Posts tagged china
The same aunt who introduced me to my xiao gu gu was the only child old enough to accompany my grandfather on his trip to the schoolteachers’ house. As the story goes, my grandfather held his youngest daughter in one arm and his eldest with the crook of the other. When he handed over the baby, swathed in threadbare hand-me-downs, in exchange for the grain, his other daughter asked, “When is it my turn to be sold?” My grandfather, more leathery and grayed than he should have been at fortysomething, looked down at her, and at the twin bushels of grain in his other arm, and laughed. And then he wept.
Left-behind American children in China
According to the Fuzhou Oversea Chinese Association, about 10,000 children with American citizenship are now “left behind” in Fuzhou. For example, at the Starfish kindergarten at Guantou, Liangjiang county, 80% of its students hold foreign citizenship. American citizenship accounts for the majority. Since 1980s, a large number of 20-something locals went to the US. Now that most of them have managed to make a stable living overseas, it’s peak time for them to get married and have children.
There is no Hukou in the US (Hukou is a registered residency system in China). These children were granted American citizenship when they were born on American lands. Many of the parents who are illegal immigrants are actually hoping to obtain citizenship through their children when they are 21 years old.
In Focus: The Great Wall of China
Beginning in the 7th century BC, a series of massive defensive fortifications were constructed along China’s northern border. Built to protect China from northern attacks, the walls stretched out for thousands of kilometers, many joining together to become the Great Wall of China. Over several centuries, the wall and thousands of supporting structures were built across mountains, deserts, and rivers, eventually stretching more than 20,000 kilometers in length. Sections of the wall near large cities are well-maintained, but many remote areas are slowly being reclaimed by nature. Gathered here are images of the Great Wall over the years, from its westernmost pass at Jiayuguan to where it meets the sea in Qinhuangdao.
See more. [Images: Reuters, AP, Getty]
(via awelltraveledwoman)
Architecture of Density
Seven million people are sardine-canned into a mere 1,108 square kilometers of Hong Kong, comprised of 6,588 high rise buildings (several hundred more than in New York City). Hong Kong’s metoric development and population explosion produced these head-spinningly claustrophobic living conditions, photographed here by Michael Wolf. In each picture it’s hard to imagine that anything else exists besides these massive walls, it seems as if the architecture itself has somehow overtaken the world it springs from.
Artist: website (via: china smack / kotaku)
Extraordinary. These look like woven fabrics, like bar graphs, like the insides of machines…
Amazing.
The Unwritten Rules in Chinese Technology
Evan Osnos asks: What do we mean when we say a Chinese company has “close ties to the government”? Or is “connected to the military”? And does this matter?
To lead any big race is a strange feeling. People speak of the loneliness of running, but I’ve always felt that the sport is lonely in the races, and especially when the pack breaks and you find yourself in front. In the pack you usually feel some solidarity with the other athletes, even though you are still competing, but in front there are no illusions. That’s when the race becomes a chase - one man against the rest of the field - and I’ve always felt that this is the loneliest feeling in the world. And it’s even lonelier when you are the only foreigner in a field of more than two thousand, and all along the course spectators are calling out “Waiguoren, waiguoren, waiguoren.” Out-of-country person, out-of-country person, out-of-country person.
Hong Kong in the rain by Christophe Jacrot
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