Talk Of Liberty

Tonight at 8pm, my show is on Milton Friedman and his book and PBS TV series that — 30 years ago — argued that freedom leads to prosperity. The last 30 years have proven him right.

Consider Hong Kong. Hong Kong is just a rock – it has no natural resources. It doesn’t even have democracy — the communist Chinese run the show, and before that it was the colonial British. Yet in the last 50 years, Hong Kong went from third world poor to American levels of wealth.

Friedman’s ideas also helped some of the people who were once subjects of the Soviet Union. When Communism fell in the early 1990′s, the first Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar found himself presiding over a country that was in deep trouble:

“We started from 1992 with inflation [at] 1000%.. we had [a] prognosis for unemployment of 35%… we had a shortage of everything….I didn’t know very much about economy. The only book about economy that I read was Milton Friedman’s [Free To Choose].”

It was all he needed. Per capita GDP in Estonia is four times higher than it was 20 years ago.

The good news is that many countries continue to move toward economic freedom. GMU economist Tyler Cowen points out that, this week, the impoverished African country Rwanda has introduced “an Online business registration service… reducing time it takes to register a company to just one hour.”

As East African Business Week reports:

“Rwanda is far ahead of other East African Community member states in easing doing business. It first reduced the period for registering a business from 30 days to a week and then to three days and has now come up with just an hour.”

The Heritage Foundation ranks countries according to economic freedom.  Rwanda scores low on things like taxes and corruption, but it ’s score has increased steadily. If the country keeps taking Friedman’s advice, prosperity should be around the corner.

From Zhangshuyue’s blog:

 

The inside information of Facebook to enter China came in mid-April 2010, said that the earliest will be within three months. Then followed by a Chinese headhunter company said that Facebook already commissioned them to recruit the relevant General Manager in China, mainly in charge of the gaming business. On the surface, according to various sources Facebook is really going to enter China. These speculations on the king of the SNS industry created heated discussions all over the world. Netizens are especially curious about which Chinese name Facebook will use. Should it be “Lianpu” (脸谱) (types of facial makeup in Chinese operas), or slightly pictophoneic characters “Mianshu” (面熟) (first character means face, second character is a homophonic pun of the Chinese character “book” and it means familiar, together familiar face), or should it just follow what Google did phonetically translate the name to “Feisibuke” (“非死不可”) a very inauspicious term which means “must die”? But more importantly, now this temporary name seems to suggest the bleak future of Facebook entering China.

Difficult for traditional SNS to walk on the road of China

On the surface, Facebook entering China is a logical thing. Figures showed that Facebook’s page views for the first time surpassed Yahoo in February this year and has become the most popular network platform. However in China, as of early December 2009, the number of registered users of Kaixin001 (www.kaixin001.com) was close to 70 million, with over 2 billion page views and more than 20 million users logging in each day.

SNS’s future looked bright but this is only because of being popular. Although many companies put up advertisements, it seems that the investment is not as effective as imagined. Just as Facebook found helplessly that although it has reached 193 billion page views (December 2009 data), the click rate of the ads on the pages was very low. In December 2009, users’ time spent on the site for Facebook already surpassed Yahoo, reached 116 million minutes, users spent average of 247 minutes on the site monthly. However, these amazing numbers which attracted advertisers just cannot bring immediate value for the investments.

There has long been Shanzhai version of Faceook in China. Renren and Kaixin001 etc Chinese SNS were the earliest pioneers; actually both are imitating the Facebook model. In China, SNS also cannot solve the profit problem. Especially Kaixin001, in the beginning was almost like Facebook’s twin also inherited the difficult situation, and even more serious. So called white-collar platform network, Kaixin001 accumulated user base with MSN users in the beginning, going in the right direction but was not popular enough, only relying on web game plug-ins was difficult to trap the already busy white-collar group. And after Tencent SNS platform used similar plug-ins and successfully opened up grass-root market, Kaixin001 had a transformation, but because still unclear about the users’ faces, the problem of profiting still could not be resolved. After all, Tencent’s success is because the users’ consumption habits, while Kaixin001 has not trained their users with the habits, profiting by adding advertisements also could not be accepted by the users.

Model is unchanged, while the user group is completely different from Facebook in the U.S. if it continues to follow the traditional SNS model, then it’s just like recreating the problematic Kaixin001 in 2008.

Difficult to break the localization bottleneck, difficult to see the light

Facebook had developed the Simplified Chinese version as early as 2008, but because of these managers in Europe and America have no clear understanding of the pattern of the Chinese market and the lack of communication between headquarters led to the operations in China being very mild and ineffective. Google sadly left China, in fact the real underlying cause was also not able to be truly localized.  It could not open the heart of the Chinese users. Will Facebook take the same path to disaster?

In terms of localization, it is easy said than done. After all, Facebook does not understand Chinese culture. Even though not yet entered China, it has already showed signs of being unaccustomed. March this year, Facebook users across Asian increased by 6 million, monthly active users was over 850 million with average growth rate of 7.5%. However the growth rate in Hong Kong and Taiwan were only 4.5% and 2.5%, far lower than the average. It is easy to see that Facebook already encountered localization issues when just testing the waters around China.

Meanwhile the majority of the Chinese Internet users have never heard of Facebook. In China, because ordinary netizens can not directly access Facebook homepage, people know very little about it. The user base is relatively weak.

One of the key reasons Facebook is popular in foreign countries is because the instant messaging feature. But this will not dominant in China. Tencent Board Chairman Mr. Ma said “Facebook is a tool of communication, but in China instant messaging (QQ) has replaced it to some extent.” Facing the “penguin” (QQ) with hundred millions of users, Facebook has no advantage there, must find another way.

Facing strong local rivals, early opportunity is lost

As for the news of Facebook soon entering China, iResearch Consulting analyst Zhao Xufeng and Cao Di said, the local SNS competition is fierce, similar foreign Social Networking Site MySpace already entered China but performed very average, the prospects are not optimistic for Facebook going into China.

Under the current circumstances, Facebook’s decision was too late. Analysys International analyst Yu Yi pointed out that the competition landscape of Chinese SNS is already established, if Facebook enters China as the traditional social networking site, it will not have much space to develop.

Also, Facebook now enters China will be difficult to pleasantly surprise the Chinese netizens, because after all most of its features and plug-ins were already exposed to the Chinese Internet users via the Shanzhai version of Facebook, they will no longer feel new and fresh. When Sina Micro-blog and Kaixin found out the news about Facebook entering China, they immediately imitated Facebook and Twitter’s micro-synchronization feature, once again. Tencent also recently launched beta version of its micro-blogging site, without a doubt, in the future it is to be seamlessly integrated with the Tencent space and platform. Homogenization of competition, without any resources in China, Facebook has no chance of winning. It is thus clear that China’s SNS at the moment is being looked at like the prey eyed by the tigers, local competitors try to keep the enemy outside of China.

Early opportunities lost, Facebook is also very clear about the current situation. Some information said Facebook entering China this time is not to be a social networking service provider, rather as social games developer.

Game may be their only way out, market research firm Pearl Research said, China’s online game market grew 35% in 2009, reaching 3.9 billion U. S. Dollars, and China’s online game market is expected to breakthrough 6 billion U. S. dollars in 2012. The 2009 growth is precisely benefit from Tecent space, Renren and Kaixin001 etc social networking games. Facebook to be in the pie is much easier than homogeneously competing in SNS. More importantly, Facebook’s total income of 700 million U. S. dollars in 2009, only 10 million of which was from virtual goods. Facebook has very low income in virtual goods comparing  to the SNS in China. The model of free online gaming with paid virtual props has become the market mainstream. This gives Facebook a huge untapped blue ocean. They can also use the experience in China on U. S. and other western markets.

Facebook to enter China, is it “must die”, or does it become a flexible and enterprising Lianpu (脸谱)? We shall wait and see.

 

“In 1993, a businessman named Wen Jingfeng opened China’s first adult sex shop in Beijing. Since then, sex shops have been opened across the country, as the foreign media interpreted as the major symbol of China’s reform”. (From early post: Sexual repression of the stay at home women in China’s rural areas)

The societal views towards sex in China have gone a long way since the old days. However there are still far more uncertainties and inconsistencies about sexuality in this country. Swingers were recently sentenced to prison for “group licentiousness”. Pornography is banned and illegal but a large population of people have them on their cell phones. Prostitution is illegal yet it is as common as barber shops on the streets, literally.  And It is almost socially accepted for wealthy and powerful men to keep multiple mistresses while many people in the lower social classes suffer from sexual repressions…

Introducing RED LIGHT REVOLUTION, finally a film that takes a humorous look at Chinese tradition and post 1949 dogmas colliding with modern sexual value.

(If you cannot see YouTube videos in China, try use VPN software : Freedur ,  and use coupon code CHINAHUSH to get 10% off.)

Nominated for Best Unproduced Screenplay at Australia’s 2008 Inside Film Awards, RED LIGHT REVOLUTION is the first feature film centered on China’s multitude of adult stores, and the everyday people who run them. RED LIGHT REVOLUTION follows a luckless Beijinger who risks it all to open a shop, sparking a sexual revolution in his conservative neighborhood.

The film stars Zhao Jun, Vivid Wang, Jiang Xiduo, Masanobu Otsuka ("City of Life and Death", "Tiananmen"), Tess Liu ("The Karate Kid"), Tian Huimin ("Mao’s Last Dancer"), and Ji Qing ("Gasp"). The film is written & directed by Sam Voutas (actor, "City of Life and Death", "Empires of the Deep"). Cinematography is by Wang Yifan.

RED LIGHT REVLUTION is directed by Australian director Sam Voutas and produced by Melanie Ansley. 

RED LIGHT REVOLUTION is now in post production and should be released in the next month or so.  Producer Melanie Ansley said,

Where can you see the film? We’re hoping everywhere.  But while our website is under construction we have a temporary home at Indiegogo,  and if people leave us a comment telling us they want to see the movie, we’ll definitely do our best to make sure it plays in their town.  We’re also on Twitter, Facebook, and Douban.com, anyone who’s interested to keep up to date is more than welcome to connect with us.

Don’t miss this hilarious comedy!

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The Global Times recently reported that 15 million teens light up in China, according to a 2008 report from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Excuses that range from “It helps me relax” to “All my friends do it,” give China’s 13 to 18 year olds reasons to buy cheap cigarettes.

I personally witnessed a young kid, most likely embarking on his teenage years, pressuring his friend to smoke at a bus stop. He teasingly waved the cigarette in front of his friend’s face, while the boy desperately tried to grab at it. As the bus pulled away, I wondered about these children’s fates, as tobacco gradually blackens their developing lungs. They would severely hurt their chances of ever becoming the next Yao Ming, and they probably won’t be able to run to catch the subway without breaking into a sweat.

What’s China doing to keep children from spreading the habit? A Beijing survey shows that every school has about two cigarette stands nearby with affordable prices, according to the Global Times. The Times also reports that the Ministry of Education plans to counteract this easy access by issuing a regulation banning smoking “in all schools and indoor spaces at universities.” However, I couldn’t find any other news articles to support this.

A quick online search reveals that China’s attempts to curb smoking in other indoor facilities for the last four years might finally come to a grand finale, granted people actually pay attention. China’s Ministry of Health announced that they will place a ban on smoking in all indoor public places, public transportation, work places, and other areas by January 2011. Read more about this proposition here.  The Ministry of Health prohibited smoking in their own office buildings beginning May 31, according to the People’s Daily.

Shanghai also recently enforced a city-wide smoking ban in public places, following Beijing’s lead, after the capital attempted to reduce the second-hand smoke during the Olympics. The Shanghaiist reports that penalties for breaking the new rules wouldn’t empty a pocketbook, being only 50 RMB to 200 RMB. A shocking 2009 viral picture of a toddler from Sichuan Province lighting up accompanies the article.

Low fines and lack of advertisement for these regulations cause tobacco-free advocates to worry that the message won’t get across soon enough, as the number of smokers on the mainland continues to rise. The Ministry of Health, with a miniscule tobacco control budget, also faces the political baggage of a State Tobacco Monopoly Administration that operates both as a government agency and a corporation.

One million deaths a year in China occur due to smoking-related illnesses, according to a recent PBS interview. But despite the gloom and doom, some still oppose the insistent efforts the Ministry of Health is making to break people’s habits, worrying that it will stunt China’s economic growth. Yang Gonghuan, director of China’s National Office of Tobacco Control, told the China Daily that the tobacco corporation’s influence on younger kids is also making it difficult to easily convince little ones that smoking is bad: “For instance, a primary school rebuilt after the Sichuan earthquake with funds from a tobacco company is named “Sichuan Tobacco Hope Primary School.”

The clock is ticking for China, as promising youngsters and adults risk their health and pollute the air in cities that are drawing more and more expats each year. Will the newest efforts work, or, like other attempts, go up in smoke?

(From Wuhan Evening Paper) Sick of public transportation? Try kayaking all the way home like him. 34 years old Wang Bing live in Wuhan City but works in Hanchuan City, Hubei Province. He took up outdoor sports since 1999. Last year, Wang exchanged 3800 RMB for an American-made kayak AE1012 that weighs only 12 kg when deflated into a back pack. In the morning on June 4th , Wang finished his night shift in Hanchuan District, and prepared to head home on kayak for the 3rd time.

(1:5000m; this map is for reference only)

He carried his packed kayak to the Hanchuan section of the Hanjiang River, and spent 15 minutes to unpack, inflate the kayak as well as to assemble paddles. At about 9:30, Wang in life vest pushed the kayak into water and glided down the river.

“The water’s wide and slow along the Hanchuan section, you have to paddle hard to keep it going.” said Wang.

About noon, Wang got ashore at Dongxi Lake to eat briefly. At 14:30 he shored again at Gutianyi Road to meet 5 other kayaking enthusiasts who put up 2 double kayak and 1 single kayak to join in Wang’s journey. Since some of them were new to Hanjiang River, Wang gave them a little heads-up: "first, don’t get on main channels; second, the waves made by big ships are ok to the kayak so don’t panic before them, just maintain your speed and course; and third, it will save a lot to paddle with an angle.”

About 5 o’clock in the afternoon, the 4 kayaks were seen, from Yuehu Bridge, lined up with Wang at the head. An hour later, they passed Qingchuan Bridge and found the water rushing rapidly. Wang observed and declared: "we are about to meet the intersection of Hanjiang River and Yangtze River, be careful as the waves will grow stronger, let big ships go first should we meet any.”

Then he rowed to Gangshuiyu where waves ran over his kayak, then he changed course and paddled hard across Yangtze River with the team. At 19:30 the 4 kayaks reached their destination Wucang riverside area.

The idea of kayak home first occurred to Wang Bing this May. To do this, he went consult his friend in maritime sector who told him to keep away from main channels.

Early this May he began to carried his packed kayak to work, and tried his debut cruise home one morning after work at 8 am. The journey covers 55 km as estimated by GPS. The first two trips took him 8 or 9 hours. This time he spent 10 hours because he had to look out for his companions.

Wang Bind said that he enjoyed kayaking all the way home plus the beautiful views along the journey.

(From wccdaily) It happens in Chengdu City, Sichuan Province: 140 unlicensed passenger vehicles are put together by the Municipal Committee of Communication to destroy publicly. To make it personal, the committee invited over 50 cab drivers to finish their enemies with iron bars.

The 140 vehicles consist of 73 knock-off cabs and 67 illegal vehicles that fail to accept punishment in due time. "Let’s do this" orders a officer, and a bulldozer smashes the roofs and glasses of the lined up cars with its gigantic shovel.

"These wild cabs cheat people on purpose, they are our enemies." says Liu Yang, who chops up 4 cabs nonstop. The remains of the knock-off cabs makes him laugh. Liu Yang’s cab was cloned in the recent year, and he was ticketed times for no reason, he even got complained for dumping passengers, which he never did. Last month, his colleague found the cloned cab and called up Liu as well as 30 more cab drivers to besiege the wild cab. The cab was cornered in the end and handed over to the committee of communication.

According to the officials, most illegal cabs are actually scrap or combined cars although they appear to be brand new. Their severely worn parts and tires pose threats to the traffic, and in the case of traffic accident, they are difficult to chase down. Smashing them down in groups sends a message to the wild cab industry.

Where there are demolitions, there are stray dogs. Starting from Qing Hai Ying 3 years ago, stray dogs left in the reconstruction areas become common scenes in Beijing. While their owners move on to new lives in new homes, sadly these once beloved dogs are left behind, facing the rubbles of the old home as well as their unforeseeable future.

Last year, Rui Jia (瑞家), a rescue team for stray animals made a clip called “The watch keep in ruins”(废墟中的守望), telling the sad stories of those pets abandoned in Qing He Ying, a reconstruction area in Chaoyang District, Beijing. “The dogs are abandoned because of demolition, they may be cooked once get caught.”said a villager in the clip.

This year, Beijing will have over 50 suburban villages demolished, which means even more pets will be abandoned. It is a fact, and heavy. Most volunteers feel that their abilities fall short of their wishes to help：to save, but they don’t have enough people and resources to support the ongoing rescue; not to save, but those creatures are also lives.

Its name is Cang Cang. Sitting in this roofless high land like a statue, Cang Cang looks and looks and looks at its old home’s ruin opposite. It would not step away from the spot, sometimes its tired eyes will gaze at the passers-by. When evening falls or rain drops, it crunches into the pieces of asbestos tiles behind.

Without home, this doggy doesn’t know where it belongs.

After the demolition of home, Xiao Xiong went out for food at day time and come back to "keep the home” at night. A neighbor sympathized it and kept it home for a few months until later she had to move away too. Then another family took Xiao Xiong in, but it managed to go back to its original home. No one saw it again. Volunteers was told that it was bitten to death by a big dog. May be this is its fate, to live and die along with its home. May be in its heart, it believes there is only one home, and one owner.

For some reason, these two became friends around the ruins.

Owner moved during Xiao Hua’s pregnancy. She gave birth to her doggies in the very place in the world that she felt safe – home, which is later bulldozed together with the doggies. Xiao Hua kept lingering around the ruins since then. She would go and watch door at night for those who give her meals. Temporarily she was taken in by a kind family.

Later there came a yellow little dog and white kitten, to whom Xiao Hua exerted love and care out of her unfinished motherhood.

March 28th, volunteer received a text massage from the family that kept Xiao Hua temporarily: the household next door have moved, and the house was down, the dog lives in the old kang(炕), still adorable, just a little dirty because of the ashes, take him away please.

Though full of ashes and dusts from kang, the dog still had clear eyes. It was frightened by the sudden lost of home and family, but after volunteers played with it with sausage, it began to lighten up and bite straws to play around. On the way to the base however, it thrown up ashes: all these days it had been feed on the ashes from the kang because it is too intimidated to leave the spot.

During the search of the dog living in kang, volunteers stumbled upon another intimidated black dog hiding among the ruins of the house that was torn down 2 days ago.

Black Huan Huan, a dog taken in temporarily by the family at the mouth of the village.For the time before they move, Black Huan Huan served as a door keeper for the family. After that it could have been transferred to a stable home by volunteers as everybody wished had not for the moving truck that ran over its body. It was just 3 days away before Black Huan Huan can be transferred.

 

Old Black is always this cowing and frightened. It was cornered and anaesthetized before people can bring it away.

Xiao Cai’s doggies were also buried in the ruins which was why she wouldn’t left. As a dog that has never been adopted or offered meals, she lives through these several months, a true miracle. Volunteers tried to take her away but she always flashed out of sight in seconds.

On this winter day, volunteers met her again. She was pregnant again, her tongue turned purple. In such cold days, water is frozen and food is hard to find. The living prospect seems quite minor for her and her babies. But volunteers couldn’t manage to get closer. And Xiao Cai disappeared for good from the ruins afterwards.

Xiao Huang was transferred to the recycle collecting tenant by the landlord. Volunteers proposed in vain to have Xiao Huang sterilized in case it delivers more doggies that could be abandoned when the family move. Later, Xiao Huang gave birth to 5 doggies which the family asked volunteers to take away. However, new born doggies need to be feed by their mother, the family then suggested to lease Xiao Huang at a price of 300 yuan.

Volunteers help villagers to have their dogs sterilized, still some families will reject to do so even they clearly state that dogs stay while they move, thus doggies keep coming to this cruel world, in groups.

Wooden house made by volunteers.

Black Girl was also pregnant. She was sold to volunteers as meat for 100 yuan by her owner, which apparently was something she could not comprehend otherwise she should not have found a chance to broke lose and run back to its owner.

Demolitions carry on, the city’s moving forward, why left them behind?

(Source from sohu.com  Photos by 昔音)

Chinese students often try to make themselves invisible to the teacher who throws out a difficult question and looks around patiently for answers. Usually it is accomplished by making the teacher invisible to the students themselves by lowing their faces or hiding their blank eyes behind the students in the front rows. But in this scenario, the tricks become impossible, since the only two students in the class sit abreast .

(From infzm.com)Liang Qing Tun (良庆屯) is a small village nested in Yantan Town of the Yao Autonomous County in Dahua, Guangxi Province. With only a handful of households, the village doesn’t have enough student supply to start a school. So the central primary school in Yantan Town sets up a teaching point there a few years ago to educate pupils under Grade 2 who cannot travel the long distance to the central school in town like older students. However, the number of the students attending to the teaching point is decreasing year after year as more and more children are leaving the village along with their parents who work outside.

And eventually, there is only one girl left in Grade 2.Tang Lei as the one student in her class has no one to discuss homework with except for her only teacher Wei Fengmei who takes up the teaching of Chinese language, mathematics, English, music, art and PE class etc. Now she’s got someone to turn to when questioned by Miss Wei in the class.  A girl named Tang Yisi comes and lives with her aunt in the village,  she attends to the same grade as Tang Lei. The two become inseparable friends in no time.

After a lonely semester, Tang Lei (left) has a classmate as well as close friend now.

The two are about to have arithmetic class with bamboo sticks.

PE class.

After school activities can definitely use some more participants.