Indholdsfortegnelse for Vol.66/No.44 i Beijing Review

Mental health issues have attracted increasing attention from both the Chinese Government and all sectors of society. World Mental Health Day, which falls on October 10 every year, sees diverse activities hosted across China, aiming to raise awareness of how to manage these issues and encourage self-esteem, confidence and optimism. As the pace of life accelerates and work pressure increases, many people say they’re feeling “stressed out.” In January, nearly 100 members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Municipal Committee, the local political advisory body, jointly submitted a proposal on improving mental care services in Shanghai. Political advisors’ proposals inform the government’s decision-making. According to the figures they provided, one in five people in Shanghai suffer from insomnia, anxiety, depression, social phobia or other psychological disorders. The report…

A 72-year-old woman surnamed Lin in Xiamen, Fujian Province, southeast China, suffered from a sleep disorder in the first half of this year. She had difficulty falling asleep and would wake up early in the morning. As a result, she slept only three to four hours and subsequently felt tired throughout the day. Before the issue arose, she used to go out every morning to buy vegetables and then talk to neighbors and friends in the park. She also did a lot of housework and gave her home a good scrub every day, without fail. But after the disorder began, she rarely went out and became rather listless. Lin’s husband noticed what was happening and took her to Xianyue Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Xiamen, to see a doctor in…

China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates on October 25 voted against a United Nations Security Council resolution on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict drafted by the United States. China’s Permanent Representative to the UN Zhang Jun explained China’s decision following the vote: China voted against the draft resolution. Our position is based on facts, based on law, based on conscience, based on justice and based on the strong appeals of the entire world, in particular the Arab countries. We all recall that on October 18, a draft resolution focusing on the humanitarian situation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, emphasizing the protection of civilians and supported by an overwhelming majority of council members, failed to be adopted due to the use of the veto power [of the U.S.]. On the evening of October…

FORMER PREMIER DIES Former Premier of the State Council Li Keqiang died of a sudden heart attack in Shanghai on October 27. He was 68. Li was member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the 17th, 18th and 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) central committees from October 2007 to October 2022, and served as premier of the State Council from March 2013 to March this year. He was vice premier of the State Council from March 2008 to March 2013. A native of Dingyuan County, Anhui Province, Li was born in July 1955. He began his first job in 1974 and joined the CPC in May 1976. Li was a graduate of Peking University’s Law Department where he earned a Bachelor of Law degree, and of…

Imagine a child who does not want to eat dumplings, despite being told by his grandfather to do so. Confused, the child picks up the bowl and stares at it for over an hour, not eating but also refusing to put it down. “That is what has happened one day in Urumqi Love Garden (ULG) [in Xinjiang],” Lyu Xiaoning, the founder of Viva la Vida (VIVA), a global platform for people to share stories through art, told Beijing Review. VIVA owns an online art gallery and social networking platform to exhibit portraits of life by different people. “When the staff of ULG took the bowl away from the child, he started crying,” Lyu said, adding that the ability to express emotion is simple and ordinary for most people, but can…

Mattresses that monitor the heart rate and breathing of seniors with disabling conditions, water meters that sound alarms if elderly people living alone do not use water for 24 hours, and wristwatches that help older residents with dementia call for help if they get lost. All these cutting-edge smart care products are designed to ensure the safety and security of seniors. Nowadays, a growing number of communities across China have set up smart monitoring platforms that are connected to community hospitals and neighborhood centers, so that any abnormal signals received in connection with senior residents can be quickly checked out. Smart senior care is emerging as a new eldercare model in Chinese society. In China, the vast majority of seniors hope to spend their remaining days comfortably in their own…

On the roofs of ancient buildings, constructed on hillsides, peppers, unhusked rice and green beans are being dried in the autumn sun. The drying produce has become a unique sight in Huangling, an ancient village in Wuyuan County, Shangrao City in Jiangxi Province in east China. The village, which was established more than 580 years ago, has over 100 buildings from the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, which are valuable subjects for the study of Hui-style architecture, an important branch of ancient Chinese architecture that features black roof tiles and white walls. However, in spite of its picturesque scenery and ancient buildings, the village used to be little known and very poor, so many villagers had to leave the village to go and make a living elsewhere. The turning…

Blanc de Chine, which is French for white from China, is the name the West hundreds of years ago gave to the white porcelain creations produced in Dehua, Fujian Province on the southeastern coast of China. Historically, the craftspeople of Dehua created a range of white wares and other ceramic products that were widely exported along the ancient Maritime Silk Road. Today, porcelain production remains a pillar industry there, employing about one third of the county’s total population of 350,000. Dehua is one of China’s leading ceramics producers, along with Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province, a city known as the “porcelain capital,” and Longquan in Zhejiang Province, famous for producing its signature jade green porcelain. Hundreds of Dehua’s pure white ceramics are currently on display at the National Museum of China…

Do you ever feel, feel so paper thin; like a house of cards, one blow from caving in? When Nana (username), a blogger on China’s wildly popular lifestyle and e-commerce app Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book), first heard the lyrics to American singer Katy Perry’s 2010 song Firework, the words immediately resonated with her. “Especially after a long day at work, constantly being bombarded with comments from a ‘not so nice’ boss and being annoyed by colleagues. Those moments made me want to instantly recharge,” she wrote on a poster published on October 19 to promote her latest livestream groupchat themed Self-Care on the platform, which mainly targets millennials and Gen Zs. “Sometimes, it almost seems impossible to have a little ME time between all the tasks we need to accomplish…

In an attempt to parallel the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a China-proposed initiative to enhance global connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes that embodies inclusiveness, openness and shared dividends, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), announced at the Group of 20 (G20) Leaders’ Event on Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment on September 9, lacks the global aura, scale, resources and networks to meet the world’s current and future needs. Ridden with the spiraling sense of post-Cold War syndrome, bloc politics and divisions, IMEC sounds squeamish. Compared to the multi-faceted, tangible dimensions of the China-proposed initiative, which has been tested and proven with empirical benefits to its signatory countries, the IMEC has yet to get a head start. The BRI has been on the ground for…

In recent weeks, the Palestinian enclave of the Gaza Strip has been under full Israeli siege and airstrikes in retaliation for the October 7 attack by the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Israel. The Israeli military has also cut off water, electricity and other supplies to Gaza. About 2.3 million people in the 40-km-long Hamas-ruled region, almost half of them children, have been running out of drinking water, fresh food and fuel to keep generators up and running. Parents in Gaza now write the names of their children on their legs and abdomen, as they are worried “anything could happen” and no one would be able to identify the children, Dr. Abdul Rahman Al Masri, head of the emergency department Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, told CNN on October 23. “This means…

As the world’s second largest economy, China’s economic upturn is having a positive effect on the global economy. The Trade and Development Report 2023, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in early October, said China’s economy had picked up this year and will grow more than 10 times faster than that of the eurozone, serving as a major contributor to global economic growth. The Chinese economy grew by 5.2 percent year on year in January-September this year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on October 18. “With its current growth momentum, China will be able to fulfill its annual target of 5-percent GDP growth,” Sheng Laiyun, deputy head of the NBS, told a press conference on the day of the data’s…

Mahnoor Makhdoom walked into a coffee shop in Baiziwan, located in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, to meet with her interviewee, Maria Charlie, an international student from South Africa. Makhdoom asked questions about the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a China-proposed initiative to promote global connectivity along and beyond the ancient Silk Road routes, and received compelling answers and stories in return. Throughout that morning on October 14, Makhdoom gathered valuable content for her forthcoming book. A native of Pakistan, she is a journalist and editor of China affairs at Pakistani newspaper The Daily Mail. Her work focuses on researching and reporting on the BRI. The journalist first visited Beijing at the age of 10 as part of a family trip to the Chinese capital. As she grew up, she went on…

In mid-October, a 2-year-old girl was mauled by a Rottweiler in Chongzhou, Sichuan Province. She suffered multiple injuries, including a damaged kidney and broken ribs, and at the time of writing remained hospitalized for further medical treatment. The dog’s owner has been put under criminal investigation. Notably, in order to prevent similar tragedies, local authorities in several places have since tightened related law enforcement. In certain instances, stray dogs on the streets were caught and killed, raising concerns over the legitimacy of the moves, with many saying they seem cruel. Liu Liu (Yangzi Evening News): Chinese laws prohibit dangerous dog breeds in cities, but some owners continue to turn a blind eye to warnings about their dogs’ aggression. They do not keep their dogs on leashes or muzzled when walking…