Belated entry

Sorry I haven't updated in almost 2 weeks. I have been slammed with work and finals preparations. 

Last week in our team meeting, we had the director of Center for Chinese Studies come in and give us a power lecture on 'Social and Political Challenges of Rapid Economic Growth in China.' Invigorating, right? Parts of the lecture were fascinating to compare with our own Western government. But for the most part, I found the material dry and over my head. I am not one for political science or economics but I took mad notes so I can study up before going abroad next month. Basically, I learned the following:

-There are major trends of inequality among the Chinese- Urban citizenship is highly valued but only given to a select few. People holding urban citizenship have better opportunities (economically, health-related, politically, etc.) Rural citizenship (the majority of the Chinese) are overlooked when it comes to government funds, education, health care and political voice. 

-There is a growing number of 'floating population' - migrants, basically. Who travel from city to city looking for work but can barely support their families. This population is extremely devastating to hear about. They are completely overlooked by the government but make the largest portion of Chinese residents. Note: The children of GCI all have parents/guardians that are part of the floating population - which contributed why they never received any formal education. 

-There are major population issues in China - which most of us have heard before on the world news. How the professor described it was, "It's like all of America lived east of the Mississippi." Hard to imagine 1.6 billion people stuffed into an area that small. China has decided for some years to implement the 1-Child law. This law states that a couple is only allowed to have one child - unless both the husband and wife are single children, in which case they may try for 2 children. A couple may also try for two child, apparently, if the first one is a girl. But I keep getting mixed reviews on this. So, I'm not sure if it's enforced. There is a major sex imbalance in China because girls are not wanted. These are also rules that only apply to the Urban population of China, not the rural.

Basically, we spent an hour talking about how corrupt the Chinese government is, how only the rich are the successful ones in the country and how the government is trying to 'get better' but isn't, really. We talked briefly about the different pollution problems (air and water) but focused more on the government. 

Well, that's about all for now. I've been practicing my Mandarin, although I am not sure how much I am retaining. It's proving to be quite difficult. I'm also practicing how to write the numerical characters for numbers 1-10. Just for kicks, I guess. 

More will be posted Tuesday evening (ideally) about our last meeting. We'll be discussing the etiquette expectations at Golden Courage. Dr. Lu Jr. is coming in and this will be the last time we see him before China. Should be interesting! We're definitely getting down to the wire now! (To put it in some perspective, my classmates that are going to Vietnam and Indonesia with this GIEU program are leaving in a matter of days.... like 12... so, it's all coming very quickly!)

All best, 

Mo chou