaganda during their most personal time.

“We Could All Be the Next Lei Yang” – Chinese Netizens on the Lei Yang Case (May 18, 2016, What’s on Weibo)
Some netizens already call it one of the biggest controversies of the year. The death of the 29-year-old environmentalist Lei Yang – while in police custody – has sparked online outrage, with many connecting this fatality to police brutality. Now Lei’s wife has stepped forward, demanding answers from Beijing authorities on the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death.

From legend to history: China turns to mythical emperor (May 18, 2016, AFP)
The avowedly atheist Communist Party is promoting worship of the ancient figure as it seeks to bolster its legitimacy — and emphasise Chinese blood ties, including with Taiwan ahead of the inauguration of Beijing-sceptic president Tsai Ing-wen.

Economics / Trade / Business

Video: Largest Lego store opens in China (May 11, 2016, Reuters)
Toymaker Lego opens its largest retail store in the world at the Shanghai Disney Resort.

Apple Invests $1 Billion In Chinese Ride-Hailing App (May 13, 2016, NPR)
It's a striking foray into the Chinese market — where Apple has recently faced strategic challenges — and a possible hint as to Apple's continued interest in the world of transportation.

China Challenged to Keep Yuan Stable as Dollar Rises (May 17, 2016, China Real Time)
Having had it easy for a few months, the Chinese central bank is now coming under renewed pressure to steady the yuan and prevent money from leaving China’s shores.

China Ramps Up U.S. Investments, From Straws To Semiconductors (May 17, 2016, NPR)
Chinese companies are on a major shopping spree in the U.S. They're set to break a record for investment deals this year, snapping up everything from entertainment companies to methanol plants. Most of these investments are takeovers, though Chinese companies are also expanding their existing operations to the U.S.

Apple Case Underscores Pitfalls of Doing Business in China (May 18, 2016, The New York Times)
Amid the opacity of China’s social systems, the clichés can sometimes pile up: Game of smoke and mirrors. Wild-goose chase. Stumbling block.

China Needs Fewer Skyscrapers, Says Manager of Country’s Tallest Building (May 18, 2016, China Real Time)
At an awards ceremony last Friday for tall buildings in China, the general manager at Shanghai Tower Construction & Development Co. sounded a downbeat note, appealing to his peers to think twice about planning another skyscraper.

Education

Test Driven: Parents Protest Changes to University Entrance Exam (May 15, 2016, China Real Time)
Protesters, many of them identified as parents in social media postings, staged demonstrations in at least six cities in Jiangsu province over concern that education authorities are reducing the number of spots set aside for local students in provincial universities.

Science / Technology

China Quietly Targets U.S. Tech Companies in Security Reviews (May 16, 2016, The New York Times)
Chinese authorities are quietly scrutinizing technology products sold in China by Apple and other big foreign companies, focusing on whether they pose potential security threats to the country and its consumers and opening up a new front in an already tense relationship with Washington over digital security.

History / Culture

Multi-media: Cultural Revolution, 50 years on (South China Morning Post)

Video: China's Cultural Revolution in posters (May 15, 2016, BBC)
China's Cultural Revolution was a golden age for propaganda posters if nothing else. Paul Crook, who was a teenager living in the capital Beijing during the 1960s, takes us through his collection from the time.

It was the worst of times (May 15, 2016, The Economist)
To most outsiders, the period was one of those episodes of unreason that can afflict a great nation, comparable, say, to France’s reign of terror in 1793, though that nightmare lasted only ten months and claimed fewer lives. The Cultural Revolution involved three years of mob violence and an entire decade of terror (or more—even in 1978, two years after Mao’s death, the Cultural Revolution was officially described as having been “triumphant”).

Maoists still a force 50 years after the Cultural Revolution (May 15, 2016, AP)
But in the ancient city of Luoyang, the old, the poor and the marginalized gather daily in the main public square to profess nostalgia for the political movement, downplaying that period's violent excesses. In the marble halls of power in Beijing, Cultural Revolution-era song-and-dance performances are being revived. China's liberals see ominous signs of a society tugged backward by ideological currents.

50 Years After the Cultural Revolution, a Son Awaits Answers on His Father’s Death (May 14, 2016, The New York Times)
Fifty years after his father was killed, Chen Shuxiang still wonders what happened to his bloodied corpse. He keeps a frayed note from back then that let him make his way through the mayhem of the Cultural Revolution and pay the student zealots who beat his father to death to have him cremated.

Relics of China's Cultural Revolution – in pictures (May 16, 2016, The Guardian)
Tucked away in south-western Sichuan province, a private collector stands virtually alone in exhibiting relics from the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution. Today marks the 50th anniversary of the start of the political upheaval, although no official commemorations are planned in China.

China’s ancient Buddhist grottoes face a new threat — tourists (May 16, 2016, The New York Times)
But the fragile wall paintings, some of which date to the 4th century and show stories from Buddha’s life and visions of the afterlife, face another threat — from a new army of tourists and the lure of profit.

Feng Shui in Hong Kong (May 16, 2016, Sapore di Cina)
Fēng Shuǐ (风水), born as a geomantic art that has roots in the most ancient Chinese tradition, is today a discipline that is the best union between the natural elements and man-made nature.

Cultural Revolution’s Memory on the Brink of Extinction (May 17, 2016, China Digital Times)
On May 16, the 50th anniversary of the start of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong’s Phoenix Television aired a vox populi segment interviewing many student-aged Chinese on their impressions of Mao’s infamously disastrous campaign—one that has largely been flushed down China’s memory hole.

Arts / Entertainment / Media

Joseph Fiennes on Chinese sequel to Chariots of Fire: 'It transcends religion' (May 15, 2016, The Guardian)
The actor, in Cannes to promote follow-up to the 1981 Oscar-winning sensation, says he consulted original’s director, Hugh Hudson, and that Eric Liddell’s legacy was a duty of care not exclusive to his Christianity.

Chinese calligraphy letter sets new auction record (May 16, 2016, BBC)
An 11th Century letter has set a new record price for a work of Chinese calligraphy, fetching 207m yuan ($32m; £22m) at an auction in Beijing. The letter is the last surviving work of Chinese scholar Zeng Gong, who penned it around 936 years ago, popular news website ThePaper.cn reports.

Travel / Food

Eight Lesser-Known Places to Visit in China (May 11, 2016, Bootsnall)
You can climb the Great Wall, wander through the chambers of Beijing’s Forbidden City, and marvel at the stately colonial buildings along Shanghai’s Bund. But, well, everyone does that, and you’ll likely be sharing those attractions with a few thousand other visitors. You’ll get a lot more out of a visit to China if you get off the tourist track.

China May Publicly Shame Tourists Caught Scrawling Graffiti on Mount Everest (May 13, 2016, Skift)
Next time you leave silly messages on the world’s highest mountain, beware: China is watching you. Mountaineering officials have scrubbed graffiti from two granite tablets on the Chinese side of Mount Everest’s northern base camp and plan to name and shame future defilers.

How a Chinese restaurant in America's Midwest won Sean Connery's heart (May 16, 2016, PRI)
The Leeann Chin restaurant chain was born. It grew in the Twin Cities until the 1980s, when another Minnesota company, General Mills, bought the company for "millions of dollars." General Mills was going to take Leeann Chin national — but the expansion faltered. Chin's family bought the chain back and they focused on their base in the upper Midwest. The family sold the chain again in 2007, but Leeann Chin restaurants are still very much a thing in Minnesota.

Dalian! (May 16, 2016, From the West Courtyard)
I’ve only been to Dalian once, and that was way back in 1992. I was studying Chinese in Changchun at the time, and a classmate and I decided to head to Dalian for a weekend getaway at the only western hotel in the city, a Holiday Inn. Western food! CNN! It was great.

China Will Be the Largest Overseas Visitor Market for the U.S. by 2020 (May 17, 2016, Skift)
By 2020, China will be the largest international source market for the U.S. excluding Canada and Mexico, a pivotal shift in the visitor pie chart that has been dominated by Japan and the U.K. for decades.

Xinjiang Road Trip | Stunning Highway 216 (May 17, 2016, Far West China)
It all started with a single WeChat message, a kind of Chinese social media, from a friend that lived in Korla. I was planning to drive out his way from the capital of Urumqi and he insisted that my Xinjiang road trip include Highway 216. He told me it was an extremely bumpy ride but the scenery was spectacular.

World's 1st rice themed museum to open in C China (May 17, 2016, Xinhua)
Photo taken on May 16, 2016 shows the panorama of Longping Rice Museum in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province. Longping Rice Museum, the world's first rice themed museum, will open on May 19.

Books

Q&A with Rob Schmitz on His Book ‘Street of Eternal Happiness’ (May 11, 2016, Sixth Tone)
Schmitz talked to Sixth Tone about his intentions for the book, his impressions of the state of writing in China, and whether or not the dreams of those in the book are remotely related to the “Chinese dream.”

Links for Researchers

How the Chinese Government Fabricates Social Media Posts for Strategic Distraction, not Engaged Argument (Harvard)
The Chinese government has long been suspected of hiring as many as 2,000,000 people to surreptitiously insert huge numbers of pseudonymous and other deceptive writings into the stream of real social media posts, as if they were the genuine opinions of ordinary people.

Image credit: by Andreas Kristensson, via Flickr