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Welcome to our inaugural newsletter!
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大家好! For those of you who don't catch all of our social media updates over the course of the week, we have collected our key posts for a week-in-review newsletter. We have five regular posts, one per day Monday through Friday. Follow us on Facebook for real-time updates, or just wait for this newsletter which will give you a summary of the week's key posts. We hope you enjoy it and please pass it along to others who you think might be interested! |
 
Weekly Readings Monday
The "Two Meetings" are upon us, and the Wall Street Journal, once again, has posted Chinese- and English-language versions of the government work reports. The other three links this week go to a brief history of the National Development and Reform Commission, Wang Yi's press conference on China's foreign policy, and a quasi-authoritative "Commentator" article on legal reform.
"China NPC 2014: The Reports," China Real Time, Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2014
"The Humbling of the NDRC: China's National Development and Reform Commission Searches for a New Role Amid Restructuring," Jamestown Foundation China Brief, March 6, 2014
"王毅就中国外交政策和对外关系答中外记者问," People's Daily, March 9, 2014
"为深化改革提供法治保障--二论把抓落实作为推进改革的重点," People's Daily, March 4, 2014
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Language Learning Resources
Chinese Text Project
Classical Chinese Dictionary
These websites are two of the most useful resources for studying classical Chinese. While many students avoid reading classical Chinese texts, understanding the grammar and vocabulary of classical Chinese can be very helpful for your reading skills.
The Chinese Text Project is a comprehensive collection of annotated classical Chinese texts with many useful tools for reading practice. Many texts contain full English translations, which are also extremely useful in increasing your comprehension.
If you run into characters without annotations or words you don't understand, you can use the Classical Chinese Dictionary to search for characters and look up their specific meaning in classical Chinese. The dictionary will also direct you to passages to see the different usages for a specific character. |
Weibo Wednesday
The disappearance and subsequent search for Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has captured the attention of China's netizens in a way that few topics have in recent months. Other major topics such as the Kunming terrorist attack or the NPC/CPPCC meetings are almost completely being ignored.
The hash tag #马航飞机失联# has currently hit 4.9 million uses in just 5 days. Hash tag users are expressing anger over how Malaysia Airlines and the Malaysian government are handling the situation. Netizens are furious over the disjointed information coming out of Kuala Lumpur, and several rumors about a government cover up are circulating. Others are criticizing the media for trying to document the grief of victims' families, instead of giving them the space they need. Netizens have been especially angered by videos and photos of journalists pushing cameras and microphones into the faces of grieving relatives.
Internet scam artists are also trying to capitalize on the situation, posing as victims' relatives or charitable organizations asking for donations. There is also a group that is encouraging people to find Jesus and pray for the victims. As might be expected, those asking for money are drawing the wrath of the Chinese net at large.
Finally many of weibo's Big Vs have come off long hiatuses to comment on the the tragedy. Hanhan's (韩寒) post has been the most popular by far, with over 200,000 shares.
To see the latest go here. To see Hanhan's post, go here. |
 俗语 in Xi Jinping's speeches
推陈出新 tui1chen2chu1xin1
Translation: "Weed through the old to bring forth the new."
Origin: 清*戴延年《秋灯丛话*忠勇祠联》："不特推陈出新，饶有别致。"
讲话情景：2014年2月24日 习近平在中共中央政治局第十三次集体学习
Explanation: Xi Jinping was explaining that core values are an important part of soft power, and that people should look to history to find the roots of today's values. Modern values will only emerge with an eye to history. This is a simple and fairly easy-to-remember 成语!
Original Xi quotation: 对历史文化特别是先人传承下来的价值理念和道德规范，要坚持古为今用、推陈出新，有鉴别地加以对待，有扬弃地予以继承，努力用中华民族创造的一切精神财富来以文化人、以文育人。 |
 Documentary Friday
With economic reform so high on the Chinese agenda and state-owned enterprises such a critical component of the "China Model," it behooves the educated China Hand to know a bit about the state-owned economic sector and its recent history. Today's documentary is part one of a CCTV2 series exploring the role and reform of state-owned enterprises. Reforming the state-owned sector is a tricky business, because it pits the party's leading role in the economy (one of the four pillars of the party's "China Model") against the requirements of re-balancing the economy. Any meaningful reform requires tradeoffs among Beijing's highest priorities and possibly even among factions.
《国企备忘录》 第1集: 追根溯源
Website for 《国企备忘录》
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