05.19.08
Posted in Manners, Media/Internet, The Second Tier, The Wenchuan Earthquake at 00:22 by SHTig
A few days ago I reported on China’s earthquake donation effort. Little did I know then that the donation effort would blow up into a full fledged attention grabbing event. I’ve had CCTV1 on for the past few hours. A program just ended where company after company made very conspicuous donations (putting huge packages of money into boxes). This was interrupted by songs and kind words, but the focus of the program was to broadcast the companies that were giving the most. For the record, Tianjin Rongcheng United Steel donated the most, having pledged RMB 30,000,000. This was already the largest corporate donation made but during this live program on CCTV1, as the Tianjin Steel person was putting all that cash into the box, he spoke up to say “I’m now deciding on the spot to raise this amount to RMB 100,000,000.” The company had originally donated 10,000,000 before raising it, to stay ahead of the Jones’, errr, Wangs’. The person (a director of the company) was an orphan from the Tangshan Earthquake 32 years ago.
I have to say, I have never observed anything like what is happening in China with this donation effort. It is becoming nearly as big a focus as the earthquake. From the Read the rest of this entry »
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12.12.07
Posted in Law and Order, Manners, Travel/Tourism, USA at 20:37 by Mul
China and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding on December 12th agreeing to grant U.S. tourist visas to Chinese tour groups. At present, Chinese visitors to the United States are restricted to work or student visas. Chinese overseas travel has boomed in recent years and many U.S. states and businesses eager for Chinese tourism dollars have been exerting pressure on the U.S. federal government to ease travel restrictions.
Concerned that Chinese travelers abroad are beginning to earn themselves a bit of a reputation, the Spiritual Civilization Steering Committee of the Communist Party of China Central Committee has decided to take a proactive approach. Last year, the committee launched an educational campaign to prevent Chinese travelers from, in the words of the China Daily, “disgracing” the country. Here’s a list of the 4 “do’s” and 9 “don’ts” for Chinese travelers.
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12.04.07
Posted in Health, Manners, Olympics at 03:04 by Mul
The Beijing Olympics organizing committee has begun the search for medal presenters for next summer’s Olympic games and has decided that presenters need to meet certain minimum criteria, namely that they be female, tall and skinny. Oh yes, and pretty. And educated. Unbeknownst to me, book smarts are essential to the complicated task of medal-awarding. The ceremonial positions are open to female university students between the ages of 18 and 25 years old and between 5 feet 6 inches and 5 feet 10 inches tall. While there is no official weight requirement, according to a Washington Post interview with the director of the cultural activities department of the Beijing Olympics organizing committee:
“we do have requirements for their height and the figure, because we have to make clothes for them, and we have technical guidance for that…”
Let’s call that a weight requirement, shall we?
What will the hostesses wear? According to the China Daily, it’s a “hot” controversy.
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11.16.07
Posted in Laowai, Manners, Media/Internet, Travel/Tourism at 12:00 by SHTig
According to this Forbes Global Guide to Tipping, when dining, “in China, giving 3% is expected at restaurants, while in Hong Kong, 10% to 15% is the norm if the gratuity isn’t included in the bill. For taxis, you don’t need to tip in China, but in Hong Kong, you should round the fare up to the next dollar amount.”
3% tips in China? Where and how did Forbes’ come about this silly percentage? With a simple fact check (or an actual visit to China), Forbes would know that tipping for meals is not the norm in China, except at high end places where service charges are added automatically. My guess on how they got this percentage: Read the rest of this entry »
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