Remembering A Reformer

正Commemorating China’s chief architect of reform and opening up inspires latest revisions As a teenager,Zhang Weiying,now a prominent economist and former Dean of the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University,thought he could be nothing more than a farmer like his illiterate parents.In an article written in memory of the year he was admitted to college,Zhang,born in 1959,noted that he spent the first 19 years of life in his hometown,a remote village in China’s northwest Shaanxi Province.As someone     

Zhang Boju：Collector of National Treasures

EVERY lifetime has its unforgettable moments. My visit to Zhang Boju （1898-1982） in 1981 was among them.Although just one of many interviews during my career as a professional photographer, it was special. Zhang was one of the few celebrities that I truly looked up to, respected and admired. He was, and remains, the greatest art collector of modem China. His dedication to protecting China＇s historical and cultural relics and artifacts transcended not only the value he placed on family property, but also his life.     

Work Ethic Overrides Family Values

AFTER caressing his sleeping baby daughter’s face, Zhang Jie sets out each Monday to Friday at 7 a.m. on the two-and-a-quarter hour commute from his home in Beijing’s western suburbs to his company in the eastern downtown area. He does not get home till 9 p.m., so hardly sees his four-month-old daughter other when she is asleep. He is so tired at the end of a working day that he barely has the energy even to converse with his wife. As he     

A VERSATILE AND SOPHISTICATED CALLIGRAPHER

"Beauty is wherever you live, and never goes short in your own daily life. However, you lack for finding it through your eyes sometimes." A noted Chinese calligrapher once copied these words as one motto of his. His name is Zhang Hu. Zhang is his family name that means "Long Bow", and Hu is for tiger in Chinese character. He had been a young writer before he became a nationwide famous calligrapher. He could write in different literary forms such as fiction, drama, prose and poetry. He had his short stories and essays published entitled     

THE IMPORTANCE OF FINDING BALANCE

正The world needs a new consensus on growth strategy Taoist thinking holds that nature and the universe are in balance,the Yin and Yang,and it is up to man to shape his thinking and actions to ensure he is aligned with this natural balance and to achieve harmony. This is as true for 21st century economics as it was for day-to-day life in 14th century China.As representatives of the world’s 20 largest economies gather for the annual G20     

BORN TO BLOG

CEO of China's first blogging website sees a bright future for this phenomenon When Fang Xingdong accidentally came across people writing personal diaries and journals online in 2002, he recognized an opportunity of a lifetime. In retrospect, he still believes it is the single most important thing to ever happen in his life. At the time China's IT industry was wallowing in the mire of the IT bubble burst     

The man with golden hands

Lim Soo Foo is a man who can do nearly anything with his hands. Among his most artistic achievements is his collection of hand-crafted pipes that I was able to admire at a recent Cigar Club dinner. But, that is jumping the gun, so let's go back in time.Over a lunch of Hainan chicken the next day, Mr Lim told me about his life. His father was born on Hainan Island, so I had inadvertently made the right choice. The best of the Hainan chicken, Mr Lim asserts, comes from Wenchang, his ancestral home. The father went to Malaya with his family while he was still young, and that is where Mr Lim Junior was born, during World War II. When the Japanese forces arrived, the family hid in the     

LETTERS

The topic of＂dreams＂ reminds me of a text by the late Chinese writer Shi Tiesheng who was paralyzed when he was 21, in whichhe elaborated on his devotion to sports. He loved track and field the most, more than writing, and his favorite star was Carl Lewis whom, with a strong body and super speed, he regarded as the luckiest man on earth. Shi once thought that he would do anything to have Lewis＇ physique and vigor in another life, if there were one. But observ- ing the athlete＇s rise and fall after a doping scandal, he gained fresh understanding of success, happiness and life in general. He said his dream was to have a healthy body, a beautiful soul and life wisdom. While acknowledging that many think one should not be too greedy or ambitious, Shi＇s overriding belief was that everyone has the right to dream big, and to look forward to the best in the world.     

The Tastemakers

JIM Boyce granted me an interview in a bar at 6 p.m.,in between tasting a flight of 13 liquors at 4 p.m.and getting ready for yet another interview at 8 p.m.The first thing he did was recommend I try a white bourbon.Like they say,it’s a tough job but someone has to do it.Boyce sips and scribbles for Beijing Boyce,his nightlife blog,and Grape Wall of China,a website he runs with a host of other contributors from the wine industry.His real work is brand consulting and market research however,with a specialty in natural resources,but wine takes up much of his spare time.My sense is that for Boyce the landscape of Chinese wine seems to be many things - a national coming-of-age drama for an industry,an international cast of characters,a struggle of market forces,treasure rediscovered,and a plot begging for the emergence of heroes.That would explain why readers like his style of sharing what he’s learned,as he learns it.     

＂Company Night Owls＂

W HEN Zhang Tian saw the term “com- pany night owl” on the Internet it struck him as a f itting epi- thet for him and his work colleagues. Zhang Tian works for a private adver- tising company in Guangzhou specializ- ing in computer graphic design. His boss angles for advertisement design orders and passes them on to his staff of six, of whom Zhang Tian is one. Zhang and his colleagues work all hours in order to keep ahead of a continuous stream of work.“I created a record by not leaving…     

My Teacher and Helpmate

IN my life I have made many friends, both Chinese and foreign, quite a number of them intimate to the extent that I can repose in them my full confidence. Israel Epstein, known as Eppy to his friends, is one of the most outstanding. In appearance he is foreign, but emotionally he is Chinese, having taken Chinese citizenship in 1957. Those who have heard and read his analyses of Chinese issues are impressed with his deep insight. Epstein, who turns 90 on April 20, is a living witness to the radical changes that have     

Food for Thought

Though Chinese novelist Gao Xiaosheng passed away in 1999, his status as a household name remains intact, thanks to the to the novellas that he started to write from 1979. His creation Chen Huan she ng a simple and honest Chinese farmer, has been given a new lease of life by the Changzhou Farce Troupe from east China's Jiangsu, Gao's home province, highlighting the theme of change and development in the rural areas in the past decades.     

Zhang Daqian：An Artist of Contrasts

ZHANG Daqian (1899-1983) was skilled in many arts, including calligraphy, seal cutting and poetry, but it is for his paintings that he is best known. Yet he is not known for just his own paintings. Zhang Daqian was also a master forger of such quality and prolificness that curators are warned to ask themselves of Chinese paintings with uncertain origins, "Is this a work of Zhang Daqian?"     

A Note of Friendship

Seventy-four years after he died, Chinese composer Xian Xinghai is touching hearts again, this time through a film made on the tragic last years of his life that hit the screens in China and Kazakhstan in May. Chinese director Xinzat Yahup's biopic The Composer, the first China-Kazakh coproduction, shines a light on the man regarded as one of the greatest Chinese composers, who was forced by circumstances to spend his last years in Kazakhstan and Russia, where he took his last breath.     

Dealing With Debt

As the number of people who are insolvent because of excessive consumption grows so does the call for individual bankruptcy legislation Chen Jie recently gained admission to a university to study for a master's degree after two years of a difficult life in Beijing. During that time, he earned a living through hard work while continuing to study. But he also received a court ruling requiring him to repay the debts he incurred in obtaining his bache-     

Beyond Self-Interest

When Ren Zhengfei, founder and CEO of Chinese telecom giant Huawei, spoke of his admiration for the iPhone ecosystem during a recent interview, he visualized a day when China and the U.S. would work together for universal benefits. His revelation that he buys Apple products for his family members may be a surprise to many, but building partnerships by engaging in fair competition and exploring comparative advantages is not a new idea.     

BAD BOYS, BAD BOYS, WHATCHA GONNA DO?

Wang Lijun is coming for you. IN Western media, Chinese police officers generally get bad press. Tales of torture, intimidation and miscarriages of justice frequently appear in news bulletins and RSS feeds. But if the chief of police in Jinzhou, a city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has his way, all that is about to change. Wang Lijun is using his considerable experience and knowledge in the field to train his charges in a whole new way. He hopes the results can serve as a model for the entire country. The police have perhaps never before been under as intense scrutiny as they are in this age of information and camera-equipped mobile phones. These days the public pays much more attention to their actions. So eliminating corruption from the force - a difficult job in any country - seemed to Wang Lijun a good place to start, and he says he's personally overseeing that task. He's revamped the complaints department - notorious wastes of space in China - and personally interviews local citizens that have complaints against the cops. He says he has done this 700 times in the three and a half years since the new system was put in place, and 95 percent of the complaints were satisfactorily resolved.     

Realizing A Dream

正Selfless giving from a Tibetan man changes the lives of his fellow villagersSitting in his traditionally styled three-story Tibetan home and drinking butter tea,Pema Dhundrup,82,eyes the asphalt road in front of his house in Shuizhuang village,a Tibetan settlement in Shangri-La County of southwest China’s yunnan Province."It is this road that leads us out of the mountains to live a happy life,"he said.     

ISRAEL EPSTEIN —— Teacher and Helpmate

In my life I have made many friends, both Chinese and for- eign, quite a number of them in- timate to the extent that I can repose in them my full confi- dence. Israel Epstein, known as Eppy to his friends, is one of the most outstanding. In appearance he is foreign, but emotionally he is Chinese, having taken Chinese citizenship in 1957. Those who have heard and read his analyses on Chinese issues are impressed with his deep insight. Epstein, who turns 90 on April 20, is a living witness …     

Artistic Impressions of Hutong Charm

KUANG Han came to Beijing in 1989, and immediately fell in love with its hutong. He spent his spare time wandering about and sketching Beijing's boulevards and alley- ways until he had amassed a 3,000-pic- ture portfolio. It helped him to draw accurately the gates and houses of old Beijing, as well as the street life that was and still is the cultural heart of this 3,000-year-old city. Kuang's works portray ordinary life and its everyday kindnesses and are imbued with a strong sense of his-…