中国欧盟经理人协会 EU-China Managers Association

Xu Qian and Guo Zhijun, from If You Are the One's first migrant worker special

China’s matchmaking reality TV shows are a much more harmonious place following an early June overhaul meant to root out materialism, fakery, and vulgarity.

The shows, such as Jiangsu TV’s If You Are the One (非诚勿扰, a personals-ad line meaning “sincere inquiries only”), pitted sharp-tongued women against eager suitors and featured sharp-tongued banter from both sides, but their methods drew criticism even as they brought high ratings: some contestants were called gold-diggers, others became embroiled in unrelated scandals involving risqué photos and sex tapes, and shows were accused of deliberately fomenting class unrest. For example, the mother of one bachelor described her ideal daughter-in-law in this way: “She can’t be a rural girl. If her family isn’t well off, then sometimes it would her mom coming in from the countryside, and other times it will be her older brother….then our home would be a hotel!”

After SARFT stepped in, vulgarity was eliminated by the ejection of controversial contestants, materialism was countered by a the addition of a professor from a Party school, who represented the moderating voice of the establishment, and then on July 18, the rural population was placated with a special episode of If You Are the One devoted to migrant workers.

In the piece translated below, Liu Yuan, publicity director for the editorial department of Jiangsu TV, which produces the program, explained why the station decided to focus on migrants. It’s interesting to note the term translated “migrant workers” in the piece is 外来人员务工, literally “staff from outside,” rather than the more traditional 农民工, or “peasant laborers.” Huang Han, the Party school professor, went even further and advocated calling these post-80s migrants “new urbanites” (新市民). A second migrant worker special was broadcast the following week, to mixed reviews.

Why Jiangsu TV held a special migrant worker episode of If You Are the One by Liu Yuan

Last Sunday night, If You Are the One began the first special episode of its half-year of broadcast: a special episode titled “Migrant Workers.”

For half a year, over a hundred thousand single men and women have applied to take part in If You Are the One, and among this group, we discovered a special population – migrant workers born in the 1980s. Coming from the countryside, they are pursuing careers in the city, and they believe that through self-reliance and hard work they can create a place for themselves in there. They are young and have their own dreams and desires for love, and they hope that they can find a partner with whom they can weather the storms and build a happy life. Our producers discovered that many of these migrant workers filled out two application forms when applying to the program: one for the production team, and the other to keep as a memento….

Our idea was further solidified after we gathered background material. According to figures from the 2009 Report on Next-Generation Migrant Workers released by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, there are currently 100 million post-80s migrant workers, nearly 80 million of them single. This is an immense social group, a group that is right by our side as we take advantage of the so-called “happy life” brought to us by rapid economic development. They may be humble wait staff in a restaurant, stylists in a salon, sales clerks at a shop, or maybe they are screws on a production line, the core members of an enterprise, or perhaps they have just opened a shop at the gate to your neighborhood and have begun their own urban dream…

And unlike their parents’ generation, during the course of producing the program and interacting with these post-80s migrant workers, we discovered that we can learn from the many outstanding characteristics of these “new urbanites.”

First, their ideas and they way they express them are guileless and imbued with traditional Chinese values. Although their expression may be somewhat simplistic because of their fairly low level of education, both content and style are simple and honest. For example, Li Dafeng said forthrightly, “my partner’s parents are my parents”, “if the man has a problem, I will take care of him my entire life”, and Chen Xiangdong was willing to contribute two-thirds of his income to finance his older brother’s life at college. These are impressive words and actions.

Second, they have escaped their parents’ reliance on physical labor and desire instead to find wealth through mastery of technical skills. In the first episode, we saw five men who studied skills ranging from hair styling and product testing to cooking and electrical equipment and who became outstanding professionals in various fields. These next-generation migrant workers have realized that technology is important for personal growth and thus have begun to enter the ranks of the “technologically rich.” This is admirable.

Third, they have entrepreneurial aspirations. Next-generation migrant workers are no longer satisfied with simply working for other people. As they work hard, they dream of going into business for themselves. Take Wang Shaojie, bachelor #1, for example: he wants to open a chain of hair salons. Guo Zhijun, bachelor #4, wants to open a restaurant, and Cai Naiji, bachelor #5, wants to run his own laundry. Although their dreams are not identical, they do share one common element: practicality. These next-generation migrant workers have demonstrated through practical thinking their increased awareness and broadened horizons.

Fourth, they have realized the importance of knowledge. Although they might not be well-educated, next-generation migrant workers attach great importance to increasing their own knowledge outside of their jobs. For example, after Chen Xiangdong, bachelor #3, shuts off his machine at 8 every night, he reads books to deepen his knowledge.

And it is this simple language and these plain values that have brought a breath of fresh air to the program. Their language may not be flowery, but it has an extra measure of straightforwardness and tolerance. Their aspirations may not be grand, but they are honest and sincere….

There was a warm response to the broadcast of this episode. Media outlets across the country did publicity and reporting, and the Southern Daily in particular had a headline that moved me: “The female guests on this episode If You Are the One are the most beautiful!” Once again I thank our friends in the media for their support! In addition, many enthusiastic viewers actively discussed the program on the official website and in forums; the official website received more than 100 posts. One comment on Sina said that despite the sheer numbers of single post-80s migrant workers – 80 million – the media had previously paid scant attention to their feelings. But their goals for life and love both brought a breath of fresh air to the program. And another netizen summed up a few characteristics of the special episode: first, the performance of the migrant workers was sufficiently sincere, despite their somewhat reticent speech and shy behavior, their speech could be summed up in a single word – honesty – and from their questions for the female guests we could get a sense that they were looking for people to share their lives with. Their questions were pragmatic – were the women concerned about the man’s age or aspirations and so forth. Finally, the migrant workers gave us a sense of inspiration and ambition: each of them had a goal toward which they were struggling, and they were more aware than others of their age of what they needed and what practical efforts to take to obtain it.

Staging the special migrant worker episode of If You Are the One, we believe, is not only an endeavor in the public interest but is also one that has implications for society at large. Using the public media platform of the program, we were able to show off the attitudes of a group of next-generation migrant workers, enabling more urban residents to understand their brothers and sisters who have made such great contributions to the cities, and promoting communication and interaction between all sectors of society. It is our small contribution toward building a harmonious society. In addition, for Jiangsu TU, a member of the mass media, it is also an important manifestation of our sense of social responsibility.

Links and Sources

• Liu Yuan via Outlook Online (Chinese): Why Jiangsu TV held a special migrant worker episode of If You Are the One
• ACFTU (Chinese): Study of the New Generation of Migrant Workers (2010)
• China Newsweek (Chinese): Profile of Huang Han: I'm the one that's non-mainstream
• Chutian Metropolis Daily via Netease (Chinese): If You Are the One embroiled in another peasant bigotry controversy
• Netease entertainment (Chinese): If You Are the One does its first migrant worker special episode, Good reviews for migrant worker episode of If You Are the One, Another migrant worker episode for If You Are the One
• Earlier on Danwei: Surviving a dating reality show, Dating show contestant banned for sexy modeling?

Tags: If You Are the One, migrant workers, reality show

This article is from Danwei.org

BP would be blocked from winning future drilling permits in the US because of its safety record under energy legislation passed by the House of Representatives

US growth slowed to an annualised rate of 2.4 per cent in the second quarter but robust business demand suggested that the economy would avoid a feared “double dip” that could drag the world back into recession

Italy appeared to be heading for early elections or a government shake-up after Silvio Berlusconi moved to expel dissidents from his People of Liberty party, reducing his parliamentary majority to a thread

Asil Nadir, the tycoon and alleged fraudster, is due to return to Britain after almost 20 years, but will not face punishment for fleeing the country because his bail was never properly set, a court has ruled

Europe’s top politicians are united in seeking to send out a message of moderation this summer, as they stay close to home for the holidays

A senior Beijing official’s reference to China as the ‘world’s second-largest economy’ has sparked excited speculation that Asia’s new powerhouse may have already reached a long-looming milestone by surpassing Japan

US relief at Islamabad’s retention of its powerful army chief will be tempered by documents on WikiLeaks that allege the ISI backed Afghan militants while he was in charge

BP engineers are preparing to pump thousands of litres of heavy “mud” into the top of the ruptured Gulf of Mexico well that has caused the worst oil spill in US history.

China’s military has condemned a US intervention in the dispute over maritime borders in the South China Sea, less than a day after Beijing said it had conducted a large naval exercise in the area

Russia called in the army to combat fires sweeping across the drought-stricken European part of the country and forcing thousands of people to flee

Indian paramilitary forces opened fire on angry anti-India protestors in several different parts of the troubled Muslim-majority state of Kashmir, killing at least three people

Senior US officials are expected to visit Iraq in August amid mounting concern that Washington will complete a significant troop withdrawal from the fragile country with no new government in office

Rise partly reflects VAT increases in southern European countries hit by the crisis over public finances, with price pressures expected to remain moderate in the months ahead

Tom Murley leads the renewables team at one of Europe’s most active private-equity houses. He tells Tan Copsey about finding finance in a recession, responding to regulation – and building turbines in the Swedish forest.

Tom Murley is a leading investor in the western European renewable-energy market, with extensive experience of both renewable and conventional energy projects. Working for HgCapital, a private-equity group in the United Kingdom, he has primary responsibility for a €303 million (US$389 million) fund for European renewable-power projects.




Tan Copsey: To start with, could you give me a sense of what you do?

Tom Murley: In 2002, HgCapital identified climate change and renewable energy as major investment themes. We researched these sectors and decided we wanted to invest in the deployment of the proven technologies – wind, solar, small hydro – on an industrial scale. We concluded that owning the physical assets would provide the best risk-adjusted returns for our investors. Our investors are primarily global pension funds, European, UK and American – very long-term capital that governments want to attract to this sector to build a low carbon energy future.

TC: Could you give me an example of a particular success story?

TM: The investment for which we have received the most recognition was Havsnas, the largest onshore wind farm in Sweden and through which we opened the Swedish wind-energy sector to real project finance. Havsnas has just come on line.

Virtually all Scandinavian power generation, renewable or conventional, had been owned by state-owned utilities – Vattenfall, Fortum, StatKraft. We went into a market that had no history of long-term bank financing for this kind of project. There was also a new support system - Sweden has a green-certificate system [a national trading scheme in which certificates proving that certain electricity comes from renewable power are bought and sold] – based on the UK model.

We had to analyse the green certificate market from the ground up, something which had not been adequately done before. We developed proprietary forecasts and a view of where pricing was heading. We hedged for the power in the Nord Pool market [this allows electricity producers and retailers to secure the price of a volatile commodity] Sweden is not like the UK where utilities will sign 15 year power-purchase agreement. One has to enter the Nord Pool market.

We had to put together construction of a very complex project with our partners. There are 48 turbines on this project in a very remote, forested location. We built 50 kilometres of internal roads, lay 35 kilometres of underground cabling and string 20 kilometres of above ground high-tension grip cabling. We built a major substation connecting the high-voltage grid and put up 48 turbines, each one of which has a 700 tonne concrete foundation. All in the middle of the forest, in the middle of Sweden, where things like the medevac [medical evacuation] helicopter, should someone get injured, is two hours away. It is significant infrastructure in a very remote location.

A lot of people think that building wind farms is easy. That it is kind of “plug and play”. This is on a scale that is probably as complex as you get until you move into offshore wind. We had to put all of those elements together and bring banks to a market that had never known project financing and we did that in about four months. It really was innovative, ground-breaking financing. The project had a two year construction period and was handed over on July 9 on budget. It is operating and we’re making money. It is a real example of how the renewables industry is moving from a small industry to a larger, much more sophisticated industry.

TC: These are very difficult economic times and the upfront costs for renewable energy are much larger than traditional forms of energy. How do you finance these projects in a recession?

TM: In our view, we finance these projects the same way as when we’re not in a recession. What we have always focused on are the highest quality projects. We don’t take technology risks, we’re not going to use the latest wind turbine. We seek to invest in better resource. So we don’t do solar in Germany. They have a wonderful feed-in tariff, but there’s not that much sunshine. We believe the long-term value is with the resource, whether it is wind, sun or water. So we look to invest in better resources and put the best possible equipment on that.

What we’ve always done is to work to fairly conservative financial and contractual structures that mitigate and properly allocate risk. So, for example, in Sweden when we were building the large wind-farm, the main construction crane – 700 tonnes, 120 metre boom-- basically fell off the road. Whether it was a driver error or whether the road collapsed underneath it, no one really knows. There are only three such cranes in Europe. We had structures with a contractor so we got one of the replacement cranes on site within three weeks. This is important because you can’t erect these turbines past December in Sweden. You have to do this in the summer and the fall months.

For that quality proposition there has always been, and there always will be, a banking market.

TC: Obviously government policy and regulation is very important in this sector. How does that affect what you do?

TM: The entire energy sector – renewable, conventional, oil, gas, nuclear – it’s all policy driven and is subsidised. If you’ve been a long-term player in this sector you realise that you have to incorporate regular interface with governments and politicians. Policy is always evolutionary, so the changes we’re seeing today don’t particularly bother me.

You have to take a step back and say what is the purpose of the current renewable energy policies and low-carbon policies? It is twofold. First, to give renewables a share of the market and growth space, while we appropriately price conventional electricity. Second, to try to bring this industry to commercial scale so we can reduce its costs and it can become competitive. When you price in the true cost of conventional power, and then you match that with driving down the cost of renewable power, at some point the two will meet and the technologies will no longer require subsidy.

That will still take a long time, but if you take a look at the solar PV sector, for example, we’re actually seeing success. Germany, Spain and to a lesser extent Italy, said they wanted a solar PV industry. They wanted the jobs, the manufacturing, they wanted the scale, they wanted more of this on the grid. So what did they do? They put out an incentive. What happened was the industry responded brilliantly. The PV industry dramatically increased manufacturing capacity and efficiency over the last few years. We are seeing thin-film. We are seeing greater efficiency in crystalline panels. All of that has contributed to a 60% drop in the price of solar panels over the last two and a half years. It is probably going to drop another 20% to 30% over the coming two or three years. And in that scenario it is absolutely appropriate for governments to start reducing the solar tariff because the upfront capital cost has been halved. This is how this policy is supposed to work.

TC: You have experience in energy markets around the world. What’s different about investing in Europe in comparison to the United States and China?

TM: Let’s take the United States and western Europe versus China, Latin America and emerging markets. Europe and the United States offer a history of legal enforceability of rights, stability of regulation, an openness of markets to foreign investment and a respect of foreign investment that has not always existed in other markets. Clearly some are getting better. China has done things before that have been harmful to foreign investment. In Latin America, promises to maintain tariffs to foreign investors in the electricity sector have failed to materialise at certain times.

What I can really contrast are Europe and the United States. The United States likes to promote investment through tax-breaks and this has been particularly true in the renewable sector. So the support scheme comes in the form of tax credits and right now it is also coming in the form of grants because there are fewer people who can use the tax credits.

In Europe the support comes above the line – we get paid more for the electricity. In the US the support comes below the line – this means you get paid the same amount for electricity but they take away the tax burden for you.

What that means is the United States, because of the way the tax credit system works, attracts a smaller pool of potential capital. To take advantage of the tax credit, you have to be a US income tax payer and have taxable income to offset the tax credit. This is why large financial houses like AIG, John Hancock or even Goldman Sachs were owning wind-farms – because they would take the tax credits and offset their investment banking or insurance income with the tax credits.

But it also means that large parts of the institutional investor market, including pension funds, can’t invest in America because they don’t pay any income tax and so a tax credit isn’t any good to them. Foreign investors typically have very little US income so this system also doesn’t work particularly well for them. In Europe, because this support comes in the form of enhanced revenues, you can have a much broader investment pool. So you have pension funds, individuals, corporates, utilities. Europe is able to access a much deeper and broader pool of capital.


Tan Copsey is development manager at chinadialogue.

Tom Murley leads the renewable energy team at HgCapital.

Homepage image from HgCapital

Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, visits Beirut with Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah as tensions rise over the Hariri tribunal

Fresh data reveal an unexpected rise in the unemployment rate and a drop in industrial production amid the country’s ongoing battle with deflation

Shenzhen Evening News, July 30, 2010

News that woman in Shenzhen having her rectum "stitched closed" by her midwife during her cesarean delivery touched a chord with the public whose discontent to the current health care system often lead them to assume the worst when it comes to doctors' ethics.

The woman's husband affirmed that the midwife sealed his wife's rectum in retribution for their failure to come up with a more generous bribe; the midwife countered that she might have overstepped the boundaries as a midwife to tie up the patient's bleeding hemorrhoid, but by doing so she only meant to do good.

A panel of medical experts were called upon to investigate into the case, but evidence is insufficient to support either claim.

What is clear is that prior to the woman's labor, her husband gave an envelop containing 100 yuan to the midwife, who accepted it. The envelope with money was later discovered in the patient's cabinet. However, the two sides differ in when and under what circumstances the money was returned, and what the midwife meant when asking the couple whether they were "prepared."

The midwife claimed that she initially took the money out of politeness only to realize it was wrong, so she returned it the next day, while the husband claimed that the midwife returned the money after he threatened legal action. As to the exact meaning of the contentious "have you prepared" (准备好了吗？), the husband believed that bribe was implied while the midwife insisted she was just asking whether the couple were ready for the C-section. In addition, the husband also accused the midwife of destroying evidence by tearing the stitches open under the pretense of giving his wife a massage.

Links and Sources

• Shenzhen Evening News (Chinese): Evidence is insufficient to prove the midwife stitched patient's rectum closed

Tags: medical accident, Shenzhen Evening News

This article is from Danwei.org

Afghanistan’s president says named individuals could be targeted by insurgents for working with US forces

Barack Obama said education was “the economic issue of our time”, linking America’s declining public schools with its struggles to remain competitive