NPR: The underbelly of contemporary China, review Lotus by Zhang Lijia

Zhang Lijia

More reviews are coming in of author Zhang Lijia´s Lotus: A Novel, about prostitution in China, this time from the NPR. The reviewer is rightfully impressed. "We can count ourselves lucky to get this glimpse into the fascinating world of Lotus."

NPR:

The author has a light touch, even when delineating the underbelly of contemporary Chinese culture. She conducted research in the red light districts of Shenzhen, Dongguan, Beihai, Tianjin and Beijing, so there is a documentary verity to the telling, giving starch to fiction that might otherwise be flabby. Zhang also brings a personal stake to the book, dedicating it to her grandmother, who was sold to a brothel as a euphemistically-termed "flower girl," or courtesan. 

Some first novels, especially those birthed in creative writing classes (Zhang, a former rocket factory worker in China, studied at the University of Iowa), go heavy on self-consciously poetic language. The author tries too hard and the reader suffers. The images Zhang gives us, in contrast, are uncomplicated, concise and touching. Young Lotus's "pencil was homemade, simply the broken end of a pencil's lead discarded by her classmates, stabbed into a piece of soft wood." Concerning Bing's emotions, Zhang writes, "He had been like an ant on a hot pan ever since the girls' visit." 

Book groups be advised: Readers will learn quite specific tricks of the trade. Lotus is undeniably earthy but thankfully spare, letting its characters, and its proverbs, do the talking. When Bing wants to get serious with Lotus, we hear about the development a proverbial way: "What luck, this offer. A pancake fallen from the sky, as her grandma would say." We can count ourselves lucky to get this glimpse into the fascinating world of Lotus.

More at NPR. 

Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need her at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´request form.

She will be at a book presentation in New York at February 1, Barnes & Noble on 82nd Street and Broadway, at 7 PM.

Are you looking for more experts on cultural change in China? Do check out this list.

Chinese racism in Africa - Howard French

+Howard French 

One of the major stories told in Howard French´s latest book China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa is that of the Chinese attitude towards Africans. Howard French gives his take at NPR. 

NPR:

MARTIN: It was interesting to me how much racism you personally encountered over the course of your travels. I mean, just the kind of day-to-day, casual reminders of distance that is certainly not polite in this country anymore. I'm thinking about when you went to this hotel in Liberia. And then you went to this room to drop off your things and wash up, and there was no towel there. And then when you told your host this, he summoned a young Chinese man who worked for him and told him to fetch me one. He says, we don't usually give them out because most Chinese bring their own. They wouldn't want to use one that a black person might have used. I mean, put this in some context for me. I mean, do you think that this is, kind of, growing pains, and that at some point will people have moved beyond that? What's your sense?

FRENCH: Everywhere I went, the local Chinese person referred to the people, in whose midst they had come to settle, as black people. You know, they would say, the blacks, the blacks, the blacks, the blacks. They wouldn't say the Ghanaians, or the Tanzanians, or the Zambians, or the this or the that. It was just, the blacks. And this refusal, or reluctance, to allow any kind of finer identity - to render them totally anonymous as just simply black, as if that was the only pertinent detail about them, was very telling for me. That whether or not this is a passing phase, I can't really say. But for the time being, the Africans are just, essentially, serving as a backdrop for Chinese processes - somebody that will be useful for them - or a place that will be useful for them for the time being along the way, as they proceed up the ladder of hierarchies, if you will, of civilizations of nations.

More at NPR. 

Howard French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Howard French has been interviewed on a wide range of subjects, covered by his book. Click here for an updated overview of his latest interviews.  

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The stay-behind effect of Chinese in Africa - Howard French

+Howard French 

The stay-behind effect is one of the phenomenons author and journalist Howard French describes in his latest book China's Second Continent Chinese workers arrive on an mission for their company in Africa, and stay to hang on, as they discover it is not such a bad place for them.  From NPR.

Howard French:

As far back as mid-'90s, China's political leaders had the foresight to understand that Africa had a great deal of unrecognized economic potential — and had a particular kind of demographic profile, meaning that Africa's population was set to increase very rapidly. There was a great prospect that Africa would also have, along with this demographic rise, growing middle classes. So China was — at the same [time] it was seeking to secure natural resources — it was beginning to think about Africa as a place where it could develop markets, important markets for the future. 

On the sector of Chinese society that is migrating to Africa 

Most of the people we've been talking about so far in terms of migration are what in our country would be called working-class, or at best, socio-economically speaking, lower-middle-class people. As such they tend to come from secondary cities in China, especially in cities that are not on the east coast in China, where most of wealth is concentrated. And people in those cities have not benefited from the full blush of economic growth that China has enjoyed for the last 30 or so years. 

On how state policies and individual choices influence Chinese emigration 

In '90s, Beijing begins to formulate this idea of "Going Out" — that was the official name of the policy — where a national priority was established to seek business in faraway lands, places like Africa, where China didn't have much of a history of economic engagement. ... This is very much a state-driven process.

But then something very interesting begins to happen. Once Chinese companies begin to secure projects in these sorts of places — for example the construction of a port, or an airport, or a highway system — they move a thousand or 2,000 workers to the target country for a fixed period of time, a year or two ... At the end of that period, a certain percentage of workers decide to stay, decide Africa is not such a bad place after all.

... That stay-behind phenomenon is an individual decision. I don't see evidence that the Chinese state has been a major factor in encouraging what has become a form of migration, where these people complete contracts and remain on the ground in the destination country for the medium or longer term.

More at NPR.

Howard French is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you interested in more experts focusing on China´s outbound investments at the China Speakers Bureau? Here is a recent list.

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The Chinese route into Africa - Howard French

+Howard French 

Hao Shengli in Mozambique is one of the characters author Howard French introduces in his latest book China's Second Continent: How a Million Migrants Are Building a New Empire in Africa. At NPR Howard French explains his migration story.

NPR:

FRENCH: Hao was interesting because, unlike most of the people I profile, he was not a working-class person. He had started up several businesses in China that had done reasonably well. He had some savings. He set off to the Middle East - tried to do business there. He failed. He comes back to China. And he goes to a trade fair and meets some people in Guangzhou who tell him that there's all kinds of opportunity in Africa. And so he then begins to fixate on Africa. And he ends up in Mozambique on the theory that, as a Portuguese speaking country, they'll be very few Chinese people there. He spoke no Portuguese, but he figured, at least, he wouldn't have any cutthroat Chinese competitors. And so he goes to Mozambique. He doesn't do well in the capital. He discovers, to his disgust, that there are a lot of Chinese people there, in fact. And so he sets off for the countryside. And he ends up finagling his way into buying a very nice piece of irrigated, very rich farmland. And he gets into these relationships with the local people. And their relationship becomes ever more testy, and so he's worrying. Even though he's got a long-term lease, he's wondering if the villagers won't find a way to contest it, or the local government will take it back from him. And he settles upon a scheme, which absolutely astounded me, of bringing his teenage sons from China to settle there with him - and to have children by local women, in whose names he could place the property and control it indirectly through these people, who, as Mozambican citizens, would legally have the right to own land forever. And so that's the scene that I stumble upon in this rural place.

More at NPR. 

Howard French is a speakers at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers´ request form.

Are you interested in more stories by Howard French? Click here for an updated overview.

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Salaries with Chinese characteristics - Shaun Rein

Shaun Rein

"How much do you earn?" That is one of the surprising questions Chinese strangers can ask you. But they might not only expect a figure, but a conversation, as a salary in China is very complicated feature, explains business analyst Shaun Rein in NPR's Marketplace. 

NPR: 

Perks on top of your salary are one of the country's dirty secrets in government-run organizations:

Shaun Rein: Many companies offer automobiles, houses, they even pay for gym memberships for their executives. And this should all get counted as income from employees, but it doesn’t.

Shaun Rein is author of the book “The End of Cheap China.” He says there’s a reason a monthly paycheck in China looks like calculus homework.

Rein: What happens is a lot of companies will use benefits as a tax write-off, which is why you have a lot of employees who make $300 a month driving Bentleys, because the companies are able to use the purchase price of the Bentley as a 100 percent tax write-off.

With visions of company-issued Bentleys dancing in their heads, top Chinese college graduates are increasingly choosing jobs at state-owned enterprises over multinationals.

More in NPR's market place.

Shaun Rein is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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Minor effects from US tariffs on solar panels - Bill Dodson

Bill Dodson

Much ink has been spent on the effects of newly imposed US tariffs on solar panels from China, even a trade war seemed an option. But industry analyst Bill Dodson sees only minor effects, if any, he tells NPR's marketplace. China might use the panels domestically. 

NPR's China correspondent Robert Schmitz:

Rob Schmitz: Chinese solar panels make up half the American market. Those made in the U.S., just a third. The new tariffs are set at between 3 and 5 percent of the panel's cost. That's so low that some U.S. solar panel manufacturers say it may not impact the American market. 

Bill Dodson: What it will do is perhaps accelerate China's own plans to develop its own solar projects here in China. 

Bill Dodson is an industry analyst in China. He says the threat of tariffs has already spurred the Chinese government to invest more in solar infrastructure at home. 

Dodson: It was clear to them that a counter-measure they could take that would take the heat off any trade friction would be to develop their own domestic market for solar power.

More in NPR's market place.

Bill Dodson is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch or fill in our speakers' request form.

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