Innholdsfortegnelse for February 25, 2016 i Beijing Review

TURKEY A firefighter puts out flames after a car bomb attack in Ankara on February 17 which killed at least 28 people and injured 61 others LATVIA The new Prime Minister Maris Kucinskis (third left front) and members of his government pose for the media in Riga on February 11 BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA People walk in front of the flags of EU and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) in Sarajevo on February 15, the day that the BiH formally submitted the application to join the EU INDIA A wild elephant stands still after it was tranquilized in Siliguri on February 10. The mammal had wandered in from the nearby Baikunthapur forest and had ran amok, trampling cars and motorbikes before being sedated MALAYSIA A diver wearing a Monkey King costume performs…

For the 10th year in a row, Jiang Shaoxia made the 700 km journey back to Beijing from her hometown in central China’s Henan Province on February 13, right after the annual Spring Festival. But 2016 could mark the last year she makes the trek. Jiang owns a hat store at Beijing’s largest accessories wholesale market—Tianyi wholesale market—located in the downtown area of the capital. She started her business in 2006, which later developed into a full-fledged store. Her main customers are wholesale dealers across the country. Shoppers can buy everything from daily necessities to various gadgets, all on a budget. Built in the shape of building blocks, Tianyi looks like it would be better placed as a castle in a fairy tale cartoon than as a shopper’s mecca in…

China’s domestic film market is continuing to smash box office records, breaking new ground during the Spring Festival holiday, which lasted from February 7 to 13. Box office revenues from February 8 to 13 reached 3 billion yuan ($460 million), the largest amount recorded for that period and a 67-percent year-on-year increase, according to the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT). The Spring Festival has become a moneymaking period for the film industry with more and more families going to the theater to celebrate the holiday. Three films by Hong Kong directors accounted for about 94 percent of the box office takings: Stephen Chow’s comic fantasy The Mermaid, Cheang Pou-soi’s The Monkey King 2 and Wong Jing’s crime comedy The Man From Macau 3. Chinese-American computer-animated…

For sports agent Tao Shaoming, December 20, 2015 was just another busy though profitable day. At the Fuzhou International Marathon held in southeast China’s Fujian Province that day, his Ethiopian and Kenyan runners swept the awards in both the men and women’s events, setting another record for the agency he had established three years ago. “There are more and more marathons in China. My schedule this year is extremely tight as [my agency’s] runners will participate in at least 30 races,” he told ChinAfrica, a monthly magazine published by Beijing Review. Tao’s tight schedule mirrors the explosive growth of marathons in China. Statistics from the Chinese Athletic Association (CAA) showed that while only 22 marathons were held in 2011, the number jumped to 51 in 2014. Last year, the CAA…

A Helping Hand An excavator clears away ice at the Hukou Waterfall in the middle reaches of the Yellow River in Jixian County, Shanxi Province, on February 16. The move was part of efforts to ensure the safety of visitors to the famous natural spectacle. Poverty Evaluation Chinese authorities have published a set of criteria for assessing local poverty-relief work in its latest effort to deliver on the government’s target of lifting all people out of poverty by 2020. The evaluation criteria, released by the general offices of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, will mainly check on local governments’ efforts to identify, help and reduce the members of their impoverished population, as well as whether poverty relief funds are being used effectively.…

Five months after the State Council began its investigation into the warehouse explosions that rocked Tianjin, the team has released its findings on February 5, concluding that the disaster was caused by an ignition of hazardous materials that were improperly and illegally stored at the site. The warehouse owner—Tianjin Ruihai International Logistics—had illegally built a freight yard of hazardous materials, conducted illegal operations, stored hazardous materials illicitly and had inept safety management standards, according to the report. Two explosions in a warehouse ripped through residences in Tianjin’s Binhai New Area on August 12, 2015, killing 165 people, including 99 firefighters. Another eight people are still missing. The explosions damaged 3,014 buildings, 12,428 cars and 7,533 containers, resulting in 6.87 billion yuan ($1.12 billion) in economic losses. Severe punishment Consisting of…

Dear Readers, Forum is a column that provides a space for varying perspectives on contemporary Chinese society. We invite you to submit personal viewpoints on past and current topics (in either English or Chinese). yanwei@bjreview.com Please provide your name and address along with your comments A video showing an enraged young woman who failed to get a registration ticket for her paralyzed mother after lining up for a whole day at a hospital in Beijing has gone viral online. In the video, the woman furiously railed at the security guards of the hospital for turning a blind eye to scalpers who had snatched up a ticket she needed, and were asking for 4,500 yuan ($684.9) for it. Had she been able to buy the ticket herself, it would have cost…

Festival Consumption Booming tourism, cinema and retail sales during the week-long Spring Festival holiday (February 7-13) showed that China’s efforts to make its economy more reliant on the consumption power of its vast population are paying off. Tourism revenue increased 16.3 percent during the seven-day holiday, to reach 365.1 billion yuan ($55.7 billion), according to the National Tourism Administration. The number of tourists topped 302 million across the country, up 15.6 percent. Shops and restaurants across the country brought in 754 billion yuan ($115 billion), up 11.2 percent over last year’s Spring Festival, the Ministry of Commerce said. On February 8, the first day of the Year of the Monkey according to the lunar calendar, box office revenues reached a record 660 million yuan ($101.18 million). Statistics from e-commerce giant…

Chinese companies have once again stepped into the limelight as they entered the stage of the U.S. entertainment industry colossus, Hollywood. The latest deal between Chinese and Hollywood companies was made by the Dalian Wanda Group and Legendary Entertainment. On January 12, Wanda Group announced the execution of a definitive merger agreement with Legendary Entertainment at a signing ceremony in Beijing. Wanda announced that it had acquired Legendary for no more than $3.5 billion in cash, making history as China’s largest cross-border cultural acquisition to date. As a leading U.S. film production company, Legendary’s influence is spread throughout the movie, television, digital and comics industry. It has produced a number of classic blockbusters including the Batman trilogy, Inception, The Hangover, Jurassic World, 300: Rise of an Empire, Pacific Rim, Man…

A love story was sparked when Chen Linxiao and Ning Chengfang first met 36 years ago in the dusty corridors of a Beijing bookstore. The couple, born in the 1960s, had been searching for the same book throughout the city one day, but found more than what they had bargained for by the end of the day. Chen had just claimed the only copy of the book he was looking for at a store and was about to exit when he was confronted by the then-stranger, Ning. Although she pleaded to buy the book off his hands, Chen Linxiao refused, instead offering to lend it to her. Thanks to that book, their relationship blossomed, eventually leading to marriage. “Nowadays, many young people maybe wouldn’t understand our feelings toward books at…

Fireworks, fine arts and a day off school welcomed the Lunar New Year in New York City this year, as thousands of local children participated in an educational day at the Javits Center to learn about the Year of the Monkey. “Fantastic Art China” was the headline event for the citywide festival on February 6-10, organized by institutions such as the U.S.-China Cultural Institute, Committee of 100, and New York Philharmonic. The 72,000-square-foot exhibition at the city’s convention center was presented by the China Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA) to showcase new and exciting contemporary artists from China such as Pan Gongkai, Su Xinping, Jiang Jie and Duan Haikang. Opening the art show was a performance by iSING!—a student opera group led by opera superstar Haojiang Tian. “We are…

‘I would have arrived here much later if I had not taken my bike. Rush-hour traffic is usually terrible at this time of day.” The Chinese man speaking was 72 years old. His trim, fit figure immediately suggested the value of having two wheels for manual transportation, as well as good health, as opposed to four-wheeled gasoline guzzlers that reflect status. While automobiles only sometimes ensure speed, they definitely contribute to the damage to the ozone layer and the rapidly diminishing clean air supply. However, anyway you look at it, wheels are vital to our existence. In Beijing and elsewhere, thousands of pedestrians move about their daily lives pedaling furiously in and out of stalled traffic jams. In New York, my cousin worries about digging out her car wheels deep…