How soon will China legalize gay marriage?

The existence of homosexuality in China has been well documented since ancient times. According to one study, homosexuality in China was regarded as a normal facet of life in China, prior to the Western impact of 1840 onwards. (Brett, 1990) However, this has been disputed by many different academics. However, it has been argued that many early Chinese emperors are speculated to have had homosexual relationships, accompanied by heterosexual ones. Opposition to homosexuality and the rise of homophobia, according to the study by Hinsch, did not become firmly established in China until the 19th and 20th centuries, through the Westernization efforts of the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. (Brook, 1998). Shanghai is far from being a gay-paradise on the level of Amsterdam or San Francisco. However, China’s LGBT community has made remarkable strides in recent decades, and being home to the world’s largest population of LGBT individuals, what happens in China matters to the rest of the world’s queer community (Stokols, 2013). Gay life in China follows geographic and economic divisions, as it does in the U.S.  Large cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and south-western Chengdu are home to large gay populations, with nightlife scenes increasingly open in the last decade. With widespread atheism – meaning that there is very little religious opposition and stigma as seen in the US, legalising gay marriage therefore seems like a logical step. However, due to some key issues, including sham marriages and the family culture, the progression of equal rights is somewhat stunted.

Sham marriages are a massive problem in China. Around 80% of gay and lesbian people in China marry to please demanding parents and to save their careers (Branigan, 2013). Homosexuality was illegal in China until 1997, and was only taken off of the mental health lists in 2001. Therefore there are still very modern conceptions of homosexual people within China. Those without a family often are not respected either by their employers or their families. This comes down to the very basic family culture which Van Sant (2013), picks out in her video (link attached). Men, still the very much leading in the figure are very much pressured into marriage in order to have children so that the family line can continue. This has been made much worse by the one child policy (Lim, 2013).  Men are being forced into marriages, even though they are gay. As many as 16 million men are married to straight women, who have no idea that their partner is gay. This is causing much heartache for all parties involved when the situation is revealed. These marriages of convenience only fuel a vicious circle within china. Legalising gay marriage may be a way forward.

Lesbians, that also want to have children, find it extremely hard to be able to have kids. The Chinese government enforces strict birth control policies on single mothers. Therefore, gay or not, a single woman may find it hard to have a child. Therefore, a woman who is gay but isn’t married may find it increasingly difficult to have a child. Allowing female/male couples to have the same basic rights as heterosexual couples would therefore allow women to be able to have children freely (Branigan, 2013). This is what is being argued for, however due to the fact that homosexual couples cannot get married, there has been an increasing trend in homosexuals, of opposite sexes, meeting online and arranging a sham marriage. This is not only to please families and remain employable, but to also bypass the massive family culture that is resident within China. These couples tend not to last a long and often cause more damage to the individuals than previously thought. Many men/women leave these marriages with severe depression, proving that gay marriage could ‘make practical sense’ (Stokols, 2013).

It’s against this backdrop of widespread and entrenched bias against homosexuals in society that LGBT groups have rallied behind same-sex marriage as a means to an end of raising public awareness and popular understanding of homosexuality (Lim, 2013). China’s gay culture may lack the political dimension that often accompanies queer culture in the U.S., but there is a growing number of civil society organizations involved in LGBT rights and health. A recent poll on popular Internet portal Sina.com indicated over 50% of respondents supported gay marriage (Stokols, 2013).

With this growing gay rights movement, reported in the state-owned China Daily, a Guangzhou-based NGO representing 100 parents of gays and lesbians, or “comrades,” sent an open letter to China’s National People’s Congress, its formal legislature, urging adoption of same-sex marriage benefits. Even though thy never received a response, this example shows how the profile of homosexual marriage has been raised and that it is openly discussed in official media. This is mirrored by Sociologist and activist Li Yinhe, who has submitted a similar petition to the NPC each year since 2003. Although unsuccessful, she has raised national visibility of homosexuality and gay marriage.

The high profile visit by Iceland’s Prime Minister, who is openly gay, has also attracted the attention of many of the LGBT communities across China. Even though homosexual content in movies and on websites is still massively censored, this visit by a high official raised the homosexual agenda through the press.  With this however, it is noted that even though homosexuals are no longer directly harassed, they are by in large ignored by the government and most of the population. However, there is no sign that the issue will disappear in the near future. China saw its first public gay marriage – which is not protected under the law – in the south-western city of Chengdu in 2010. This January, a wedding reception in Beijing’s outskirts held by an elderly gay couple triggered widespread discussion about gay rights in China as well (Lim, 2013).

It is therefore easy to see how marriage equality may be quite possible within China, however, the massive family culture which plays a large part of everyday life in China still seems to be the main barrier. However, this may not be so for long!

Branigan, T. (14^th April, 2013), The Guardian, accessed at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/14/chinese-gay-lovers-seek-wife

Brook, T. (1998): The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Hinsch, B. (1990): Passions of the Cut Sleeve. University of California Press, California.

The Huffington Post (27^th February, 2013) accessed at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/27/china-parents-gays-lesbians-marriage-letter-_n_2775374.html

Jiang, C. (1^st May, 2013), Time World, accessed at: http://world.time.com/2013/05/01/chinas-gays-and-lesbians-stymied-by-lack-of-marriage-equality/

Lim, Z. H. (11^th April, 2013), The Atlantic, accessed at: http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/for-gay-chinese-getting-married-means-getting-creative/274895/

Stokols, A. (1^st May, 2013), Policymic, accessed at: http://www.policymic.com/articles/36313/will-china-legalize-gay-marriage-before-the-united-states

Trifunov, D. (12^th April, 2013), Global Post, accessed at: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/china/130412/china-gay-marriage-gays-marry-lesbians-lgbt

Von Sant, S. (13^th May, 2013), Voice of America, accessed at: http://www.voanews.com/content/homosexuals-press-for-rights-in-china/1660023.html

China Passes Japan to Become World’s No. 2 Movie Market

Chinese movie fans led worldwide cinema sales ahead 6% to a record $34.7 billion last year, as the world’s most-populous nation passed Japan to become the No. 2 film market.

Movie-goers in China increased their box-office spending by 36% to $2.7 billion last year, according to new year-end statistics released by the Motion Picture Association of America, the Washington-based trade group.

The growth puts China behind only the U.S. and Canada, where fans increased spending by 6% last year to a combined $10.8 billion, according to the trade group. In Japan, previously the second-largest market, revenue rose 4.3% to $2.4 billion, the MPAA said.

Policy changes in China have increased the number of foreign films that can be released in the country, Mr. Dodd said. The former U.S. senator, a Connecticut Democrat, also said he has shared his concerns with Chinese officials over rules that keep U.S. films from being shown during “blackout” periods to help local productions. “We’ve raised concerned about that to the highest authorities,” Mr. Dodd said. “While it’s vastly improved, there’s always going to be bumps in the road.”

Four movies collected more than $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales last year: “The Avengers,” at $1.51 billion; “Skyfall,” at $1.11 billion, “The Dark Knight Rises,” at $1.08 billion; and “The Hobbit,” at $1.01 billion.

The results underline the gains that Hollywood stands to make by tailoring its product for the Chinese market. A report last year by Ernst & Young suggested that at the current rate of expansion, the Chinese box office wasset to pass the US in seven years. Will we therefore be seeing more chinese style films emerging from Hollywood in the near future?

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/mar/22/china-largest-film-market-outside-us

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/nov/29/china-biggest-film-market-2020

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21891631

http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/trendspotter-pandering-to-chinas-film-market

Chinese undertaker offers fake funerals for the living – a step too far?

A Chinese funeral parlour has courted controversy by laying on tearful farewells for the living. Last month, 24 pretend funerals were held at the Shimenfeng Celebrity Culture Park cemetery in the Chinese city of Wuhan. The fake funerals were the brainchild of Zeng Jia, a 20-year-old student, who became the first to lie down in a coffin during her fake wake at the end of March.
Despite the absence of genuine cadavers, Ms Zhang said the funeral services were realistic, involving coffins, floral bouquets, mourners, photographers and even emotion-packed speeches from friends of the ‘deceased’.
“The service has two parts – a 20-minute memorial service and a 15-20 minute ‘life-death experience’,” she said. A rendition of a Chinese pop song called “Angel” is also included in the package.
The unconventional services have been widely criticized online for being morbid and disrespectful to the dead. But Ms Zhang insisted the mock funerals were therapeutic.
Should we take a leaf out of Ms Zhang’s book, or is this a bit too morbid for British culture?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/zeng-jia-fakes-funeral-_n_3001589.html

Fake funeral service proving popular after student holds her own false ceremony

http://shanghaiist.com/2013/04/11/wuhan_funeral_home_offers_fake_funerals_chongqing_undertaker_giving_dead_spa_treatments.php
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/odd/news/a472941/spike-in-chinese-fake-funerals-following-students-ceremony.html

Top Gear take a look at China’s ever-expanding car industry!

Top Gear take a look at China’s ever-expanding car industry!

China is now the world’s biggest market for new cars. Its motorway network will soon rival America’s.  China was not expected to exceed the US market until 2020 but the speed with which the recession affected consumers in the States combined with incentives from the Beijing government to help buyers accelerate the trend.

China’s communist government cut sales taxes on smaller, fuel-efficient cars and spent $730m (£450m) on subsidies for buyers of larger cars, pickup trucks and minivans. Stimulus spending on building highways and other public works also helped to boost sales of trucks used in construction.

China’s love affair with cars began late, but it has more than made up for the delay. In 2000 there were 4m cars for the 1.3bn population and experts predicted that the number would be six times higher by the end of the decade. Instead, it soared 20-fold.

The Chinese car industry was even tested out by Top Gear who give a quite humorous look on the Chinese Car market: the link is below, it is well worth a watch!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01brd8t

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/14/china-worlds-biggest-new-car-market

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/aug/24/china-cars-green-vehicles

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/jan/08/china-us-car-sales-overtakes

Should China continue to fight for rights to the South China Sea?

Clear across the broad width of Asia, on the western fringe of the Pacific Ocean, lies the third anchor of the Strategic Triangle: The South China Sea. Bordered on the North by Taiwan and China, on the east by the Philippine Islands, on the south by Indonesia and Malaysia, and on the west by Vietnam, the South China sea adjoins some of the most dynamic and powerful states in Asia. Long important as a crossroads for seaborne commerce, these waters are also thought to sit atop substantial reserves of oil and natural gas. While much larger than the Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea, the South China Sea is like them in two critical respects: its undersea resources are subject to overlapping and contested claims, and the states involved in these maritime disputes appear prepared to employ military force in the defence of what they view as vital national interests.

The Ministry of Geological Resources and Mining of the People’s Republic of China estimate that the South China Sea may contain 17.7 billion tons of crude oil (compared to Kuwait with 13 billion tonnes). In the years following the announcement by the ministry, the claims regarding the South China Sea islands intensified.

China’s optimistic view of the South China Sea’s hydrocarbon potential is not shared by most non-Chinese analysts. A 1993/1994 estimate by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), for example, estimated the sum total of discovered reserves and undiscovered resources in the offshore basins of the South China Sea at 28 billion barrels. The most optimistic western estimates place total oil resources (not proved reserves) in the Spratly Islands at 1-2 billion barrels. If all of this were proven to be economically recoverable, this hypothetically could yield a peak oil production level for the Spratly Islands of 180,000 – 370,000 barrels per day – the same order of magnitude as current production levels in Brunei or Vietnam. However, the rule-of-thumb for frontier areas suggests that the total could be significantly less.

There has been much debate over this area and much political tension, however, is China putting too many eggs in one basket by relying on this potential resource to fuel its ever growing economy?

 

http://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/termsofuse;jsessionid=AF1F616CA7D5FFA68F3DC3B439657903

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/war/spratly-oil.htm

http://www.cfr.org/china/south-china-sea-tensions/p29790

http://csis.org/files/publication/twq12springbuszynski.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_disputes_in_the_South_China_Sea

Klare, M. T. (2002): Resource Wars – The New Landscape of Global Conflict. Owl Books, New York

China’s use of their Western Neighbours for oil and gas resources

The Chinese oil requirements are like no other country. However, they have increasingly been looking to their Western neighbours for oil/gas supplies. The Chinese have succeeded in transporting Caspian oil and gas from Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to eastern China, a distance of some four thousand miles. Aside from the various geographical impediments to this project – much of the terrain along this route is harsh and mountainous – the pipeline passes through several areas of instability, including China’s remote Xinjiang province. The only part of China (other than Tibet) in which non-Chinese people’s form the majority, Xinjiang has long been torn by fighting between government troops and Uighur separatists who seek to establish an independent ‘East Turkestan’.  Despite this, Beijing secured an agreement from Kazakhstan in 1997 for the construction of an eighteen-hundred-mile pipeline from the Aktyubinsk oil field to Xinjiang.

According to CNPC, the inflow of Turkmen gas has significantly helped China in meeting its energy demands and in future would stabilize the country’s overall consumption structure. When in use, the pipeline’s deliveries will boost the natural gas proportion of energy consumption of China by an estimated 2%, which will reduce the overall smoke, dust and carbon dioxide emissions.This amounts to an estimated 50% of China’s total 2007 natural gas production. As far as Turkmenistan goes, the project will help the country diversify its energy exports by delivering gas eastward as opposed to its current deliveries to Russia and Iran. Until the inauguration of the pipeline, nearly 70% of Turkmenistan’s gas exports transited through Russian pipelines. Central Asia–China gas pipeline is the first pipeline to bring Central Asian natural gas to China and highlights China’s quest for Central Asian energy exports. While Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are also considering selling their gas to China, Chinese government already made new moves to penetrate deeper into Central Asian energy sector by lending $3 billion to Turkmenistan to develop the South Iolotan field in 2009 and $10 billion to Kazakhstan to pay for future oil supplies.

Are China’s dependencies on Caspian resources sustainable?

http://www.energyglobal.com/news/pipelines/articles/Kazakhstan_looking_to_pipe_more_crude_oil_to_China.aspx

http://www.chinastakes.com/2008/7/central-asia-pipeline-to-secure-gas-for-china.html

http://www.cnpc.com.cn/en/press/newsreleases/2008/7-10.htm?COLLCC=742039864&

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Asia%E2%80%93China_gas_pipeline

Klare, M. T. (2002): Resource Wars – The New Landscape of Global Conflict. Owl Books, New York

China Europe Water Platform Launched

China and Europe have agreed to establish a platform for dialogue, joint research and private sector cooperation on better management of water resources. On March 14, Chen Lei, Minister of Water Resources of China and the European Union, represented by the Danish Minister of the Environment, Ida Auken, signed a joint statement to establish the water platform. This statement, signed at the 6th World Water Forum in Marseilles, France, recognizes that China and Europe face similar challenges in managing water resources, and that water resources are expected to become increasingly strained due to socio-economic development and climate change.

China’s large population of 1.3 billion, coupled with rapid industrial and economic developments, have led to serious environmental side effects, such as pollution and water shortage. Natural resources have been under strain to keep up with the enormous leap the country has made in various areas. Statistics on the annual GDP growth rate in China in 2011, for example, show the rate standing at 9.2 percent.

The platform will replace another program, the “EU-China River Basin Management Programme” (RBMP), which had already received some 33 million dollars from Europe Aid. The Chinese call the new platform for water policy not an aid project, but a definite partnership, to which they are also contributing financial support.

The scheme is a crucial step to ensure China’s economic development will not destroy the country’s or Planet Earth’s environment.

 

http://urbantimes.co/2012/04/eu-and-china-sustainable-water-use-scheme/

http://www.dw.de/china-and-the-eu-cooperate-on-sustainable-water-scheme/a-15840764-1

http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/china/press_corner/all_news/news/2012/20120314_en.htm

http://urbantimes.co/2012/02/conserve-water/

http://www.chinavitae.com/biography/1453

Broad Group’s Plans to build world’s tallest building in 90 days

In this video, the true strength of the Chinese construction industry is proven. Built by Broad Group, a sustainable building company, this hotel could withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, is five times more energy efficient and produces up to twenty times purer air – built all in a matter of 360 hours.

Broad Sustainable Building, who specialise in making buildings that are sustainable, cost less, use environment friendly materials and can be built in a short amount of time, using techniques like prefabrication, had intended to build a 666 m tall skyscraper, but the local government wanted the world’s tallest building, hence the current plans. Sky City One, (the current plans) is an 838 m tall skyscraper proposed for construction in the city of Changsha, Hunan in south-central China. The prospective builders, Broad Sustainable Building, estimated it would take just 90 days to construct. The company has constructed 20 buildings in China using the same method and has several franchise partners globally. The Broad Group have previously concentrated on manufacturing large air-conditioners, being among the world leaders in solar air-conditioning, before they shifted to constructing environment-friendly buildings.

Will it be possible for Broad Group to construct the World’s tallest building using this method?

 

 

http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx.shtml

http://urbantimes.co/2012/11/30-story-building-in-fifteen-days/

http://www.broad.com:8089/english/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broad_Group

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/20/sky-city-one-chinese-comp_n_1613521.html

http://www.treehugger.com/green-architecture/update-sky-city-one-interview-architect-xian-min-zhang.html

Chengdu Great City, China

For the first time in history, there are more people living in urban areas than there are in rural areas, which by 2030, are expected to support almost 5 billion people. Cities are swelling to unprecedented sizes. But as Edward Glaeser now famously argues in Triumph of the City, cities also represent our best hope in solving the environmental challenges we collective face, in elevating people from poverty, and in creating meaningful economic development through the power of agglomeration.

Because of the growing importance of cities, 2013 will play host to a vast number of city-building mega projects that will redefine how we shape the places we live in, and their outcomes will set the stage for how and (why) we build cities for the future.

The architects behind the Kingdom Tower — planned to be the world’s first building to reach 1km in height — have been chosen to build a completely new suburban city from scratch on the outskirts of Chengdu in southwest China.

The “Great City” is effectively an entirely new municipality, designed as one whole instead of the chaotic and environmentally inefficient alternative of urban sprawl. The designers ( Adrian Smith + Gordin Gill Architecture, based in Chicago) have marked out a 1.3km2 circle surrounded by 1.9km2 of farmland and parks.

Personal automobiles will not operate within the city, relying entirely on transit and walking or cycling to move around. Energy consumption is anticipated to be significantly lower than what would be expected for urban areas with a similar population; 48% less energy, 58% less water, 60% less carbon dioxide and 89% less waste.

If the model is successful, the Great City will be copied on the edges of China’s other megalopolises and their populations continue to boom — putting pressure on housing, infrastructure and the environment.

The architects claim that the city will be built around the farmland that already exists in the patch of land allocated for the Great City, while within the 1.3km2 city area itself 15% of land will be devoted to parks and landscaped space”. Another 25% will be allocated for infrastructure like roads (of which only half will be accessible to cars, as many residents will be expected not to need them) and the final 60% of land will hold tall, glass-and-steel tower blocks like those found in any other new large development in China. If people need to get out of the Great City, there are public transportation stations on the perimeter and in the middle.

The 80,000 people expected to live in the Great City would give it a population density of 61,538 people per square kilometre. This is an unprecedented level of population density, if we compare it to London, the most densely populated boroughs in the inner city have a density of around 10,000 people per square kilometre. The purpose of this is to fit as many people in the smallest space possible whilst ensuring that the city can still function on a business level and a personal one.

Developments like the Great City are part of a concerted effort on the part of the Chinese government to start rectifying some of the mistakes of the past two decades of mass urbanisation.

It also offers an intriguing alternative to the urban sprawl seen in western cities over the past few decades, which has tended to favour low density housing planned out in repetitive streets — often under the assumption that everyone would get around by car.

The Chengdu Great City started construction in the fall of 2012, and is expected to be completed by 2021. If successful, China aims to replicate the success across the country on the outskirts of its burgeoning cities.

 

 

http://urbantimes.co/2013/01/nine-city-building-projects-to-watch-for-in-2013/

Triumph of the City: How Our Greatest Invention Makes Us Richer, Smarter, Greener, Healthier, and Happier – Edward Glaeser, 2012

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-10/29/china-great-city

Are the Chinese Military Behind Cyber Attacks on Western Businesses?

Recently, there have been numerous cyber attacks on western businesses and a US security firm says they have traced it back to Unit 61398 of the Chinese Military. This unit is often suspected to be carrying out top-secret tasks, and now it seems that they have been uncovered. The unit is claimed to have stolen hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organisations in US, UK and Canada.

The Chinese Government fiercely oppose these statements however, these have been quicklky dismissed by US Officials. “The PLA plays a key role in China’s multifaceted security strategy, so it makes sense that its resources would be used to facilitate economic cyber-espionage that helps the Chinese economy,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, chief technology officer and co-founder of CrowdStrike, a web security firm.

Watch the video in the link below to see a discussion over this topic.

http://www.bloomberg.com/video/is-china-s-military-behind-cyber-attacks-siQcRPqASQ6sm5oDCYK8Kg.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/feb/19/chinese-military-unit-prolific-hacking

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57569986/china-military-unit-behind-many-hacking-attacks-on-u.s-cybersecurity-firm-says/